Got Back Problems? I Hear Ya.

My mom's been complaining about her back for as long as I can remember. I just thought it was one of those things that happened to people when they got old (I was a kid at the time; my mom was 37, and that was of course, ancient).

^ Me and Dr. Kirschner in studio. No, he's not balancing a speaker on his head. ^

And yet, I've been gleefully without back pain...until recently. I'm just about my mom's back-pain age, and it's a little scary to me. I've always taken care to address these issues at the get go, and so I know to hop onto care right away and make sure I"m doing what I can to keep it from ruling my life. And I am. But that sensation you get when you go to reach for your own shoes and it takes extra effort, or when standing up is like unfolding a rusty lawn chair--well, you get the picture.

Which is why I am glad to know someone like Dr. Andrew Kirschner, an osteopathic physician based in PA, whom I had on my radio show recently. Dr. K says that people tend to just decide they have a bad back, and that that's what they have to live with. Not so. And the answer isn't just numbing your pain into oblivion.

Dr. K both treats patients AND educates them to proactively seek relief through lifestyle changes, and he's got a practical, real-world approach that I find appealing. The man also admits he sleeps on a tatami mat, which I chided him about. Really? A tatami mat? I just thought, his poor wife. Wouldn't trade my pillow top for the world.

I recently blogged about this on the Martha Stewart Radio blog.

Dr. K even turned the tables and interviewed me at Sirius XM studios for HIS blog. We're going blog-crazy!

The lesson? Don't overidentify with your bad back. There are far more interesting things you and I both should be known for.

Terri Trespicio

@TerriT

Tags: Andrew-Kirschner, back-pain, best-body, chiropractor, radio

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Comment by Lizanne Hennessey on April 27, 2010 at 3:21pm: omg, I can so relate to this. My husband and I have been going around for years moaning about our aches and pains, till we discovered the ultimate cure: we lie face down on the bed, side by side, and let our kids (Mia, who's 3 1/2 and Bram, who just turned 2) run and jump all over our backs! Those little elbows, knees, feet and hands work wonders on our backs and we all have the best time in the process. We bond, we laugh and we get a massage, all at the same time. What more could you possibly want?!