Comments on: The Simple Dollar Weekly Roundup: Back Pain Edition

By: AnnJo

AnnJo — Thu, 05 May 2011 01:27:25 +0000

Ice pack for 20 minutes every two hours usually helps me for back pain. (With reasonable care against frostbite.) If the problem is a pulled muscle, heat might feel good but does nothing for the inflammation.

By: kristine

kristine — Thu, 05 May 2011 00:54:23 +0000

David- ha! Mixed idioms: shoot from the hip, speak from the gut.

By: Jude

Jude — Wed, 04 May 2011 21:58:44 +0000

I have scoliosis and chronic back pain. Mostly I ignore it. When it gets really bad, I massage it with a tennis ball. I sleep on my side. I do crunches (goal:60 per day). I limit the amount of weight I carry. Tennis balls beat any chiropractor–you totally control the massage. Oh, and by the way, if acupuncture doesn’t work for you, that might be because it’s bunk–see the blog Science Based Medicine. That exercise where you stretch out your back–the one that AndreaS mentions–is a good one. Heat isn’t a good idea, though–in other words, just like everyone else, I feel that my advice is best.

By: Adam P

Adam P — Wed, 04 May 2011 19:48:06 +0000

Every tax season I used to get wicked back pain in my lower back, like it was on fire. I saw a doctor and got anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxers, and he said it was stress induced. No kidding :) Hope you feel better Trent.

By: KC

KC — Wed, 04 May 2011 18:56:05 +0000

I have a pretty strong back from playing lots of tennis, but ironically that tennis sometimes takes a toll on my back. I take Advil, like you are doing. I also apply some heat to keep the muscles loose. If this doesn’t take care of it (and it often does) then I’ll do a little stretching after I apply the heat – generally the stretching is floor exercises – but anything you like to stretch without causing pain is going to be beneficial. Also I don’t sit much – I lie down – preferably on the floor.

If you are in serious pain – get to the doc – it might be more than a pulled muscle.

By: David

David — Wed, 04 May 2011 17:45:49 +0000

How exactly (or perhaps I should ask what exactly) does one shoot from the gut?

By: AndreaS

AndreaS — Wed, 04 May 2011 17:12:48 +0000

I have a pretty great chiropractor. He is great in that he is cheap (follow-up visits are $25), effective, and most importantly doesn’t milk the job. By my second or third visit, he will tell me he has done all he is going to do for me. This in contrast to another in the area who will have you coming back every week for a year or more, with no progress. My daughter does to see my chiropractor as well.
This guy says avoid sitting, but if you do sit on something hard like a kitchen chair, as opposed to a soft couch. Walking is the best thing. Cold packs immediately after the injury, then hot after a few days. (read up on how to do this properly).
Recently I had the sort of back injury that hurt so bad, when I wanted to turn over in bed I had to think for several minutes on how to move my legs so moving hurt the least. I was visiting my daughter, and was almost unable to stand up from, ahem, a soft couch, when she told me a tip our chiropractor tells her. What the heck, it had been a week, not getting better, and I was on the verge of phoning for an appointment. I tried the tip that night. I was down to 20% pain in 24 hours. So maybe this is just voodoo that coincided when I was due to get better anyway. I don’t think so, but one never knows. But since this is free and takes little time, it is worth a try.
Lay on your back and hold your knees to your chest. Hold this position for fifteen seconds. Repeat three times a day. That’s it.
I know, sounds like voodoo. My daughter works in day care, lifts children a lot, and so often has a sore back. She swears this helps her.

By: Kate

Kate — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:37:46 +0000

Sorry to hear about your back. You’re so great about giving good advice so I thought I’d share a tip: if you find yourself experiencing frequent bouts of back pain do yourself a favor and find a good acupuncturist. No manipulation of your spine,etc., just a few tiny hair-width needles and voila—no more pain. Thanks for all your great work.

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Wed, 04 May 2011 16:30:27 +0000

I took away a completely different message from the Chris Rock story than Trent did, particularly after reading the ‘additional’ Chris Rock story immediately following the one Trent linked to.

I found the linked post to be more about thinking outside the box and being relevant & believable – not ‘shooting from the gut.’ If the author had gone with his first instinct, the article would have a totally different title – along the lines of ‘how going with my first instinct lost me $100K”.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Wed, 04 May 2011 15:32:06 +0000

I don’t know that you’re “almost always” better off shooting from the gut. It depends what your gut has to say.

The Chris Rock story reminded me of some of the scholarship essays I read and rated back in the day. With some of them, “just being honest” yielded an essay that was trite and cringeworthy, tasteless, and even hateful.