Healthy Living

Over the past few months I have talked to more friends who have back pain and have noticed a greater number of people calling our wellness center seeking relief from back pain. I began remembering my own experience with a back injury, more than 10 years ago, while lifting a heavy patient with a team of three other nurses. It took more than a month of physical therapy, chiropractic treatments and home exercise to relieve the acute symptoms. At the time it seemed like a purely physical experience that just unfortunately had happened to me.

More than four hundred years ago philosopher and mathematician Rene Descartes held that the mind and body were totally separate and should be studied separately. Matters of the mind were relegated to psychology, the spirit to religion, and the body to medicine and science. He likened the body to a machine and believed that fixing the part that wasn’t functioning would restore it to health. His theory shaped the practice of medicine in our country and still largely influences the practice of mainstream medicine today.

There is, however, a growing recognition that the mind, emotions and spirit can influence disease and injury as well as the healing process. There is still a great deal that is not understood about how our thoughts, belief systems and emotions can translate into physical symptoms – yet we are all aware that the connection exists. When we are angry or fearful we can feel our heart beating faster, when we are deeply sad we know the feeling of heaviness in our chest or when overly stressed we may feel headache or stomach pain. These are examples of what is called the mind-body connection.

This is not a conscious process. We are not to blame or deficient in some way because we are sick or injured. Nor does the connection of the body with our emotions, mind and spirit mean the physical pain or illness isn’t real. Of course it is very real. Being willing to explore the connection of the mind and body can be a big step toward empowering us to be an active part of our growth and recovery.

As a culture we tend to be passive and expect our doctors to somehow make our symptoms go away and quickly. We all agree that we are hurt but seldom do we take the time to ask ourselves why. This is an important opportunity to understand what may contribute to the root cause of our injury or illness.

Two questions may be helpful.

Why this part of my body? And why at this time in my life?

In my case, looking back, I was experiencing some major life changes, was anxious about the changes and needed more support than I realized. Interestingly, the low back in mind- body medicine represents the seat of security and support particularly related to family and relationships. There may be something we feel over-burdened by or “can’t stand” or “can’t stand up to” as one psychotherapist has noticed. We may be “backing away” from something difficult to feel.

In seeking treatment some people will have complete relief from back pain with surgery or by using a combination of chiropractic care, yoga, massage, tai chi, healing touch, reiki or physical therapy. Some may feel discouraged after finding little lasting relief with surgery or any treatment and may find they have continuous or periodic bouts of debilitating back pain.

A friend who had tried many approaches to relieve her intermittent bouts with acute back pain was given the book, “Healing Back Pain, The Mind-Body Connection” by Dr. John Sarno, a professor and attending physician at the New York University Medical Center. Although at first skeptical, she said she found herself on every page.

Dr. Sarno, who has been a pioneer in the treatment of back pain believes that when difficult emotions begin to come up, our mind subconsciously may decide that the feelings are too uncomfortable to handle. The underlying tension may then trigger the painful episode or contribute to our vulnerability to an injury. Dr. Sarno believes that the resulting preoccupation with the severe back, neck, or other body pain is serving to completely distract us from the underlying emotions. He calls this TMS or tension myositis syndrome (myo meaning muscle). An important part of his treatment approach includes the simple acknowledgement that there may be an emotional component to the back pain.

This is a challenge for most of us because we can point to a specific event that caused the injury, have test results that confirm physical changes and therefore assume, as in my case, that it must therefore be only physical.

Further, he has found that when the fear is alleviated through education many people who have believed they have to restrict their activities, sit in certain chairs, give up exercise or travel to avoid pain, begin to live life more fully again.

My friend feels that she has benefited tremendously from this approach and whenever she feels any twinges of back discomfort uses the insights she has gained to alleviate the problem.

If you have back pain:

• Get medically evaluated to rule out any urgent surgical need.
• Gather all the information you can and explore conventional (e.g. surgery, physical therapy, epidural injection) and complementary (e.g. acupuncture, tai chi, yoga, massage, healing touch, reiki) treatments.
• Look for the root cause. Consider when and why the pain started (emotional stress or when some other ailment went away). Use mind-body approaches like Dr. Sarno’s if appropriate for you.
• Be open.
• Choose what makes the most sense for you. Use your intuition. People know on a level deeper than the mind just what they need to do to be well again.

Amy Dunion, a registered nurse and massage therapist, is Coordinator of The William W. Backus Hospital’s Center for Healthcare Integration.This column, which runs in the Norwich Bulletin newspaper on Tuesdays, should not replace advice or instruction from your personal physician. E-mail Ms. Dunion and all of the Healthy Living columnists at healthyliving@wwbh.org