How Dr Stuart McGill Would Explain Back Pain To A New Patient

SHOW NOTES

Back pain isn’t the death sentence you think it is. Majority of people can get better with a little understanding and dedication.

Dr. Stuart McGill PhD is a spine biomechanist at the University of Waterloo. Over the years, he has conducted numerous lab experiments on the human spine to figure out how much load it can take, what motions cause it to become injured and more. He’s the author of some awesome books, such as Back Mechanic: The Secrets to a Healthy Spine your Doctor isn’t Telling You, which was written specifically for chronic low back patients to better understand and resolve their condition.

Dr Stuart McGill’s Bio: Dr. McGill is a professor emeritus, University of Waterloo, where he was a professor for 32 years. His laboratory and experimental research clinic investigated issues related to the causal mechanisms of back pain, how to rehabilitate back-pained people and enhance injury resilience and performance. This produced over 240 peer-reviewed scientific journal papers, many international awards, and has mentored over 40 graduate students during this scientific journey.

I’m honored to have him on this podcast session. Our goal today is to breakdown the common questions patients have about back pain. If you’re a healthcare provider you’ll know what questions I’m talking about:

• Should I stretch my back?
• Is my pain from a disc herniation?
• How can I overcome a weak back?
• Why does it hurt when I sit?

These are just a few of the topics. Basically this podcast was designed to fit the best spinal hygiene information within an hour and 15 min block. If you’re a healthcare provider, share this with your patients. If you’re a patient, share this with your doctor or your spouse with back pain.

Get the books today! – Gift of Injury PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT – Back Mechanic FIX YOUR BACK PAIN

Sebastian’s Youtube Channel

You can access the show notes at https://www.p2sportscare.com/podcast/

Dr. Sebastian Gonzales is an expert in trouble shooting sports injuries and overuse conditions. This podcast is intended for sports medicine topics to become easier for patients and athletes to understand. Don’t get confused by what your doctor told you in your appointment. If you like in Orange County CA, book an exam with Dr. Gonzales, your Huntington Beach Chiropractor.

Here's the start of our show notes. More can be found at P2sportsCare.com

[Dr. Sebastian Gonzales] So, first off is all low back pain created equal?

[Dr. Stuart McGill]You're starting with the big philosophical questions first, well I'm going to give you probably a big answer on this, with maybe three levels, some logic, some examples. Let me reverse that a tiny bit and say well have you ever heard of non-specific head pain or leg pain, is leg pain created equal, I mean we don't even put up with such a notion, it could be torn knee ligaments, vascular complaint, a cut or whatever, so this notion of back pain, it is so non-homogeneous, and what I mean by that is one person might have back pain because they've got a disc bulge, the next person might have it for an entirely different reason, so starting out with that logic and setpoint, all back pain has a cause, and if we can obtain a specific and precise diagnosis of the pain mechanism, then we can address it appropriately, so is it created equal, right off the top three contrasting examples of back pain come to mind, think of a person who is in their mid-20s, 30s, 40s, say they work sitting at a computer eight hours a day, sitting at the computer for 20 minutes gives them back pain, and yet they can stand up and go for a three or four mile walk and that would be therapeutic, now let's take the next person who is newly retired, and they have more of a stenosis or arthritic mechanism to their back pain, and interestingly enough the precise opposite occurs, walking starts to cause back pain, and sitting down is relieving, and then I can give a third example, let's take a young athletic team, you can take a football team or a baseball team, and when you study the back pain patterns you will see that they form cluster groups, for example one team might have four stress fractures on their roster, in their back, and those stressed fractures were not caused by baseball, it was caused by the strength and conditioning coach, who was getting them to do full range of motion loaded...