Age: Ancient, probably. I bet the hunter-gatherers who gleaned for berries and slept on cave floors suffered. Solution: Possibly brain-based? This better not be some “pain is psychosomatic” nonsense. sorry, what did you say? I can’t hear you down there. Hold on, give me a minute to sit down. Ugh. Ouch. Oh, are you one in six adults in the UK with back pain? You’ll be interested in this: a new Australian study suggests that brain training can offer real relief to sufferers. It takes a brave scientist to suggest that back pain is in the mind. They don’t say that. But we need to explore new strategies, because (some of) the drugs don’t work. Research reported in May claimed that two anti-inflammatories commonly prescribed for back pain, diclofenac and dexamethasone, could prolong the problem, possibly by interfering with the body’s natural healing processes. They will have to fight me for my Voltarol. You walk like a wounded crab so I don’t think it would be too hard. But the real point is that retraining how the brain and body communicate with each other seems to bring real relief to chronic sufferers. How does it work; The theory is that the brain’s map of the body gets “blurred,” meaning patients’ pain systems become hypersensitive. Physiotherapists put people with long-term low back pain on a 12-week ‘sensorimotor’ retraining program to treat it. What now; They began by using exercises such as showing participants photographs and asking them to identify whether the people in them were turning left or right. Magically, this activates the same neural pathways as actual movement. Later, they moved on to exercises like lunges and squats. And did that work? He did it! Those who participated in the sensorimotor program reported an average reduction in pain from 5.6 to 3.1 on a scale of zero to 10. “People were happier, reported feeling better in their backs and better quality of life. It also appears that these effects were sustained in the long term,” said Professor James McAuley of the University of New South Wales. How powerful is this research? It was a small trial – 276 participants – but a randomized controlled one, so a control group received ‘sham’ treatments, such as lasers. Laser! They sound cool. They do not work. But the control group’s reported pain dropped slightly from 5.8 to 4.0. Of course, the placebo effect is just another proof of how mysterious the brain-body connection is. Say, “The miracle of brain plasticity means I can train myself to feel less back pain.” Don’t say, “Well, I’ll soon be fighting against anyone who says it’s all in my head.”
