One morning, there was a TV show which was talking about “back pain”. The back pain is quite popular for people who live in a modern society. It was said in the show that “85% of the causes of back pain are unknown”. Also Professor Shinichi Konno of Fukushima Medical University said “the real cause of the back pain isn’t because of your back but your brain, that is, stress”.
At this university hospital, the blood flow level of the brain of patients who suffered from chronic back pain was measured. The result was surprising, as it showed that about 70% of their blood flow was low. It was also said in this show that the pain (=stress) had something to do with a particular part in your brain which is called the Nucleus accumbens. Therefore, the pain doesn’t go away for a long time because the function of that part gets lowered due to stress.
What we firstly think of as the most common cause of back pain is ‘disk herniation’, isn’t it? There is also one called inguinal hernia (rupture) and it’s more common in children. It is a protrusion of the abdominal-cavity contents. As for disk herniation, it’s caused by a protrusion of intervertebral disk which is in the position between the vertebrae. Its protruding part affects nerves and causes pain. However, it’s said that only approx 5% of chronic back pain is caused by disk herniation. Also some people have disk herniation but don’t feel any pain.
Operations used to be common to treat disk herniation but now it’s known that it’s possible to heal naturally. MRI technology helped find this fact. Surprisingly it’s said that the immune cells called macrophages become active and remove (?) the protrusion. The fact wasn’t possible to see when only X-ray technology was available. I wonder if it’s all about those advanced medical technology.
So, the human body is interesting, isn’t it? Even if we have such a amazing body, there are still many people who are suffering from pain. Also, there are some people who have pain even if they don’t have any possible cause of it, such as disk herniation. In contrast, the others don’t have pain even if they have disk herniation. Why…? Why is it like that?
There is a book, “椅子がこわい-私の腰痛放浪記 Isu ga kowai – watashi no yōtuu hourouki” which was published by Bungeishunju quite a long time ago. The author of this book, Shizuko Natsuki, was a famous Japanese mystery writer. This book was about her experience of back pain. Because she was suffering from severe pain, she even thought about killing herself. Anyway, she found out that the cause of pain was stress (psychological factor) after she tried various treatments including orthopedics. She finally got to see a doctor at a department of psychosomatic medicine. If you are interested, please read her book.
However, according to her, Morita Therapy by Dr. Masatake Morita who was a psychiatrist healed her back pain. Morita Therapy which was created by Dr. Masatake Morita (1874-1938 / graduated from Tokyo Imperial University Medical School) based on his own experience of a neurotic disease in 1919. Dr. Morita was also a Professor at Jikei University School of Medicine. There is a Center for Morita Therapy which is carrying on even now. I think the reason why orita Therapy was always taking over to new generation is because people have become aware of stress as a cause of their back pain. Now, the cause has started to be proven through the improvement in medical equipment.
Also, there is another book about back pain, “腰痛は怒りである-痛みと心の不思議な関係 Yōtuu wa ikari de aru – itami to kokoro no fushigi na kankei” (published in 2000 from Bungeishunju) which was written by Junshi Hasegawa. A similar thing (TMS theory by Dr.Sarno) was mentioned in this book, so I’d like to recommend this for the people who are suffering from back pain. This book is also recommended by Shizuko Natsuki which was the author of “椅子がこわい-私の腰痛放浪記”, too. By the way, it’s interesting to know that the cause of pain is actually in our brain (mind), and in addition, it was actually ‘stress=mind’…Well, our mind and body have a really close relationship, don’t they? There are a lot of factors from which we get stress in a modern society, so I recommend people who have been suffering from pain for a long period of time to actually see a psychiatrist.
*A paperback version of “椅子がこわい” by Shizuko Natsuki has been published, too. Also Seigou Matsuoka recommends it in his famous book review website “千夜千冊 Thousand books for Thousand nights”.
*Morita Therapy has been recommended in a book called “神経症の時代 Shinkei shō no jidai” by Toshio Watanabe (published in1996 from TBS Britannica), too.
