Strategies to help reduce your pain include:

1) Have a positive outlook and don’t catastrophise about your pain (eg don’t think – I’ve got back pain, my back is ruined, I’ll never work again)

2) Get a GP checkup to rule out rare, sinister causes for your pain (eg cancers, fractures, infections)

3) Don’t get over investigated – once sinister causes of pain are excluded, xrays and imaging generally have little to contribute to managing your pain.

4) Don’t get concerned about reports of “mild disc bulges”, “degeneration” or “osteophytes” on your xrays. These are common findings and are likely to be normal for your age. They don’t tell you anything about what is causing your pain.

5) Use heat and massage to relieve symptoms – they are generally the most effective pain relievers.

6) Work on sleeping well – if you are taking pain relieving medications, the most important time is usually at night – to help you sleep better. Sleep interruption worsens pain! (You may like to ask your doctor about low dose Endep – which helps sleep and lessens pain).

7) Minimise stresses in your life. People are most susceptible to musculoskeletal pain at times of high stress in their lives. Although the stress doesn’t cause the pain, it “fans the flames”. Expert counselling can be helpful at times.

8) Stay active! Don’t wait for your pain to settle before living your life again – this only makes the pain more likely to persist. If you can’t do a specific activity because of pain, then find an alternative way to do the same thing!

9) Get back to work – this is the single biggest predictor of how well you will do long term. Even if you have to crawl in the door, you are almost always better to get back to your work site.

10) Improve your posture. Poor posture is a frequent underlying cause of pain.

11) Activate your core - Poor “core tone” in your abdomen is like having worn out suspension in your car – you feel every bump. Get your core working - start Pilates or yoga.