Spine Talk

The ancient Chinese and Indian healthcare providers who were masters of acupuncture, yoga and tai chai must surely be smiling in their afterlife. In a report released during the second week of February 2017, the American College of Physicians released new guidelines for dealing with the most common maladies affecting modern mankind – lower back pain – with these ancient health techniques before prescription drugs and surgery are employed. Many medical experts called these guidelines “historical” in their implication for treating back pain. According to nationwide media reports, such as this one from the Wall Street Journal, the primary reason for the issuance of these new guidelines lies in the epidemic of opioid addiction. “Opioids, one of the most commonly prescribed medications for pain relief and the source of the increasing addiction and death, should only be considered for chronic back pain when other alternatives – natural and prescription – don’t work”, say the guidelines, which were published in the