If your back hurts, you hurt. When you have back pain, it touches almost every part of your life. You get grumpy. You can't do what you want.

The co$t

Approximately 80 percent of Americans experience lower back pain during their lifetimes, with 15 to 20 percent developing protracted pain, and 2 to 8 percent developing chronic, disabling pain. Productivity losses from chronic lower back pain approach $28 billion annually.

Acute back pain is the fifth most common reason for all physician visits. It is responsible for direct health care expenditures of more than $20 billion annually and as much as $50 billion per year when indirect costs are included.

Non-surgical treatment

The good news is that in many instances, chronic back pain can be treated using non-surgical rehabilitation treatments at the UI Spine Center.

The rehabilitation specialists that make up the UI Spine Center Rehabilitation Team teach you that by improving muscle flexibility, strength, and endurance, and by using coping and stress management skills, you can reduce your level of back pain without undergoing invasive surgery or taking excessive medications.

During the comprehensive two-week program, the team helps you develop skills to manage your pain more effectively while improving your quality of life. But they don't do it alone. To be successful, you have to make a firm commitment to change how you deal with chronic pain.

Acute back pain

Acute, or short-term, back pain comes on quickly, either after a specific incident or sometimes after something as simple as getting up from a chair.

Symptoms may range from muscle ache to shooting or stabbing pain in the leg, limited flexibility and range of motion, or even an inability to stand straight.

"Many acute episodes of back pain can be diagnosed and treated without X-rays, MRIs, or other expensive tests," says Joe Chen, MD, rehabilitation physician and medical director of the UI Spine Center. He says the tests aren't necessary if your back pain started a few days ago because painful muscles don't show up on X-rays or MRIs.

"The majority of acute spine symptoms don't come from the bones of the spine, but the muscles and soft tissues around the spine. Injuries to these muscles cause the pain and spasm that occur when you try to stretch, move, or flex the back muscles," he says.

Chronic back pain

Chronic refers to pain that persists for more than three months. The cause of chronic back pain can be difficult to determine and may have resulted from a previous injury or it may have an ongoing cause, such as a bone tumor, fracture, nerve damage, or arthritis.

Chronic pain often is not relieved by standard medical management options like medications, physical therapy, spinal injections, or even spine surgery. If you find your regular daily activities are difficult or seem impossible because of pain, the UI Spine Center offers hope through its unique treatment program.

Chen says the Spine Rehabilitation Team and the Spine Rehabilitation Program specialize in the care and treatment of chronic spine pain. "This team approach combines all the benefits of specialists with backgrounds including medicine, physical therapy, psychology, medical social work, and vocational rehabilitation."

For more information

UI Spine Care team
877-60SPINE (877-607-7463)
Or visit www.uihealthcare.com/spinecenter.

UI Health Access
319-384-8442, ext. 107 or 800-777-8442, ext. 107