What Happens If You Choose To Ignore Your Back Pain? (Joel Herman)

Advanced SearchHomeSubmit ArticlesTop AuthorsLatest ArticlesTop ArticlesLoginHome » Health » Alternative MedicineWhat Happens If You Choose To Ignore Your Back Pain?By Joel HermanMay 16, 2012There are many reasons why people suffer from back pain, and almost everyone will experience this pain at one point in their life. Lower back pain is one of the most common reasons for people missing work, and most pain occurs due to muscle or ligament injury. Back pain can be caused by muscle strains when the muscle fibers stretch abnormally or get torn. It can also be due to lumber sprain, when the ligaments are torn away from their attachments.

Often times, it is difficult to differentiate between a strain and a sprain, due to similarities of the symptoms. Most people tend to ignore back pain until it gets serious. This is very dangerous, as delay will often make the problem worse. If you are unable to determine the cause of your back pain, you should see a doctor immediately.

While it is true most back problems get better on their own, it is important to see the doctor in order to rule out anything serious. Using self-treatment methods may not be enough when you do not know what is causing the pain.

While self-treatment methods do work in some situations, others have left these symptoms untreated for too long, leading to needing serious treatment methods to reverse the situation. Lower back pain can be acute and short term, usually lasting less than a month; or it can be chronic or long term, lasting more than three months. The long-term continuous pain is usually a symptom of an underlying problem and should not be ignored.

The lower back pain can originate from the spine, nerves, muscles or other parts in that region. It can also radiate from the upper or middle back, or a hernia in the groin. A problem in the ovaries or testicles can also lead to back pain. When you have a hurt back, you can exhibit different symptoms including a burning sensation, tingling, a dull ache or a sharp pain. Sometimes you may feel weak in the legs or feet. In other cases, the back pain may not necessarily be due to one specific event. It can be due to a lifetime of doing things the wrong way, such as the way you stand, sit or lift. You can be okay for a long time, and then suddenly you experience pain when reaching for something or bending to lift an object from the ground.

If you are having back pain and you suddenly loose bladder or bowel control, you should seek emergency medical attention. Other symptoms that should cause you to visit the doctor immediately include fever, redness or swelling in the back or spine, pain traveling down the legs to below the knees, or weakness in the thigh, pelvis, buttocks or legs. Other serious symptoms include blood in the urine along with a burning sensation, losing weight, incontinence and very sharp back pains. If the pain has lasted longer than four weeks, you should definitely get medical attention.About the AuthorAre you searching for a solution to your back pain in Franklin TN? Use this site to guide you!Rating:Please Rate:

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To combat smoking, some advocates ignore common sense

E-cigarette use among U.S. adults increased more than three-fold from 2009 to 2010 (0.6 percent vs. 2.7 percent), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And although ACSH staffers were delighted to hear that these effective tobacco harm reduction products are catching on, many anti-smoking groups are still fighting to limit their accessibility, arguing that too little is known about the product’s health effects.
 
E-cigarettes, which rely on battery power, do not contain any tobacco; instead, they convert nicotine-infused liquid into vapor that is then inhaled and exhaled as a mist by the user. Although the FDA originally regulated e-cigarettes as medical devices, the agency reported in April that it would regulate them as tobacco products instead — although it could be months or years before the FDA issues any concrete criteria.
 
In the meantime, however, state and local legislatures are taking it upon themselves to speed the regulatory process by proposing their own e-cigarette legislation. For instance, lawmakers in over half a dozen states have introduced bills that would prohibit e-cigarette sales to minors. ACSH, of course, is strongly opposed to any tobacco or nicotine product sales to minors. Yet that being said, ACSH’s president, Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, expresses concern that some of these measures are mere pretext for more stringent, but counterproductive, restrictions on e-cigarettes.

“Some lawmakers have proposed increased taxes on these products, ostensibly to keep them away from minors,” Dr. Whelan says. “But sales to minors are already illegal, and the higher prices resulting from increased taxation would quite likely discourage smokers from trying these much safer devices that can help them quit,” she notes. “Furthermore, there is no reason, based on science or health, to bar them from public spaces as though they were actual cigarettes.”

On the other hand, even though e-cigarettes pose no known adverse health effects and generate no secondhand smoke, ACSH’s Cheryl Martin still believes that there may be a rationale for not allowing the use of e-cigarettes in public areas. “If the point of e-cigarettes is to provide a safer alternative to smoking, but smokers are already prevented from lighting up in most public places, then it could be logical to extend such a ban to e-cigarettes — if only to prevent confusion — since they would not, in that instance, be serving as a replacement.”
 
Indeed, some anti-smoking groups also point out that, because e-cigarettes look quite similar to traditional cigarettes, “vaping” in non-smoking places could create confusion. “I would rather err on the side of caution,” said state Rep. Susan Westrom, who sponsored a bill in Kentucky to ban e-cigarette use in public areas.
 
Such a statement left ACSH's Dr. Josh Bloom perplexed. “Err on the side of caution?” he asks. “Does that mean Rep. Westrom is actually suggesting that just having people continue to smoke cigarettes is being more ‘cautious’? This is not a logical argument.”