By Amanda Gardner, Health.com; July 24, 2010 8:18 a.m. EDT

Trent Northcutt, 42, a corporate executive in New York City, had been suffering from lower back pain and leg pain for about three years, to the point that he was “cautious about picking up the simplest thing,” he remembers.

When he finally sought help, his doctor recommended acupuncture right off the bat. Northcutt ended up having six treatments over about eight months. Now, he says, “I don’t have any back pain at all. I’m 100 percent good.”

More than 26 million Americans ages 20 to 64 suffer from ongoing back pain, according to the American Pain Foundation, and it’s one of the top reasons people visit a doctor. But many of those millions also discover the painful secret about back pain: This common condition can be surprisingly difficult to treat.

The lower back is a complex spot, with many potential sources of pain. Although surgery would seem to be a quick fix, in reality about 85 percent of people don’t need — and won’t benefit from — back surgery, says Dr. Anders Cohen, M.D., chief of neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, in New York City.

That leaves plenty of room for alternative and complementary therapies, such as vitamins, acupuncture, and chiropractic therapy, that may help soothe the pain. “If I don’t see something unstable, something wrong with a disk or a bone, I use alternative therapies on a regular basis. It’s a central crux of my practice,” adds Cohen.

“There are some types of back pain that seem to be in the covering of the muscles or in the tissue connecting the muscle that are really difficult to treat,” adds Dr. James Bray, M.D., a sports medicine physician with Scott & White Healthcare, in Georgetown, Texas. “That’s where a lot of alternative therapies [such as acupuncture and chiropractic therapy] really excel.”

Chiropractic therapy

Although most people tend to think of a chiropractor as a practitioner who cracks your back while you lie on a table, they also “have a lot of soft tissue treatments,” Cohen says.

Chiropractors can help with back pain and, in a few cases, even pain that radiates into the buttock or leg.

Some borrow techniques from physical therapy, using ultrasound and heat to break the cycles of muscle spasms and trigger points that cause chronic irritation, he says.

And it turns out that the cracking sound that goes along with a visit to the chiropractor is a good thing. Doctors think that it comes from nitrogen bubbles being released in the joints. “That helps rebalance the spine,” Cohen explains.

Read the full article from CNN.com that recommends Chiropractic care for back pain relief.

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