It's easy to understand why back pain is so debilitating. If you think about it, the back plays a role in nearly every body action, and in nearly every body sensation. The spinal column running down your back is a system of bones, muscles, fascia and nerves to hold the upper body's weight, to control it's movement and to convey it's sensations. The opportunities for pain to affect the back are as innumerable as the nerve roots that meander throug the spinal cord's 30-plus vertebrae, the discs that cushion them, and the ligatments and tendons that hold them in place as the spine twists, bends, stretches or holds you up.

Back pain is a common issue in today's desk and computer-dominated workplace. In face, the National Institutes of Health estimate 80% of the population will suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. Back pain massage can help. In fact, back pain is one of the most common reasons for seeing a massage therapist. Many hospitals and chronic pain clinics consider massage therapy an integral tool for back pain relief.

A few months ago, a client we'll call Ginny was missing work because her back hurt so much. The pain was constant - every day, all the time. Ginny described it as a "dull ache that sometimes turned into a throbbing nightmare." She hated using the pain killers because they made her feel so "out of it," and her doctor suggested she try massage therapy. Resting in bed was not an option as she was a single mother. Our first session included some myofascial stretching, and deep tissue work for the supporting musculature, but her low back was too painful for that technique and we switched to gentler Swedish and long slow stretches of the myofascia. She felt so much better after the first massage! And she was surprised to find how many other places in her body were carrying pain - calves, shoulders and neck especially. A few days later, she was back to the pain. Still, the relief for even a few days was so welcome, she stuck with it. I had told her a lasting impact would take 3-5 sessions over a month or so. By the third session, she was going nearly pain free for two weeks at a time, and the pain when it was there at the end of the day was less severe. We were able to do neuromuscular therapy on the low back itself by the third session. She now comes once a month to keep her back supple and pain free. She is able to exercise more which also helps her back from getting into the old pain patterns. We've looked at some of the postural causes of her back pain, and she's learned some stetches to do at work to alleviate stress in her back right when it starts.

Another client was going to a chiropractor for back pain. He'd had several surfing accidents as a youngster, and then one quite recently on a vacation made his back flare up. The x-rays showed a couple of vertebra were rotated out of alignment, causing him severe pain in the middle back. He told me, "I always felt great after the adjustment and then a couple of days later the pain was back." Jim had asked his chiropractor, "Why is it you give me an adjustment and everything feels fine, and then a day or two later I feel the same pain?" His chiropractic doctor explained to him that the muscles were in spasm and they pull on the vertebrae, and it pulls my spine out of alignment. He recommended massage to loosen those muscles up. Now Jim gets a massage after his adjustment about once a month for long-lasting pain relief.

There are times when massage is not a good idea for back pain; such as after surgery, or if you have a tendency to form blood clots or have circulatory ailments such as phelbitis or severe varicose veins. If you've just undergone chemotherapy or radiation therapy, reiki and healing touch are better options that massage. If you've been in a car accident or other trauma you should wait at least 72 hours, and check with your doctor for an evaluation.

Back pain is often a result of a combination of factors, and massage alone may not be the answer to a pain-free back. It's important to consider postural patterns, and address the things we do that cause our backs to hurt. Exercise, such as Pilates, as well as chiropratic help to handle nerve and joint issues, nutrition, and a good medical exam to check for underlying causes from the organs, are all routes that must be explored. By taking charge of your health, and realizing that pain is a message from your body that something needs to be addressed and changed, you can put together a team of health care providers and live back pain free. Back pain massage is often a key ingredient in relieving back pain and keeping it away.

Research Shows Massage an Effective Choice to treating back pain.

Research on back pain, particularly using CAM (complementary and alternative medicine) such as massage therapy, is fairly new and inconclusive about many details such as which massage protocol will work best. However, as the body of studies grows, a the proof also grows more convincing. Some recent studies include:

Hernandez-Reif M, Field T, Krasnegor J, Theakston H. "Lower back pain is reduced and range of motion increased after massage therapy." Int J Neurosci. 2001:106(3-4):131-145.

Benefits of massage include decreased chronic low back pain, reduced depressin and anxiety, increased range of motion and improved sleep.

Cherkin DC, Eisenberg D, Sherman KJ, et al. "Randomized trial comparing traditional Chinese medical acupuncture, therapeutic massage, and self-care education for chronic low back pain." Arch Intern Med. 2001 Apr 23;161(8):1081-1088.

Therapeutic massage was effective for persistent low back pain, apparently providing long-lasting benefits. Massage might be an effective alternative to conventional medical care for persistent back pain.

Preyde M. "Effectiveness of massage therapy for sub-acute low back pain: A randomized controlled trial." CMAJ. 2000 Jun 27:162(13):1815-1820.

In comparing comprehensive massage therapy - sotft tissue manipulation, remedial exercise, and posture education - with just soft tissue manipulatin, just remedial exercise and posture education, or just a sham laser treatment, all the subjects who received comprehensive massage therapy reported decreased pain intensity, which was not the case with the other subject categories. At the one-month followup, 63% of the subjects in the comprehensive massage therapy group reported no pain, as compared with 27% in the soft-tissue group manipulation group, 14% in the exercise group and 0 percent in the sham laser group.

Comment on if this was helpful, at my blog.