Well, the Who Owns Low Back Pain debate was certainly entertaining!
The auditorium was close to it’s 700 capacity full of therapists and practitioners ready to hear what the world’s best had to offer.
On evenings like this, it is normal for experts to puff up their chests and let their egos run away with them trying to show the others that their way is the only way. However, it was very light hearted with many good jokes by the speakers and chair person.
There was a consensus that low back pain is not fully understood. It was almost unanimously agreed that a holistic approach including exercise, nutrition and other lifestyle factors including manual therapy are crucial to preventing and treating low back pain.
There was a little conflict over the placebo effect and certain areas of research were not agreed upon.
I felt that Lynne MacTaggart, author of The Field, Paul Chek, founder of The CHEK Institute and Colin Natali, Orthopaedic Surgeon stole the show. I felt that these guys had a much greater understanding of the problem at hand and how to solve it. I was very impressed with Natali’s humility and honesty on the effectiveness and potential risks of spinal surgery. I just wish more surgeons shared his outlook.
The evening was filmed and will be available on DVD. I will keep you posted as to where you can purchase the DVD as soon as it is available. It’s well worth a look.