Back Pain?

I just want to pass along a personal story that might help someone else. For years I was troubled with a pain in my lower back. So much so, that at times I could not walk or move without pain. Often I would use a heating pad, perhaps I would stretch my legs at 90 degrees between the floor and the wall.

I never knew when it would hit me. I played basketball and tried to be active when I could. When the pain started to come, I would take some Tylenol or Acetaminophen to relieve the pain. It worked. Then the pain would return a few days later, and I would repeat the same old routine.

One day, not related to my pain, I decided to stop taking all medicines and live naturally on the foods that I eat. Needless to say, that did not work out so well. But I did manage to remove some medications from my daily life. One of those medicines were Acetaminophen.

For the longest time I used only natural aspirin, no fancy concoction. And it occurred to me one day after drinking alcohol the night before, I needed to “cure” this hangover, but I was out of Aspirin. So I found some Acetaminophen hidden back in the darkness of the closet. I took some, and it cured my headache within hours. It worked great.

But then a whole day later, I had a back pain that was very familiar, but also a pain I did not have for a long time prior. Was it the Acetaminophen? How could that be? My pain was well after a day when I took it? My natural inclination to relieve the pain was to take more Acetaminophen. And there lies the cycle of back pain in my life.

Pain --> Acetaminophen --> more Pain --> more Acetaminophen.

I verified this pattern of cause and effect on my own. It was true. The back pain I had was caused by my pain reliever. And as you read the warnings on the bottle, it does warn against this. But it is hard to detect for an average guy like me, when the effect is a delayed effect. For years I suffered. Now I do not suffer anymore. I do not suffer from back pain. If I do have a problem, it is never that horrible “signature” pain.

I talked casually with a doctor and he said there have been cases where the liver or the kidneys are involved in the pain. Again that warning is on the label of the Acetaminophen. My goal here with this article is to simply get out what I found. Maybe it will set off a light for another person who suffers from back pain, and to look at their own medicines.

For the longest time I chalked it up to a bad back muscle. Maybe it was a pinched nerve or slipped disk? No, it was my pain reliever.

I found relief after a whole week of just taking Aspirin for the pain. Slowly the pain would go away forever, only to return in delay fashion if I took Acetaminophen. This is not a slam on this drug, for it helps many people. I was taking it everyday like a vitamin. I am not pointing the finger at anyone for this discovery I made about my own habits and health. I sit a lot at work as a truck driver and at my hobby, music. I hope my personal information helps you in some way.

Peace Out, The Compusician