If you suffer from any kind of back pain, you're not alone. In fact, a staggering eighty-five percent of Americans suffer from back pain, which transcends every demographic including age, sex, and activity level. It's the second-leading cause of missed work days, and ninety billion dollars a year is spent on treatment and research.

Yet we are somehow no closer to ending this public health crisis. Dr. Todd Sinett, owner of the Midtown Chiropractic Health and Wellness practice in New York City, has decided to change the face of back pain treatment with his book, The Truth about Back Pain, which offers diagnoses and solutions beyond the treatment of just the pain itself.

Dr. Sinett believes that it is not normal for so many people to be suffering from so much back pain, yet because it is so common, people have become accustomed to it and have resigned themselves to their fate. He says, "We've created this entire language built around why it's okay to have so much back pain. They come up with these diagnoses and terms that are essentially recipes for a lifetime of back pain."

In the most common course of treatment, most people will grab a few Advil for a quick fix, but this doesn't help the situation in the long run. "What's happening with all these medications, it's like removing the battery from a smoke alarm. I don't think back pain is the problem-back pain is a symptom of an underlying problem. With medications, we're essentially telling our bodies to shut up, but I'm telling you, "Don't tell it to shut up, start asking 'why' and listen to it, and come up with some solutions, rather than masking the pain."

When it comes to the diagnosis of back pain, Sinett says: "What's happening is that, in essence, all we're doing is we're looking at back pain as a structural problem; like muscle, bone, disc, nerve, arthritis-a kind of orthopedic model. And, in essence, we're only getting a third of the information in the diagnosis and treatment of back pain. So how can you possibly solve a problem with only one third of the information?" Good question.

So what information are we missing? According to Sinett, "back pain comes from three sources and three sources only. It comes from structure, like you slip and fall, you lift a weight the wrong way--that's a structural problem. It also comes from emotions and stress. Stanford University proved that emotions were the number one factor when it comes to back pain. Muscles and organs should contract and relax, and when we're uptight or tense, these muscles contract and contract and contract, giving us tension. When we do this for a prolonged period of time, we're going to get tightness and spasms.

"Also, if you have a diet that's high in sugar, caffeine, and alcohol (like white breads and pastas) it's going to raise the inflammatory process in the body. So then you go and pick up a four-pound weight, and your back goes out. It didn't "suddenly" go out, this thing's been brewing for months and months, and the weight was just the straw that broke the camel's back."

Sinett believes that diet is a huge factor in both the cause and the cure of back pain, and rightfully so: "How we discovered this was really simple: my father was a regular chiropractor for about fifteen years, bent down to pick up a tennis ball one day, and then couldn't stand up straight. For nine months, he was completely and utterly bedridden.

(continued on page 2)