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COPYRIGHT 2004 Newsweek, Inc. All rights reserved. Any reuse, distribution or alteration without express written permission of Newsweek is prohibited. For permission: www.newsweek.com
Publisher correction: May 05, 2004
Our April 26 story about back pain stated that Dr. Dan Cherkin of the Group Health Cooperative's Center for Health Studies is conducting the first large trial of chiropractic treatment for back pain. In fact, his trial focuses on acupuncture. Cherkin has reviewed previous studies of spinal manipulation, which have found modest clinical benefits equivalent to those of conventional treatments. NEWSWEEK regrets the error. __________________________
Byline: Claudia Kalb, With Karen Springen, Anne Underwood, Mary Carmichael and Ellise Pierce, Graphic reported by Josh Ulick. Graphic by Kevin Hand
Stop rubbing your sore back for a minute and take a quick tour of Mother Nature's engineering masterpiece: the human spine. Pretend you are Alice, so tiny you can climb among the muscles, nerves, bones and ligaments that make up the very core of your body. Crawl down the 24 vertebrae that encase and protect the spinal cord, from the cervical spine to the thoracic area to the lumbar region, that pesky lower back. Note the 23 rubbery white discs: the cartilage inner tubes that cushion the vertebrae. Observe the dozens of spinal nerves threading out from the cord between the bones. Poke the bands of muscle that wrap and support the bony column. Now focus on the tugs and thuds of daily life. The quick bend when you pick up your sobbing 2-year-old, the pounding of your feet as you run to catch the bus, the steady pull of your untoned belly, the dull pressure as you sit bleary-eyed in front of your computer, the sudden twist of your golf swing. Feel, too, the constant emotional stress we all live with: worries about aging parents, the kids' SAT scores, an IRS audit, mayhem in Iraq. Finally, imagine (or recall) that knife-in-the-back moment when something suddenly goes wrong with all that gorgeous spinal anatomy: Owwwwwww! Like an expensive but temperamental sports car, the human spine is beautifully designed and maddeningly unreliable. If you're a living, breathing human being, you have probably suffered the agony of back pain. Eighty percent of Americans will battle the condition at some point in their lives, making it the No. 2 reason for doctor visits (after coughs and other respiratory infections). Already, back-pain sufferers cost this country more than $100 billion annually in medical bills, disability and lost productivity at work. And as long as we continue to lead overweight, sedentary and stressful lives, that number is unlikely to go anywhere but up.
As it does, legions of new back-pain sufferers, many desperate and even disabled, will seek relief. When they do, they'll quickly discover just how complicated their problem really is, with its mystifying mix of...
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