For those of you trying to protect your back: Back pain link to fear avoidance studies at Ohio University Source: Ohio University Office of Research Communications Using some high-tech tools more commonly seen on a Hollywood movie set, Jim Thomas and Christopher France from the Motor Control Laboratory at Ohio University focused on a phenomenon called fear avoidance. In this self-fulfilling prophecy, people who fear reinjuring their backs after a painful accident move in restricted, unnatural ways that eventually can lead to re-injury--and further back pain. Subjects were asked to perform motions such as leaning forward to touch a post or bending over to reach a box and motion-capturing cameras recorded their movements. The researchers discovered that people who were extremely afraid of reinjury--even if they no longer had pain from their original injury--showed all the symptoms of fear avoidance. Theyre still moving differently; theyre still protecting the spine, Thomas says, noting that people suffering from fear avoidance often end up with less endurance, strength, and range of motion in their backs. We suspect that this could be driving the reoccurrence of low-back pain, he explains. In order to help patients fully recover from back injuries, Thomas says, any therapies used to help people who show strong fear avoidance must take their fear into account. Editors note: In addition, people need to be trained to build strength and endurance in those specific movement patterns where they display fear avoidance, which are typically the movements where injury occured. Or as Paul Chek says, If you cant, you must!
Posted on: Wed, 26 Feb 2014 00:45:14 +0000
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