What is Non-Specific Low Back Pain and Why I Believe it Does Not Exist!

In today’s new video, I address a term that has bothered me for quite some time, and I explain why “Non-Specific Low Back Pain,” does not exist. Non-specific Low Back Pain is a term often used to describe an individual’s low back pain that one does not know the cause of. Now, that may seem all fine and all, but the problem with labeling or grouping someone with non-specific low back pain is that we don’t end up often giving the individual the proper treatment or recovery program. Instead, researchers, doctors, chiropractors, and physical therapists end up treating the symptom of back pain and not the actual cause! For instance, one individual could have a herniated disc causing back pain, and another could have cancer. Both of these individuals are going to require a different course of treatment, but if we label them in the same group as non-specific, then we may be ultimately failing the individual’s because we are not giving them specific programs to their injury.

The point of this video and topic is that everyone’s back pain is ‘specific’ and there is no such thing as ‘non-specific.’ Rather, non-specific low back pain is just a term used to describe someone’s case that one not may be able to figure out the exact cause. However, just because one doesn’t know the cause of their back pain doesn’t mean we should be putting them on some general or non-specific back pain program! It drives me crazy when I hear this or see the countless research articles published with regards to recruiting people with non-specific low back pain and then putting them on an exercise therapy program. One has to ask themselves. Where is the competence or individualization here? And it’s sad to see very highly educated professionals doing this. Anyways, in this video, I address this topic head-on, and I share my thoughts regarding this poorly designed term.

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