Florida
There are a number of reasons people have back pain, but the majority of people that suffer from non-specific back pain have weak back stabilizing muscles. Fitness Therapy’s program includes proven therapies and strength training exercises to resolve the weaknesses and relieve back pain.
Illinois
Entropy Physiotherapy and Wellness specializes in treating complex conditions and restoring hope. If you're being limited by pain, incontinence, or 'old age', we are the right clinic for you.
Australia
Exercise and Sports Science Australia (ESSA) has a directory to help you find accredited professionals.
Victoria, BC, Canada
The team at RebalanceMD includes experienced sports medicine physicians, physiatrists, and orthopedic surgeons, who specialize in diagnosing and treating of acute and chronic musculoskeletal and sport-injury problems.
Dr. Vijay Vad on the causes of back pain and a few simple, self-help options to alleviate chronic pain.
If you find the right physical medicine and rehabilitation (which you’ll most commonly see abbreviated as PM&R) doc (they are also called “physiatrists”), your back will be in excellent hands. Look for a physiatrist who has done a fellowship in spine medicine. This site lists programs that offer PM&R fellowships, so that’s a first step toward finding a good resource. Physiatrists are MDs and DOs (doctors of osteopathic medicine) who specialize in working with patients with nerve, muscle, bone, and neurological conditions. They are talented diagnosticians, skilled in discerning the source of your problem and also familiar with biomechanics and exercise physiology. If someone claims to be an “interventional physiatrist,” it means that he or she focuses on giving injections. That’s a signal that you are in the wrong place, so look some more.
Click here for the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation’s patient page.
For spine specifics, check here.
The doctor search function is here.
It can be quite difficult to find a PM&R doc who really focuses on the rehabilitation part, rather than the “let’s give some shots and make some money” part. Doctors who work for university hospital systems are not as compelled to perform income-producing procedures as their self-employed brethren. A phone call or email to The Association of Academic Physiatrists on this list should yield someone good.
Missouri
I met Dr. Heidi Prather, D.O., Associate Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery and Neurology and Co-Director Director of Orthopaedic Spine Center at Washington University School of Medicine, at a spine surgery conference where many of the other doctors (mostly surgeons) did everything they could to avoid me. Dr. Prather and I chatted for a couple of hours about her interests – women’s health; in particular, low back pain, radiculopathy, sacroiliac joint pain and pelvic dysfunction. A few weeks later, I had a woman call her who had been scheduled to undergo a two-level spinal fusion…but who turned out not to need any type of surgery. It can be tough to get a hold of Dr. Prather – her office tends to put people off, telling them she only sees dancers and athletes. Not true. If you’re in the St. Louis area, keep trying, because it’s worth it.
