The secret key, which does not inform about Back pain

Half of the people that come to us have been to dozens if not more doctors for their back problems, herniated disc problems, sciatica, degenerative disc disease or what ever kind of pain they are experiencing. The other half have just refused traditional medical interventions. Saying no to injections, surgeries, medications.

Even those patients have a reason as to why they choose to not have the procedures or solutions, and in doing so are imparting the secret into their health care plan. If you've ever went to a doctor then you'll know the sad but true reality that nothing comes without a cost. Depending on what type of doctor you go to or what type of treatment you receive then the costs can be different. Don't worry, we'll get to the secret here in a few minutes.

Let's say for example you go to your family physician. The one that you've been taking your family to for years, maybe even decades. The one you know and trust to take care of your colds, flu, or what ever else that pops up. It's well known in the healthcare arena that back pain is the number two reason why people go to the doctor in the first place. Second only to guess what, the common cold. Then closely following, pregnancy. So what happens is thousands of people just like you every day go to their family doctor to talk to them about their back pain. Now, every doctor is different and runs a different type of practice, but let's talk about the average family doctor. No one wants to think of their doctor as average, but if most of them weren't average then we wouldn't even have the word, so let's make that single assumption here.

So you have some pain in your back, maybe it's constant, maybe it's of the come and go type, maybe it's a back that "goes out" from time to time, whatever the case maybe you end up at his or her office. Walk in, sit for a certain length of time in the waiting room, then your finally escorted back to an exam room.

This is the first cost. There's a reason we're going through this and as you read through you'll come to a clear understanding. A cost doesn't have to necessarily have to do with the finances. The cost of time is the most valuable that we have. It's the only resource that we can't get back. It's not one of our renewable resources. If you've ever gone to a doctors office and spent your entire day waiting this is one of the pet peeves of most patients. Anyway, then you finally get to see the doctor.

Doctors spend their entire education and career studying and practicing. The way it works is that doctors are required to have a certain number of hours of continuing education to 'keep up with' current trends. The catch here is that this time is to stay current on the entire medical system. Not just their specialty. That's why there are constant new specialties that are emerging. The emergence of these new specialties every year tells patients that for one doctor it is impossible to know it all and to keep up with everything that is going on.

By the way the number of hours is usually less than a weeks worth of time total for the whole year, give or take depending on the state they received their license. On top of that it's usually broken down into small bit size one day chunks of material on different topics. Topics the doctor selects and that that doctor is interested in. Most doctors don't go off topic, or of specialty because it doesn't help their practice.

So you get to see the doctor. He let's you know the typical practice of how he treats patients and maybe answers your questions that you bring up. Depending on the type of practice the doctors treatment recommendations maybe shaped by how you answer the questions that the doctor poses.

What we're getting at here was sparked up by a recent debate over how to handle the entire medical system in general. If you've seen any recent debates there is a huge issue with healthcare in the United States in general. The quality of care, cost of care, access of care, patient rights. But it all boils down to one thing.

The Patients

That's you. How to handle you in the best way. Now what I'm about to say maybe a little troubling for some, especially if you are of Medicare age, but it's truly up to you to decide what it is that you want to have happen.

Now it's not as hard as you think. Trust me on this. Just imagine yourself shopping for a new car. I know this is definitely off subject and has nothing to do with doctors or your back pain so decide to stick with me here for just a minute and we'll illustrate the point quite clearly.
Back to the car. First you start out with a style of car or maybe the model of car. If you're stuck on a certain manufacture then you have to then decide the model. From the model then we go into, probably in no certain order, options, packages, colors, wheels, year and so on. Depending on what's really important to you, you'll prioritize these in a different order. Being somewhat flexible on price if you can get most of what you want. Then you go, look at the car, then think about it for a day or so, then make the purchase. So why not approach your healthcare the same way. Approach it like you we're shopping.

Not exactly like that. If you have back pain, it's not something to take lightly. More often than not, back pain is progressive in nature. Why? Because most of the time it is compressive in nature. It's an injury that the weight of the upper body with gravity combining to cause pressure that pinches and ends up creating swelling and pain. That's the first reason.
The second reason is that the decision you make will shape your future and the quality of your daily life. Not something to be taken lightly.

There is a high probability that back pain turns into a surgical or chronic irreversible pain if left untreated for any prolonged time period. It's a huge problem for you and our healthcare system in general. The reason it's number two for trips to the doc is because the majority of treatments leave the person with the same pain that was there to begin with or are just a temporary solution that masks the pain and doesn't deal with the issue of the pressure and pinching pain that is the real issue.

The majority of treatments don't work to reverse and reconstruct the tissues back into a healthy state. They actually do the opposite. This is where the secret comes in. There is a word that is at the base of the secret to how you should approach your healthcare. It's the word that you should focus on to help you get what you want out of your healthcare for the best chance at having a beautiful productive future for you and your family.

The word is Savvy.

The dictionary definition of Savvy is....
savovy [sav-ee] verb, -vied, -vyoing, noun, adjective, -vioer, -vioest. Informal. -verb (used with object), verb (used without object) 1. to know; understand. 2.Also, savovioness. practical understanding; shrewdness or intelligence; common sense: a candidate who seemed to have no political savvy. 3.shrewdly informed; experienced and well-informed; canny.

So now that it's all layed out. The secret is to be savvy in your healthcare.
You need to understand the pros and the cons of different treatments. You need to be 'experienced and well informed' with your healthcare and have a practical understanding.
The other side to that is if you want to really get what you want and be intelligent about your healthcare, you don't want to be...

fruogal [froo-guhl] -adjective 1.economical in use or expenditure; prudently saving or sparing; not wasteful: a frugal manager. 2.entailing little expense; requiring few resources; meager; scanty: a frugal meal.

You don't want to be cheap in using your time, energy, and resources to getting back on your feet. No pun intended.

Use your resources.

After all do you want to go get a solution to your problem that skimps on time with you, on energy to help answer the hard questions, that is the 'cheap' back surgery alternative in all definitions of the words. No one want to go to the cheap doctor for their back pain. Cheap means that they skimp on the important stuff. This is your life and the cost to you is the ability to live a life of fun, activity, and happiness.

You need to be the savvy patient and understand the cost of being frugal versus educated and intelligent about your decisions. You must have the single factors influencing the pros verses cons of treatment, and cost verses benefit. Your health is priceless and should be treated like is worth a million dollars to have the life you deserve!

Dr. Stephen C. Lembo, DC is clinic director of Northeast Spine & Rehab; a multi-speciality clinic utilizing (3) DRX 9000 non-surgical spinal decompression units to better serve back and neck pain sufferers throughout the Long Island area. Discover more at http://www.LongIslandBackPain.com or call to schedule a no-charge consultation at (631) 406-6526.