Exercise Therapy for Low Back Pain

If you want to bring about physiological change to help the development and endurance of back muscles, you must focus your training on those specific muscles and not other muscular groups such as hip extensors," says Christian Larivière, a professor at the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST),womens ed hardy, who conducted the study with Université de Montréal researchers Bertrand Arsenault, Rubens A. Da Silva,nike air max tn, Sylvie Nadeau,Cheap Nike Shoes, André Plamondon et Roger Vadeboncoeur.
The investigation requested that subjects aged 18 to 65 -- some healthy and others with low back pain -- complete various exercises. Electromyography (EMG) sensors were used to measure the level of activity and fatigue in various muscles during the routine. "Thanks to this technique,nike shox shoes, we can target tired muscles which aren't yet showing a decrease in strength," says Larivière.
Test subjects also used a machine designed for back exercises in a semi-sitting position. Results clearly showed that using this machine was beneficial. Using a cushion to stabilize the pelvis brought about a better response from the back muscles. In addition, extending the legs strengthened muscles. "Therefore, we can decrease the use of hip muscles and in turn increase the use of the back muscles,chaussures shox r4 requins," says Larivière.
Such exercises can only help reduce pain and disabilities caused by back pain, says Larivière. He recommends those who suffer severe hurt begin with stretches on the ground with low to medium effort. "Progressively,ed hardy underwear, the individual will gain confidence and can use machines that require superior strength," he says.
Larivière highlights the fact that six out of 10 Quebecers will suffer from back pain in their lifetime. "Musculoskeletal disorders are a serious public health issue," says Larivière. "They're also an economic problem. In 2007,cheap puma shoes, back pain cost Quebec's Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail $516 million in worker compensations."
Pain is commonly described on a subjective level, but it can also be characterized by the behavioral response it elicits, such as the motivation to escape. "Although much is known about the brain areas that encode the subjective sensory properties elicited by painful stimuli, the complex circuitry involved in translating pain to motivated behavior remains unclear and minimally explored," says senior study author, Dr. A. Vania Apkarian from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Dr. Apkarian and colleagues used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare brain activity in response to acute noxious thermal stimuli in healthy control subjects and in patients with chronic back pain. The researchers found that pain perception and related brain activation patterns were nearly identical in the two groups. However, there was one profound difference in the activity of a specific part of the brain called the nucleus accumbens (NAc).
The NAc has been extensively researched with regards to its role in reward and motivation, but how it fits into circuitry underlying the response to aversive events or chronic pain is not clear. In the current study, the researchers discovered that phasic NAc activity at the beginning of painful stimuli predicted pain perception and at termination of painful stimuli predicted reward (pain relief) in the healthy group. In the subjects with chronic back pain, NAc activity correlated with different neuronal circuitry than the controls, and its phasic activity at the end of the stimulus was in the opposite polarity than the healthy subjects, suggesting that the acute pain relieved the ongoing back pain.
"The psychophysical part of our study supported the hypothesis that the NAc signal difference between the two groups reflects differences in the predicted valuation of the offset of the acute painful stimulus; in chronic pain patients, it reflects the prediction of worsening the ongoing back pain, as if the patients were disappointed that the painful stimulus was discontinued,chaussures tn requin, while in the control subjects it reflects the prediction of relief," explains Dr. Apkarian. "These findings point to a potential dysfunctional associative learning process in chronic pain patients."
The researchers include Marwan N. Baliki, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL; Paul Y. Geha, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL; Howard L. Fields, University of California, San Francisco, Emeryville, CA; and A. Vania Apkarian, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL.