Golf Injuries - Back Pain

Jack had it. Tiger has had it. Freddie is constantly battling it. Many of the elite of golf have had it.

The "it" is low back pain.

While very few recreational golfers have much in common with these legends, low back pain is the one thing shared by golfers of all skill levels.

Low back pain is reported to be the most common ailment affecting working age adults in the U.S., second only to the common cold. An astonishing 80% of Americans over the age of 30 will suffer at least 1 week of debilitating back pain during their lifetime.

Amongst the nations 30 million golfers, back pain is even more prevalent.

Golf and back pain go hand in hand. Many people, even golfers themselves, do not realize what a physically demanding sport golf really is. The amount of strain placed on the lower back joints, discs and muscles is tremendous.

Overstretching and straining muscles that are cold and tight cause many injuries. Golf can be rough on the back, but it is made even worse by golfers not stretching or warming up before or during a round.

Often overlooked is the fact that on public courses players take a shot and then wait around quite awhile before their next swing. This slow play causes the muscles to cool off and tighten up. Your next swing is with tight muscles making injuries more likely. Walking rather than riding a golf cart can help prevent this, but many courses do not allow walking.

The most serious problems for golfers include disc bulges, degeneration and herniation.

Symptoms of back pain that radiates to the buttocks, thighs or legs are very serious. These symptoms often mean that the cushions between the spinal bones of the low back have deteriorated or are bulging outwards into the nerves.

Once this occurs, it's definitely time to seek specialized help. Severe back pain and sciatica (leg pain caused by disc material irritating the sciatic nerve) can come and go and is often helped by chiropractic manipulation, acupuncture or physical therapy. But common questions to doctors specializing in back pain among golfers are: What about the cases that do not respond well to these treatments? And what can be done about the cases that seem to go away only to return a month of two later?

Moderate to severe back and/or leg pain caused by deteriorating discs that fails to improve with non-invasive procedures or often reappear, were often thought to require surgery. But today physicians realize that surgery has its place in treating these resistant cases, but only as a last resort.

Searching the medical literature you will soon find that the most common type of back surgery (discectomy) has at most a 50% success rate and that at 12 months post-surgery surgery patients are no better off than non-surgically treated patients.

Additionally, patients undergoing surgery are prone to additional surgeries later on. Second surgeries are usually fusions where two or more spinal bones or vertebrae are in various fashions tied or bolted together. These surgeries have even less impressive success rates.

The good news for golfers with severe back or leg pain is that advances in medical computer technology have lead to a promising new treatment called "non-surgical spinal decompression." This new treatment for disc problems that cause back pain and sciatica has been clinically shown to relieve pain and can actually reduce the size of disc herniations. All without the risk and potential side effects of surgery.

But golfers with back pain need to know that not everyone is a candidate for spinal decompression and expertise among providers varies greatly. Before embarking on a non-surgical decompression course, talk to an expert who perform the procedure and have an evaluation done. Only a health specialist that provides this treatment can tell you whether or not it has potential for you.