It's Not in Your Head
Welcome to It's Not in Your Head Podcast, with Dan and Juz. Dr. Dan is a Sports Physician and Justine a Pain Coach and patient. We have come together to find ways to manage complex pain better for both patients and providers. New episodes will come out bi-weekly on all major platforms.
It's Not in Your Head
20 Treating Lower Back Pain: Step-by-Step Management Guide
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This episode takes a systematic approach to lower back pain, beginning with busting persistent myths that delay recovery. The hosts walk through how to identify red flags, assess patient coping capacity, and navigate the conservative treatment pathway for acute presentations. As pain becomes chronic, the discussion moves into appropriate medications, diagnostic investigations, referrals, and how to differentiate between leg pain and back pain across specific structures — including the hips, facets, discs, nerves, and sacroiliac joints. Both patients and providers leave with a clearer, more actionable framework to diagnose and manage lower back pain.
Resources:
www.resilientwarriorcoachingllc.com/neurotechniques
Timestamps:
00:00 Official Intro
00:18 Intro
02:14 What the algorithm is based on
03:17 Where are you within the algorithm?
04:07 START
04:41 Conservative Management
05:44 Coping
06:21 5 Point Structure - How are you?
07:23 Red Flags
10:59 Pain less/greater than 3 months
12:30 Where does it come from?
18:17 Consequences of Persistence of Pain
20:25 Next Myth - You can't diagnose lower back pain
22:17 Diagnostic Block
24:26 Conservative Elements: How do you move through it?
25:18 Self-Management
28:02 What's Pacing?
30:31 Goal Setting
32:59 Analgesic Options
34:31 Alter neuropathic component of pain
36:41 Review
37:02 What's going on for the patient?
37:43 Do they have any red flags?
39:50 Diagnosing
43:15 referral to the surgeon
43:54 Back Pain is Worse than Leg Pain
46:15 Back pain rules of thumb
48:03 Different structures refer pain to
48:58 point to their pain
51:54 facet joint pain
55:57 Disc Pain
01:01:49 Sacriliac Joints
01:07:20 hips
01:08:37 Wrapup
01:11:43 Disclaimer