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SKEPTOID BLOG:

Joint Pain: Scams, Lies, and Exaggerations, Part 2

by Stephen Propatier

April 4, 2015

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Donate As an orthopedic nurse practitioner I see a constant stream of joint pain complaints. They stemfrom a variety of sources: injury, age-related changes, lifestyle issues, and autoimmune disorders. Patients will oftenGoogle their problems and/or their symptoms, and like most medical issues you can find truth on the Internet, but it is never easy or quick. Alot of what I do with patients is teaching, with a good deal of that time spent addressing long-standing myths or marketing scams. This post is part of an ongoing series about orthopedic problems, scams, and myths. Part 1 focused on the myths and quackery surrounding pain in weight-bearing joints. This post will focus on one of the most pervasive typesof joint pain: back and neck pain.

Back pain is the second most common symptom-related reason for clinician visits in the United States. (Skin disorders are #1.) According to one study,up to 84 percent of adults have low back pain at some time in their lives.The spectrum of illness and morbidity associated with lower-back pain is broad. For many individuals, episodes of back pain are self-limited and resolve without specific therapy. For others, however, back pain is recurrent or chronic, causing significant pain that interferes with employment and quality of life. Rarely, acute back pain is a harbinger of serious medical illness, including infection, malignancy, or other systemic disease. Like all difficult-to-treat pain-related complaints, searching for cureson the Internet produces a lot ofunproven and untested treatments, often based on guesses and poor assumptions. Sometimes there areoutright scams. Let's take a look at what pops up most frequently in the office.

Curing Back and Neck Pain with Bedding
This isby far the most widely accepted pseudoscience surrounding back and neck pain. Mattress and pillow manufacturersoften like to promote theuntested orhypothetical benefits oftheir particular brand, promising people less pain, better sleep, and miraculous improvements by their special foam-and-fabric design. The claims border on out-and-out false advertising. Since bedding is not a medical treatment they can pretty much say whatever they want. That doesn't mean there is any truth to any of their statements. In 2014, the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technology in Health did a systematic review of the researchonmattresses and theireffects on back and neck pain. Their findings were predictable and consistent with prior reviews, writing:
Limited conclusive evidence was identified regarding the efficacy of specific mattress types for treatment of back and neck pain. One trial was identified presenting evidence that firm mattresses may be the least effective treatment for lower back pain. Four guidelines were identified that found a lack of evidence to form a basis for mattress recommendations for the treatment of chronic back and neck pain of musculoskeletal origin.
Overall there is no evidence anywhere that any specific mode of sleeping is beneficial, including: special pillows, certain positions, levels of firmness, temperature, or customizedbedding.

Bedding that is worn out and uncomfortable will impair your sleep and that will have a negative impact. And there is evidence that poor sleeping, medicated sleeping, or interrupted sleep complicates back and neck problems. Otherwise save your money. There is absolutly no evidence that a expensivemattresses or pillows areany better for back or neck problems than more affordable models.

As ainterestingaside: the lowest incidence of back pain is found in developingcountries, while wealthy, highly industrialized countries havethe greatest incidences of back and neck pain. Theminimal beddingtypically found inpoorer countries may indicate thatbedding may be totally inconsequential. Butthis generalization has major flaws: it assumes that bedding is the main factor in neck and back pain. I believe that access to health care and relative seriousness of the problem makes it an ignored issued. Meaning, if you are starving or suffering with deadly disease, back pain is low on the scale of complaints when you finally get to see a doctor. Additionally in the west you see a distinct spike in pain complaints in countries that have the greatest social support for lower-back-pain sufferers, such asUK, Sweden, and United States. There is nosecondary benefitin the third world, and this focusing on reporting and treatment mayskewthe argument.

Trancutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) Devices
Heavily marketed TENS units use small battery-operated devices to provide continuous electrical impulses to the skin via surface electrodes, with the goal of providing symptomatic relief by modifying pain perception. They are sometimesused by physical therapists. Manufacturers of the devices have recently made a big push to marketit asanover-the counter treatment,famouslyincluding ex-professional basketball player Shaquille O'Nealfor a celebrity endorsement. Like many marginal treatments used in pain management, it lacks strong or supporting evidence. A systematic review included one small (n = 30) trialthat found TENS superior to placebo. But a larger (n = 145), well-blinded trialfound no differences between TENS and sham treatment on any measured outcome, suggesting that the small trial may have been too small to account for statistical noise.

TENS units usually have a prescribed treatmentregimen of20-60 minutes of stimulation. Patients at home often do not use them as a they are prescribed. Commonly they use them like a heating pad and/or ice pack for long periods of time. There is no evidence that long-term use of these devices is dangerous;still, it may produce problems with prolonged application. Although I will occasionally prescribe electrical stimulation as part of a physical therapy plan,I wouldnot recommend it as a home treatment.Overall the current evidence indicates that electrical stim is probably at best a mild pain-relieving treatment, no better than massage or icing. The units are relativelyexpensive at $30 - 40 each.

Acupuncture
Acupuncture and dry-needling have both been studied in lower-back pain, although predominantly for chronic symptoms. The techniques differ in that acupuncture targets are typically determined by a traditional Chinese map linking specified points and lines (called "meridians") to mystical physiologic variables and the flow of energy in the body. There are several schools and techniques and practitioners often invoke the fallacious appeal to ancient wisdom. Dry-needling involves the use of needles (frequently acupuncture needles) inserted directly at points of myofascial pain to try to relieve painandtension at those points. This proposed underlying mechanism is an implausible pre-scientific idea that is invalidated by our current knowledge of physiology.

Randomized trials of acupuncture and dry-needling tend to be small and heterogeneous in methodology, and blinding is difficult.The consensus of researchappears to find it is nobetter than sham treatment and at best equivalent to manipulation and massage.Three acupuncture trials for acute lower-back pain were identified in a recent review; these studies found positive results, but the quality of the trials was too poor to draw definitive conclusions. Recent experimentshave attempted to improve the blinded control of such trials by using acupuncture needles that are contained in an opaque sheath. In those experiments, the acupuncturist depresses a plunger. The needle remains unseen and the plunger (when there is no needle) conceals any sensation of the needle being inserted. Neither the practitionernor the patientknows if the needle is actually inserted. These well-controlledstudies show no difference between those who received needle insertion and those who did notâ€"supporting the conclusion that acupuncture has no detectable specific health effect.

Ergonomics in the home or workplace

Ergonomic design of strenuous job tasks in the workplace is an intuitively attractive preventive measure. An entire industry has been built around this premise, despitethe paucity ofsupporting evidence. Rigorous evaluations of such interventions are difficult, because of heterogeneity in job tasks, restrictions imposed by labor and management, regulatory requirements, the difficulty of blinding, andmany other factors. However, there is at least modest evidence from a clinical trial in which entire companies were randomly allocated to intervention or control conditions, suggesting that ergonomic design of job tasks may facilitate return to work and reduce the chronic nature of pain.

Although ergonomics is probably not harmful in any way, it has the same level of evidence as taking any host of implausible substances or treatments. I cannot recommend it. Spending a lot of money having someone changing your work or home space to be better for your back is probably not worth the money.

Corsets, Braces and Traction
Although there is some benefit to traction in radiculitis(pain radiating into the arms or lower extremities from a spinal issue), most of these treatmentmodes have little or no benefit. Exercise therapy seem to make people worse in the initial stages.High-quality evidence shows no benefit to exercise therapy in the initial two to three weeks, and no benefit to corsets, braces, or traction therapy. People often feel more secure in braces and they will anecdotally say they are helpful. Good researchsays bracingjust doesn't work, which is logical since it's impossible to immobilize the neck or lower back with removable braces, and it does nothing to alleviate the weight upon the spinal column. In my opinion, for uncomplicated axial lower back pain skip the back braces. Exercise is helpful, especially forchronic lower back pain, though it'snot helpfulfor acute events.

Clicking and Popping of the Spine
Nothing gives people more concern than popping noises in the spine. It is a universal body issue. Young healthy spines pop due to dissolved gases in the spinal structures. Liquids within the soft tissues have gas dissolved in them. When you move or stretch the spine structuresinthe right way you reduce pressure in the fluid. Like a bottle of soda when you open the cap, bubbles appear in the fluid. A similar thing happens to fluids in your spine interspaces. Bubbles will appear, then collapse when the structure resumes its normal pressure, with the gas quickly redissolving. That quick appearance and dissolve results in an audible "pop" or snapping sensation. It is not pathology and does not cause damage. Older spines that pop and click are usually a little different. As we all age the structures in our back lose resiliency and bony structures thatshouldn't touch, do. With motion, that bone-on-bone contact can generate snapping and popping. It is a sign of pathology. It is a sign of age-related change to the spine. It is a symptom of what causes the pain, the spinal degeneration is the cause, the sensation is not dangerous or abnormal. Everyone does this to some degree and it is not indicativeof a bigger problem.

Joint pain, backaches, headachesâ€"we all get them. If anyone is offering simple solutions to complex problems you have good reason to be skeptical. Talk to your doctor; if he/she thinks you need to see a specialist then do so. Please don't just Google it and self treat. You'rewasting your time, money, and maybe doing something dangerous.

Take a minute and support Skeptoid. The money doesn’t go to me, but instead goes to keep Skeptoid running as a resource of science and skepticism. Remember: all donations and gifts to Skeptoid Media, Inc. are tax deductible under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code (sections 170, 2055, 2106, 2522).

You can follow me at Twitter @steveproacnpfor a daily dose of skeptical nursing. Please check out the completion of the seriesOcc: The Skeptical Caveman,which I helped produce withthe guys at The Skeptics Guide To the Universe.

Disclaimer: This post is my personal opinion, it is not a substitute for medical care. It is for informational purposes only. The information on Skeptoid blogis not intended nor recommended as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your own physician or other qualified health care professional regarding any medical questions or conditions. This postdoes not reflect the opinion of my partners, professional affiliates, or academic affiliations. I have no financial conflicts of interest to disclose.

by Stephen Propatier

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