Stand Taller ~ Live Longer

Simple treatments work better than expensive surgery and hi-tech toys like MRIs, according to Forbes magazine(April 21,2008 Back Pain:What Works).

America spent $86 million on back pain in 2005, up 65% in real terms from 1997. And according to Forbes, most of the money went to "brand name narcotics and all sorts of new gadgets". Forbes reports that studies now clearly show the best treatments are low tech. Their recommendation to stay active especially pleases me because it is what I have promoted for years, and fits with the message in my book, Stand Taller~Live Longer. Staying active is great, but you can only exercise in the ways you can move. Strengthening posture means you can get the most from your exercise because you learn to you move with greater symmetry, stronger balance, and better control---in other words, more effectively.

In addition, as a doctor of chiropractic, I am delighted with this observation re back pain--"regimens with strong statistical evidence for their use: spinal manipulation from a chiropactor". However, I wonder why they follow up the sentence with a backhanded "(why this works isn't clear)". I have never seen such a parenthetical question next to any of the very expensive and very pretty full page ads for drugs (of dubious effectiveness, per their article) appearing in the magazine--Why is that?