The 5 Factors, The 5 Effects, and The Second Effect: The Financial Effects and the Impact of Chronic Back Pain
The impact and effects of chronic levels of neck pain, back pain, and sciatica are myriad; and, the increase in pain is exponential as a result of one of the 5 factors feeding into another, and thus leading to certain effects we refer to as the 5 effects.
The 5 effects, impacting and affecting the chronic back pain sufferer, feed into one another and to the next…the pain level increases exponentially once again. In other words, with chronic neck, back, and sciatic nerve pain there is a compounding effect and before long there is no way out…or at least that’s what many would have you believe!
While seemingly without hope of a resolution to and relief from the pain, there is a solution!
The video below explains this far better than I can in print. I actually get a bit excited and start something of a rant (sorry!)…but it’s about time! And, it is necessary!
I also discuss a recently cited research study on exercise and back pain. I found the article in one of the more prestigious medical journals and it was also cited on Johns Hopkins website, so I trust it will be helpful for everyone.
In other words, how to get your life back…a pain free life!
I believe it is crucial for you to understand what is happening to you and to your spine…and not just tell you anything in order to sell you something! It is imperative that you take an active role in your recovery so you can live a happy and healthy lifestyle.
It is possible to overcome chronic neck pain, back pain, and sciatic nerve pain (sciatica). It is possible to overcome failed back surgery syndrome, and it is also possible to win the battle against long term debilitating pain and disability.
The Second Effect: Financial
The 2nd of the five effects is financial and the impact on one’s life can be profound!
The impact of the second effect, financial, often means everything from hefty medical co-pays and credit issues to bankruptcy and foreclosure, everything from loss of time at work to loss of employment and long term disability. The impact of the financial effects, and they are all inter-related, are physical, mental, and spiritual.
Financial stress feeds into psychological stress and both exacerbate your chronic neck pain, back pain, and sciatica. The chronic pain level increases, then feeds back into the 5 effects and it starts all over again, a classic feedback loop. In short order, the entire organism, the entire system, our body is affected. The chronic pain sufferer then exhibits all of the consequences of the 5 effects of neck pain, back pain, sciatica.
The 5 factors and the 5 effects work against our recovery, so we must understand them and deal with them accordingly…one step at a time!
Contact me anytime. Watch the entire video, as it will give you a better sense of just how passionate I am about this topic and why you should be too! I know it went a bit long but there is a reason and I assure you it will be worth it!
Again, contact me anytime!
John
Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr., The Bad Back Guy
216-712-6526 (home)
216-539-7412 (office)
Skype: johnzajaros1
JohnZ@UltimateBadBackStrategies.com
In previous articles, videos, and blog posts dealing with the ultimate neck pain, back pain, and sciatica relief strategies, we have discusssed the five factors and their contribution to and exacerbation of neck pain, back pain, and sciatic nerve pain, also reffered to as sciatica. In more recent articles and videos we have introduced the concept of the five effects, discussing how they relate to and impact the five factors, each other, and neck pain, back pain, and sciatica.
In this article and video we will discuss, at length, the first of the five effects, the psychological effect, and its relationship to chronic pain.
The five factors are once again:
1) Excess weight and/or obesity
2) Muscle weakness
3) Muscle imbalance
4) Inadequate diet and nutrition
5) Dehydration or inadequate hydration
The five factors, examined individually or collectively affect and impact neck pain, back pain, and sciatica. In fact, unless you focus on and deal effectively with the five factors, it may be argued that regardless of the treatment modality, the prognosis cannot, and will not, be good.
It can be argued that the five effects work together, against us in much the same way the five factors do. Significantly, this ensures a poor outcome and little neck
pain, back pain, and sciatica relief, particularly if we do not deal with them effectively, both individually and collectively.
The five effects are:
1) Psychological effects
2) Financial effects
3) Physical effects
4) Functional effects
5) Systemic effects
It may be argued that a sixth effect should be added, the spiritual effect. However, spirituality, while an integral part of my life, and perhaps yours,is beyond the scope of this article and this series. That being said, the personal decision to integrate spirituality into one’s treatment plan cannot and should not be minimized. The benefits of such a focus have been demonstrated time and again, particularly in my own life!
We covered the five factors extensively in previous articles, as noted above; and, we have touched upon the five effects. In this article we will delve deeper into the psychological effect and how it is related to not only the other effects but to each of the 5 factors, as well.
The psychological effect is affected by each of the five factors, as well as by the remaining four effects.
Factor one, excess weight and/or obesity, affects the overall health of the individual and neck pain, back pain, and sciatica, particularly chronic and chronically acute pain, is the result. Significantly, chronic neck, back, and sciatic nerve pain related to excess weight and/or obesity often leads to a number of psychological effects; and these include:
1) Depression
2) Mood swings
3) Anxiety
4) Compulsive behavior
5) Irratic behavior
This list is by no means complete but it is remarkable.
Neck pain, back pain, and sciatica affects the psychological health and well being of an individual and, in many instances, leads to depression. Depression, and the other psychological effects, often lead to erratic eating and improper and irratic dietary habits lead to weight gain…the weight gain then contributes to more neck pain, back pain, and sciatica! So, not only does chronic pain lead to the effect, the effect exacerbates the pain. The feedback loop is significant and undeniable.
Accordingly, as our mood darkens, and as our weight increases, we tend to sink deeper into ourselves, thus becoming more inactive. The depressed mood, particularly when in concert with inactivity and improper and irractic dietary habits, contributes to muscle weakness. As our muscles weaken, as a result of the decreased activity due to the psychological consequences, the psychological effect, our neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica worsens. Once again, the system feeds upon itself, compounding the various factors and effects and thus leading to an exponential increase in the level of neck pain, back pain, and sciatic nerve pain (sciatica).
The third factor affecting neck pain, back pain, and sciatica is muscle imbalance. Muscle imbalance plays into this “bad back” or back pain complex in a number of ways. If certain muscle groups are out of balance, not only will there be immediate consequences in terms of neck pain, back pain, and sciatica, but the pain will then contribute to and exacerbate muscle weakness, and excess weight and/or obesity; and thus leading to a heightened depressive effect and an overall negative psychological effect and impact.
Inadequate diet and nutrition plays a significant role in neck pain, back pain, and sciatica. Interestingly, inadequate diet and nutrition is not only a crucial factor contributing to and exacerbating neck pain, back pain, and sciatica, it leads to a number of other health issues…in addition to the psychological effect or effects. With psychic pain comes physical pain and when we experience both our diet and overall nutrition suffers immeasurably. Once again, if we are suffering from the psychological effects of neck pain, back pain, and sciatica, we don’t watch what we eat and, when we do eat, we eat the wrong things; thus, leading to excess weight and/or obesity and heightened pain.
The ripple effect throughout the body is significant and difficult to reverse without a concerted effort on the part of a dedicated individual. The program must be focused and specific for the relief of the neck pain, back pain, and sciatica. Additionally, the pain relief program must deal with each of the five factors and each
of the five effects to be successful.
Finally, dehydration or inadequate hydration plays a contributory role in that water is an integral ingredient not only for overall health but for spine health, as well. Water makes up 80-85% of the intevertebral disc. When an individual is suffering from inadeqaute hydration, or full-blow dehydration, the the individual IVDs break down and neck pain, back pain, sciatic nerve pain result. Significantly, degenerative disc disease is often a direct consequence of dehydration.
The effects and impact of neck, back, and sciatic nerve pain are of course myriad. However, the psychological effects are significant and the feed back loop often results in a breakdown of the entire system. Consequently, this results in increasingly intense and chronic neck pain, back pain, and sciatic nerve pain (sciatica),
along with the other effects listed above.
In conclusion, we have only touched the surface of this incredibly complex topic. As the video companion to this article will cover in greater detail, the overall impact and the ripple effect throughout the body, resulting in ever increasing levels of neck pain, back pain, and sciatic nerve pain (sciatica), is profound. We will discuss the other four effects as we continue to progress towards the New Year, a New Year full of possibilities. A neck pain, back pain, and sciatic nerve pain free New Year!
If you have any questions contact me at any time.
John
Professor John P. J. Zajaros., Sr., The Bad Back Guy
216-712-6526
216-539-7412 (office)
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimatebadbackstrategies.com
PS, If you are ready for the most complete program on the Internet today, go to http://TheBadBackGuy.net for more information on a pain free life!
The First Effect: The Psychological Effects and Overall Impact of Neck Pain, Back Pain, and Sciatic Nerve Pain (Sciatica)
We have discussed the 5 and 5, the 5 factors and the 5 effects leading to, contributing to, and exacerbating neck pain, back pain, and sciatica and particularly chronic and/or chronically acute neck, back, and sciatic nerve pain.
The 5 factors have been dealt with in depth over the last few months. So,in the upcoming blog posts and videos, we will focus on the 5 effects and how they relate to and exacerbate your chronic pain condition.
The first effect we will explore will be the psychological effect.
Once we have discovered how the psychological effect relates to neck pain, back pain, and sciatica generally, we will explore in depth how it affects and impacts the overall pain level…and how chronic pain impacts and affects our lives, specifically.
Once we have explored the 5 effects, and have also examined their relationship to the 5 factors…and to chronic pain, we will be ready to build a comprehensive program for you to finally overcome your neck pain, back pain, and sciatica; and thus achieving real and lasting pain relief.
Are You a Victim of Neck Pain, Back Pain, and Sciatica Diagnosis Bias?
Diagnosis bias is a real issue in the medical community, one not often discussed, openly or in private. In fact, diagnosis bias is one of those ”dirty little secrets” only recently addressed; and then, only in closed door conferences and at a few of the more progressive medical schools in the country.
Chronic fatigue and chronic to chronically acute neck pain, back pain, and sciatica are among the most difficult conditions to diagnose and treat. A great deal of the reason, or reasons, for the difficulty in properly diagnosing and treating chronic pain and chronic fatigue, to include chronic neck pain, back pain, and sciatica is because while pain is a very real symptom of an underlying condition, and the underlying condition may be recognized and treatment initiated, it is also an abstract concept.
Pain as an Abstract Concept: Difficulties in Diagnosis and Treatment
When I state that pain is an abstract concept, I mean pain in any of its guises, in any and all of its manifestations, is as different from one person to the next as personality and/or fingerprints are. For this reason, and a myriad of others, neck pain, back pain, and sciatica create a number of challenges for medical practitioners, not only in the diagnosis phase but in subsequent treatment.
Value Attribution, Diagnosis Bias, Neck Pain, Back Pain, and Sciatic Nerve Pain (or Sciatica)
When dealing with neck pain, back pain, and sciatic nerve pain (sciatica) complaints doctors, like most people, will often make an initial assessment based on value attribution. Value attribution, in this instance at least, is a first impression of the medical kind! Unfortunately for the individual suffering from chronic fatigue or chronic neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica the medical practitioner will often stick to that attribution when making even a critical diagnosis, even in the face of contradictory evidence.
Value attribution and diagnosis bias occur for a myriad of reasons, most of all because doctors are human. Medical practitioners are subject and susceptible to the same biases and prejudices the rest of us are. Interestingly, this bias, once set in place, will often shape the medical practitioner’s future perception of a patient’s complaints, once again, even when confronted with contradictory evidence, and will shape the treatment received…or not received.
Value attribution and diagnosis bias are covered extensively, and quite well, by Brafman and Brafman in their book Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior. I recommend it for anyone who would like to understand why we do the things we do and make the decisions me make…and are forced to live with. This book is particularly appropriate for anyone who feels he or she may have been a victim of diagnosis bias.
The Video, Chronically Acute Back Pain, and Diagnosis Bias
I have first hand knowledge of diagnosis bias as it applies to neck pain, back pain, and sciatica and I discuss the situation and its eventual outcome in the video below. It should be an eye-opener for many, for others living through it at this time, it may give you what you need to press on and fight back, fight against the diagnosis bias that nearly took my life and ultimately robs many neck pain, back pain, and sciatica sufferers every year of the life they could have if only someone took them seriously…or just took them differently!
Chronic Fatigue, Chronic Pain, Empathy, and Abstraction
In fighting chronic fatigue, and chronic pain, one very often goes through the same battles to be heard and taken seriously. Many times even friends and relatives just don’t understand. How could they, pain is such an abstraction and if they have never experienced it themselves? Again, how could they!
Given the above, one would still hope the medical community, and particularly specialists trained to deal with chronic fatigue and chronic neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica would be somewhat immune from value attribution and diagnosis bias. Yet we know that, in fact, some are and some aren’t!
The Good, The Bad, and The Misdiagnosis
Just as there are good physicians and bad ones, there are good chefs and terrible ones, there are good pilots and bad ones…and they all make mistakes. The trick here is to not allow others to lump you into a category before an adequate diagnosis has been made. Whether the condition is a chronic one, one that is chronic and acute or
is relatively new and still very much in the acute phase, do not allow your medical pracitioner to make an attribution, a diagnosis, based on a bias and without all the facts. As stated above, pain in any and all of its guises is a symptom and it is their task to uncover the cause and treat it effectively.
Do Not Take No for an Answer!
And do not take “I don’t know” for an answer! Press on until someone, somewhere provides you with a legitimate diagnosis and the quality care you deserve, care we all deserve. There is a life on the other side of any chronic fatigue and/or pain condition, do not allow anyone to rob you of even one day of your life…much less your life in total, as almost happened to me!
Best wishes in health!
John
Professor John P. J. Zajaros., Sr., The Bad Back Guy
216-712-6526
216-539-7412 (bus)
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@ultimatebadbackstrategies.com
Neck Pain, Back Pain, and Sciatica: Understanding and Dealing With Failed Back Surgery Syndrome
Spine surgeries are performed for a myriad of conditions and complaints every year here in the United States and around the world. Of the spine surgeries performed, an incredibly high number result in what is known as failed back surgery syndrome.
When referring to the terms spine surgery and back surgery, I will be applying them in their broadest sense, meaning neck, upper, middle, and lower back surgery.
Back surgery is generally the result of a number of complaints and conditions, usually all related in some way to acute and/or chronic neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica. Failed back surgery syndrome is generally a continuation of pain, known as chronic pain, and other symptoms affecting the patient.
The medical names for the various back pain expressions are as follows:
1) Back pain, also known as dorsalgia, is a generalized pain experienced, mild to acute, isolated to chronic, in the back and originating as the result of a number of conditions, affecting a variety of structures (e.g., nerves, vertebrae, joints, intervertebral discs, etc). Back pain is said to affect as many as 95% of all adults at some time in their lives.
2) Neck pain, also known as cervicalgia, affects as many as 66% of all adults at some time in their lives. Neck pain may also express as pain in the shoulder, arm, and hand, with associated numbness and tingling into the hands and fingers.
3) Upper back pain, also referred to as thoracic pain or middle back pain, is expressed along the spine from C7 to L1, or from the base of the neck to the base of the thoracic region of the spine. Upper or middle back pain is often but not always isolated to a specific location and has a lower incidence than neck or lower back pain.
4) Lower or low back pain, also known as lumbago, is pain in the lumbar region and may be localized or may radiate laterally. In its worst form, lower back pain will be accompanied by sciatica or leg pain radiating into one or both legs.
5) Sciatic nerve pain or sciatica, also referred to as sciatic neuritis, often associated with lumbar radiculopathy, and commonly referred to as “leg pain,” generally arises as a result of an irritation or compression of one of the five nerve roots that ultimately make up the sciatic nerve. The leg pain may extend into the feet and often ranges from acute to chronic and sensation from tingling to numbness of the legs, feet, and even the toes.
Stress and Trauma Induced Neck Pain, Back Pain, and Sciatica
The pain expressions listed above, neck pain, upper and middle back pain, lower back pain, and sciatica, are complex and often arise as the result of stress placed on the spine and the reaction of the spine and the supporting musculoskeletal system to a specific stressor or constellation of stressors, whether generalized or specific. The spine may also be traumatized as the result of an isolated event, thus resulting in pain to a specific location and ranging once again from acute to chronic, depending on a myriad of factors.
Failed Back Surgery Syndrome: Failure of Expectations
Often, particularly when the reason for the back pain is the result of a number of factors, back surgery may not yield the anticipated result. The failure of the back surgery thus leading to a continuation and, in many instances, increasing levels of neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica, and failed back surgery syndrome.
Failed Back Surgery Syndrome: Odds of Success and Behaviors
It is estimated that several million individuals see a medical practitioner daily for neck, back, and sciatic nerve pain and that between four hundred thousand and five hundred thousand individuals in the United States alone undergo back surgery in one form or another every year. Of the half a million neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica sufferers who submit to back surgery every year, between 20% and 40% continue to have significant issues, to include similar or increased levels of pain, overall muscle weakness, excess weight and/or obesity, sleep disorders, depression, numbness and tingling of the extremities, and disability…to list just a few.
Failed Backs and Frustration Across the Board!
There is a general sense of frustration, not only on the part of the surgical patients and their families, but also within the medical community, as failed back surgery syndrome is one of the most perplexing issues facing orthopedic medicine today. The condition is not an isolated syndrome, and in fact to call failed back surgery syndrome a “syndrome” is a misnomer, it is a condition resulting from a constellation of issues and a myriad of factors, many completely unrelated to the surgical procedure itself.
Failed Back Surgery Syndrome: Reinforcing Results and Behavior
Individuals with failed back surgery syndrome, also referred to as post-laminectomy syndrome and failed spine surgery, or simply failed backs, generally have chronic to chronically acute pain affecting the original area of concern. Neck pain, back pain, and sciatica may grow worse with time and the pain may become debilitating and disabling. The resulting pain often leads to guarding, decreased activity, loss of muscle tone and sensation, over all malaise, and often addiction to pain medication.
A Mixed Bag: Why FBBS?
Failed back surgery syndrome may result from an ill-advised surgery, an ill-prepared surgical patient, an improperly executed surgical procedure, an incomplete surgical procedure, an incomplete or inadequate post-operative experience to include under prescribed physical therapy or incomplete physical therapy regimen, and a myriad of other reasons and consequences. Failed back surgery syndrome may also be the result of a number of psycho-social and socio-economic factors, as has been suggested in the medical literature lately as orthopedic medicine attempts to come to grips with this complex and frustrating issue.
The Reality of Failed Back Surgery Syndrome: Get a Second Opinion!
The reality of the matter is, regardless of cause, failed back surgery syndrome is a fact of life for tens of thousands of neck pain, back pain, and sciatica sufferers every year…and there is little hope in sight that this complex issue will be resolved any time soon. Ultimately, before agreeing to any sort of surgical intervention for neck, back or sciatic nerve pain, an individual should get a second opinion and explore every avenue of relief possible first…because the risk of a failed back surgery is real.
More in the next article: How to Deal With Failed back Surgery Syndrome
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