Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Low Back Pain Is No Reason to Stay in Bed
From Health Behavior News Service
For much of the 20th century, “rest”— which generally meant a few days to a week in bed — was the standard prescription for acute low-back pain. In recent decades, however, doctors started counseling patients to stay as active as they could.
An updated review now confirms what has become conventional wisdom: “Normal daily activity seems to be the best way for patients with low-back pain to get better,” said Kristin Thuve Dahm, a researcher at the Norwegian Centre for the Health Services and lead author of the review.
Active patients experience less pain and avoid the side effects of immobility.
The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.
Read the full article here.
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