Bending over backwards to beat pain and suffering

Date: 28 July 2007
Source: New Zealand Herald

Back pain is no laughing matter as any sufferer will testify.

It's a major contributor to loss of work productivity, with ACC spending more than $130 million a year treating back-pain-related injuries.

Now it will be the subject of a New Zealand physiotherapists' conference in Rotorua next month.

Organiser Duncan Reid, spokesman for the NZ Manipulative Physiotherapists Association, said the biennial conference would hear the latest strategies to help sufferers, including pregnant women, nearly half of whom experience back problems.

"The back and pelvic pain after delivery may be slow to resolve and in some cases may not completely resolve."

Nevertheless, a Netherlands physiotherapist, Annalies Pool, had found that exercises to improve the strength and control of the muscles that support the lower back, pelvis and pelvic floor could significantly improve the condition.

Many women might be unaware of the benefits of exercises as hospital stays after birth were short, Mr Reid said.

Problems were often made worse in the early months after birth with mothers bending to change nappies and lift small children.

The conference would also address back problems in rowers, the most common injury for rowers in all age groups.

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