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News: February 14, 2012
Spouse's Reaction May Affect Pain Management
FRIDAY, Dec. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Chronic pain can hinder communication between spouses, which, in turn, can impair the affected partner's ability to cope with the pain, according to a new study. Previous research has shown that validation of a ...
Those Extra Pounds Could Harm Your Back
MONDAY, Jan. 30 (HealthDay News) -- Overweight and obese adults are at significantly increased risk for lumbar spine disc degeneration, a potential cause of low back pain, researchers say. Previous research has linked having a higher body-mass ind...
Acupuncture May Boost Pregnancy Success Rates
FRIDAY, Jan. 27 (HealthDay News) -- When a couple is trying to have a baby and can't, it can be emotionally and financially draining. But help may be available in an unexpected form: acupuncture. Medical experts believe that this ancient therapy f...
Back Problems May Cut Into Retirement Savings
TUESDAY, Feb. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Most people forced to retire early because of back problems face ongoing financial struggles, a new study finds. Not only does early retirement reduce immediate work income, it also affects long-term financial ...
Bio-Engineered Spinal Discs Appear Successful in Rats
TUESDAY, Aug. 2 (HealthDay News) -- Special bioengineered spinal discs seem to grow and replace damaged discs -- at least in rats, a new study shows. While trials in humans remain years away, implants like these, made of cells and collagen, may on...
Study Questions Chiropractic's Impact on Back Pain
WEDNESDAY, July 6 (HealthDay News) -- For the millions of Americans with chronic low back pain, a silver bullet to alleviate the condition has yet to be identified, a new study suggests. Reviewing 26 studies comparing spinal manipulative therapy (...
Massage Beats Meds for Lower Back Pain, Study Says
TUESDAY, July 5 (HealthDay News) -- Massage therapy may be better than medication or exercise for easing low back pain in the short term, a new government-funded study suggests. Seattle researchers recruited 401 patients, mostly middle-aged, femal...
When Docs Own MRIs, Back Pain Scans Increase: Study
WEDNESDAY, April 27 (HealthDay News) -- Doctors are far more likely to refer patients complaining of lower back pain for an expensive MRI scan if they own or lease such imaging equipment, a new study indicates. The Stanford University School of Me...
'Surgeon Enthusiasm' May Spur Higher Rates of Back Pain Procedures: Study
MONDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) -- "Surgeon enthusiasm" is a major reason why surgeons in some areas are more likely to recommend surgery for low back problems, according to a new study. Researchers analyzed data on more than 50,000 low back sur...
Spinal Fusion Surgery May Leave Some Back Pain Patients Worse Off: Study
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 23 (HealthDay News) -- Spinal fusion surgery for chronic low back pain -- an increasingly controversial treatment that has exploded in use over the last 20 years -- leads to higher rates of permanent disability for worker's compens...
When Given Control, Women Use Less Epidural Anesthesia During Delivery
THURSDAY, Feb. 10 (HealthDay News) -- If women are given control of the amount of epidural anesthesia they get during labor and delivery, they use about 30 percent less medication than when given a standard dose from a doctor, a new study shows. "...
FDA Lowers Amount of Acetaminophen Allowed in Prescription Painkillers
THURSDAY, Jan. 13 (HealthDay News) -- U.S. health officials announced Thursday that they will lower the maximum amount of the pain reliever acetaminophen allowed in prescription opioid products such as Vicodin and Percocet because of reports of se...
Zen Meditation Can Help Bring Pain Under Control
FRIDAY, Dec. 10 (HealthDay News) -- People who engage in Zen meditation do feel pain, new research reveals, but they don't think about it as much. The observation could have a bearing on the treatment of chronic pain among patients struggling with...
Workers With Low Back Pain Benefit From Integrated Care
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 1 (HealthDay News) -- Workers with chronic low back pain can be treated for substantially less cost by using an integrated approach to care instead of traditional medical care, a new study suggests. Chronic back pain is an enormous...
Painful Knees Often Tied to Pain in Other Joints
MONDAY, Nov. 22 (HealthDay News) -- The pain of knee osteoarthritis is more severe in people who also have foot, elbow and lower back pain, a new study has found. In the study, researchers asked almost 1,400 knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients, aged...
Cymbalta Approved for Chronic Joint and Muscle Pain
FRIDAY, Nov. 5 (HealthDay News) -- Cymbalta (duloxetine hydrochloride) has received expanded approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat chronic musculoskeletal pain, stemming from conditions including lower back pain and osteoart...
Study Explores Links Between Obesity and Chronic Pain
MONDAY, July 26 (HealthDay News) -- Obesity and chronic pain are both linked with family history and mood disorders, a new study suggests. Previous research has shown that overweight people are at greater risk for chronic pain, mainly due to exces...
Understanding Back Pain May Improve Management, Study Suggests
WEDNESDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- The attitudes, beliefs and health literacy of people with chronic low back pain influence how they manage their pain, Australian researchers report. Health literacy is the ability to find, understand and use h...
Rehab Program Gets Back Pain Patients Back to Work Sooner
WEDNESDAY, March 17 (HealthDay News) -- People with chronic low back pain that keeps them away from work can recover an average of four months earlier if they take part in a specific type of rehabilitation program, a new study suggests. Researcher...
Chronic Back Pain Soothed by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
THURSDAY, Feb. 25 (HealthDay News) -- People suffering from chronic lower back pain may find relief through cognitive behavioral therapy, a short-term treatment aimed at challenging and reframing negative beliefs. Chronic lower back pain is one of...
Biofeedback Now Seen as 'Regular' Medicine
THURSDAY, Feb. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Biofeedback used to be thought of as alternative therapy -- something that might help but wasn't considered a fully legitimized medical treatment. No more.
Smokers More Prone to Long-Term Prescription Painkiller Use
THURSDAY, Jan. 21 (HealthDay News) Smoking, as well as the medicinal use of opioid painkillers such as oxycodone, are independent predictors of longer-term opioid pain medication use among patients with chronic back pain caused by lumbar spine con...
More MRI Machines May Mean More Back Surgeries
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 14 (HealthDay News) -- Having easy access to MRI scans may be a bad thing for people with new-onset lower back pain, according to U.S. researchers. The analysis of 1998-2005 Medicare data found that patients with new pain in their ...
Long-Term Back Pain Not Inevitable, Study Finds
WEDNESDAY, Oct. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Good news for people with chronic low back pain: About four in 10 will recover within a year, according to a study that challenges the common belief that recovery from this type of pain is unlikely. The Austra...
Bad Economy Really Hurts Some Folks
THURSDAY, Sept. 24 (HealthDay News) -- The sting of a bad economy is causing physical pain for many Americans, according to a new survey that found that more than two-thirds of respondents blame the downturn for a variety of body aches. An America...
Yoga Can Ease Lower Back Pain
TUESDAY, Sept. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Practicing yoga can help ease chronic lower back pain, a new study shows. Researchers divided 90 people, aged 23 to 66, who had mild to moderate functional disability as a result of back pain into two groups.
Two Treatments Equally Effective for Chronic Pelvic Pain
TUESDAY, Sept. 1 (HealthDay News) -- A surgical procedure that treats chronic pelvic pain by disrupting nerve connections failed to improve upon regular laparoscopic surgery for easing the condition, British researchers say. The nerve-disruption p...
Spinal Cord Stimulation Need Not Keep Soldiers From Action
WEDNESDAY, July 8 (HealthDay News) -- In a turnabout from prior recommendations, a new study says soldiers who need electrical spinal cord stimulation to relieve chronic back pain may be able to return to active duty. In electrical spinal cord sti...
Minimally Invasive Surgery Not Better for Sciatica
TUESDAY, July 7 (HealthDay News) -- Minimally invasive surgery for the excruciating back pain that can be caused by sciatica didn't work as well as the conventional procedure in a Dutch study. "The expected treatment benefit of a faster rate of re...
Too Much Texting Can Spell Neck, Arm Pain
MONDAY, July 6 (HealthDay News) -- Beyond the already well-known "BlackBerry thumb," avid texting may also cause pain to the hand, arm and neck, new research shows. But there may be ways to avoid this discomfort, the study found. Young adults who ...
Acupuncture, Real or Fake, Eases Back Pain
TUESDAY, May 12 (HealthDay News) -- Any kind of acupuncture, whether it pierced the skin or not, eased chronic lower back pain in a group of adult patients. "All were superior to usual care," said Daniel Cherkin, lead author of a report published ...
Ozone/Oxygen Shot Helps Heal Herniated Disk
MONDAY, March 9 (HealthDay News) -- A shot of ozone and oxygen may prove to be a safe, effective and less invasive way to relieve the pain of a herniated disk, U.S. researchers say. Small spongy discs normally act as shock absorbers between the ve...
Anti-Cholesterol Drug May Ease Back Pain
MONDAY, Feb. 23 (HealthDay News) -- The cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin (Mevacor) might improve outcomes for people who have surgery for degenerative disc disease, a major cause of back pain. In an attempt to find ways to stop or reverse dege...
Chronic Low Back Pain Is on the Rise
TUESDAY, Feb. 10 (HealthDay News) -- A North Carolina study finds that the rate of chronic low back pain has more than doubled in that state since the early 1990s -- a statistic the authors say might reflect what's happening in the country as a wh...
Imaging of Low Back Pain Fails to Change Outcomes
FRIDAY, Feb. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Using medical imaging on people who have low back pain that has no apparent underlying cause doesn't improve clinical outcomes, a new study finds. This means that doctors should not conduct routine MRI, CT or rad...
Therapy, Meds Best for Lumbar Low Back Pain
TUESDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- A combination of physical therapy and anti-inflammatory drugs is the most effective treatment for low back pain caused by symptomatic lumbar degenerative disc disease, according to a review of published studies....
Are We Exercising Pain Away? Not So Much.
TUESDAY, Feb. 3 (HealthDay News) -- Although the proper exercise can help people deal with and alleviate chronic neck and back pain, a new study shows that health professionals may not be prescribing it as often as they should. Less than half of t...
Pain-Relieving Powers of Acupuncture Unclear
WEDNESDAY, Jan. 28 (HealthDay News) -- When used to treat pain, acupuncture offers only limited relief that may not be clinically relevant. So say Danish researchers who examined data from 13 acupuncture pain studies that included more than 3,000 ...
Women With Heart Attack Symptoms See Delays in Care
TUESDAY, Jan. 13 (HealthDay News) -- Women calling 911 with cardiac symptoms took longer than men to get to the hospital after an emergency medical services team had arrived in response to the call, a new study found. It's not clear why this was t...
Naprapathy: A Hands-On Approach to Pain Management
WEDNESDAY, Dec. 31 (HealthDay News) -- If you struggle with aches and pains that refuse to go away, you just might find relief from a long-practiced but relatively obscure alternative therapy called naprapathy. Naprapathic medicine treats connecti...
Tips to Ease an Aching Back
THURSDAY, Dec. 25 (HealthDay News) -- The holidays can be a real pain in the back. To ease the backaches that may have come from such seasonal duties as lugging heavy luggage, toting bags of gifts and stretching and straining to put up holiday dec...
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