Back pain

[backdoc]

i see all this stuff about vibration and back pain. couple of questions. 1. whats the research on back pain? 2. whats the rationale on using vibration for back pain? isnt vibration bad for the back? thats what i learned in school re: occupational vibration. thanks

[Dr Jasper Sidhu]

Those are great questions. There have been a couple of studies done on effects of vibration on chronic back pain and increased proprioception of the lumbar spine after vibration. As for rationale, its important to take a look at the following points:

Low back pain is multifactorial. There are many different causes of low back pain. It could be muscle endurance, joint dysfunction, proprioception, tight muscles or inhibited muscles.

Since there are many different causes of low back pain, most good health professionals will screen out for all these and provide a rationale treatment approach. These treatments can consist of spinal manipulation, stretching exercises, core stabilization training, or balance and proprioception training.

My experience is that vibration exercise can address most of these factors in less time. Most patients can do strengthening, stretching, core training and addressing muscular imbalances with vibration training. Some of my patients that can't engage in planks since they may be limited by pain or just dont have the strength to do it, can easily do core activation techniques with a vibration platform since it creates involuntary muscle contractions, thereby also helping with increased proprioception.

There isn't any 'magical' vibration machine that a patient stands on which cures their back pain. Vibration exercise is a tool that one utilizes that addresses the common causes of that particular patient, through a proper clinical examination. Therefore, the type of exercises i utilize depend on what exactly we are addressing.

Mind you, I have found that most of my patients find vibration exercise a lot easier to do than conventional exercise, and it does create a sort of 'wow' factor that keeps them compliant with their treatment program. I can stretch tight muscles within a minute with less stress not only on the patient, but also on the clinician. I can address muscular imbalances by getting instant activation of the weak / inhibted muscles. As you can see, the treatment methods are similar to what you use in practice, but by using vibration exercise, you can decrease the time and effort required to perform the same activity.

Occupational vibration is different. With low back pain, a frequency of 5 to 6 HZ is typically the resonance frequency of the lumbar spine, and hence not advisable. Most, but unfortunately not all, vibration devices avoid frequencies on a vertical direction with frequencies less than 20 HZ. Occupational vibration is also based on hours and hours of repeated vibration stimulus over years. We usually recommend vibration stimulus to be about 2 minutes per body part. That's a big difference. Hope that answers your questions.

[momcani]

Thank you for the information - I have being doing research and have just purchased a whole body vibration unit. You have answered the questions that I had regarding occupational vibration.