Particularly when it comes to back pain, unscrupulous sales people are filling our attention and our shopping centres hocking what they call the latest advancements in pain relief. But time and time again studies on back pain are proving that effective pain relief is more often about getting good, science-backed advice early and avoiding the fads. So if you want to know how to avoid back-pain ‘snake oil’ try these 3 rules:

The more we learn about osteoarthritis the more we find that damage to our joints, the kind that results in osteoarthritis, is caused by inflammation and not from impact. It’s been identified that fatty adipose tissue, the kind that gives you a gut, is not in fact just an inert storage of excess energy but in fact has the capacity to act like an organ all of it’s own and helps perpetuate inflammatory processes. So that means you can be overweight and inactive, leading a sedentary life - even in order to protect yourself against physical stress - and still have a significant risk of osteoarthritis, life can be cruel right?

These sorts of stereotypes for aging persist; senses diminishing, physical tasks getting harder. If I had a dollar for every time someone explained their pain to me as ‘old age’ I could probably buy the bank. Feeling old is something many talk about, but you might be surprised to find older age doesn’t necessarily have to hurt and it’s something you yourself can do something about.

The sciatic nerve is responsible for the the sensation and the muscles activation of the lower limb. Therefore if the nerve becomes impaired common symptoms include numbness or tingling, heat radiating down leg feet or toe’s as well as musculature weakness in the lower body. Due to the complexity of the sciatic nerve means that symptoms of sciatica are often vary from; Pain in one side of the buttocks or lower back, pain that is relieved when lying down or walking but is made worse by standing and sitting, Pins and needle like pain down one or both legs, shooting pain which makes it difficult to stand up and walk, Pain in the toes. It really depends on where the nerve is impaired and the severity of the impingement as to which symptoms are prevalent.