More than 80% of Americans either experience back pain or will at some point in their lives, and before you go out on Prime Day and start buying products and gadgets and all sorts of things, we have the guy that, we have some advice here on some, some products that you should consider. Dr. Hooman Melamed is a board-certified orthopedic spine surgeon. Welcome, sir. Good to have you back.
Good morning, Frank. Thank you very much.
We’re gonna go through all the products here, but you say the first thing to do is to consult a physician before you buy anything or apply it to your back.
All right, especially if you’re having not just a regular back pain, but that back pain is associated with shooting pain down your leg.
Yeah.
Or if you have any numbness, or you feel like your leg is not right. You know, sometimes patients may not know there’s, they have weakness. I feel, God, this leg just doesn’t feel right, you know, it just doesn’t seem to be moving as well. You know, if you have anything that is neurologic, you know, or any numbness associated with that, or shooting pain, you know, don’t just start doing things. You know, it gets, get be seen right away, because something bad could potentially be going on.
Okay, good advice. Let’s go through some of the products. This is the first one. What is this?
So this is the one we always see a lot of athletes, you know, wear this one. It’s a Copper Fit back brace. You know, they’re meant to say the copper is supposed to help with your back pain. You know, I don’t know. You know, based on the spine literature, I haven’t seen like a lot of literature, like, proving that. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong if you have, like, back pain, like, God, you know, as we said, 80% of people have back pain. You know, I was one of those people myself.
Really?
Yeah. So for two to three days you want to wear the brace, you know, to help with the back pain, you know, I have no problem with that. But wearing it long-term, not good, because it weakens the muscles. So only for, like, maybe two or three days to get rid of that initial severe back pain.
Yeah, kind of, it’s like having a sprained ankle, right? If you have a sprained ankle, you wear a little brace, let’s let the pain go down, then you start mobilizing it.
Exactly.
Okay, terrific. What’s next?
The next product is this trigger point. Basically this trigger point, kind of a where you can reach. You know, I would say this is not a necessarily a bad product. It’s, if you have the money, you want to buy it, it’s fine. You kind of, kind of put it in the back. You, if you’re by yourself, you have a trigger point area, you want to reach back there. You can’t even use it on your neck, actually, you can do that. But you know, we have some other alternatives here, like a tennis ball. You can lay on a tennis ball, like, you have a pressure point.
Yeah.
A tennis ball, or lay on the foam roller here. The foam roller is a cheap one. I use it all the time myself at the gym. So this is another great alternative. But you know, if you want to spend the money, [inaudible]. Okay, you can’t go on a foam roller, you want to have this, no problem.
I’m not just worried that if, with the foam roller or something, if I apply it, that I’m gonna actually make it worse. Is that a possibility?
Well, I mean, the thing is that once you lay on it, the first time I laid on it, almost like, oh my God, this is, like, the pain is excruciating. So you got it. The great thing is that you in control of it, based on your body weights, I’d say. So you basically, if you’re feeling the pain, you know, back off your body weight and slowly, easy too. As time goes on, you build up tolerance.
Okay, great. What’s next?
The next one is the, the Plexus Wheel support.
Yeah.
This is supposed to be another one, like, helps you with your stretching and, you know, your pressure point. This one, I would say, you know, I’ve seen people get hurt on it if you don’t know how to use it. The, the big ball that you see at the gym, you know, you can use that for the stretching instead, or the other alternative is the foam roller. That’s another great alternative.
All right, and what are some of these products?
These are homeopathic pain medication, so they are all-natural. You know, right now we have the opiate crisis that’s going on right now, so I always tell people, you know, if you have back pain and if you go to the ER, a lot of people are getting narcotics. Do not get narcotics. Do not get narcotics. Stick to natural homeopathic stuff. So these are some examples, and we have arnica, that’s another example. You can use CBD cream without the THC, that’s another great example. Away, stay away from narcotics. These are all-natural homeopathic stuff that do not cause addiction, and they’re very, just as effective as a narcotics.
Okay, terrific. And this looks like the bottom of my golf shoes. What is this?
Yeah, this is maybe even sharper, like a spike, like a [inaudible] spike. This is supposed to be an acupuncture pressure mat, right? You know, I mean, God, I mean, just feel it. You know, I’ve seen people get hurt on this, so you got to be very careful laying on this. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend that if use the first time. You gotta be, like, a pro at this. You know, I would say discuss with your acupuncture, it’s like, seeing an acupuncturist first before transitioning into this is better. And also, again, the foam roller is a great alternative to this as well.
Okay, very cheap. The next one here is the inversion table, right?
I love the inversion table, especially on patients who have any sciatica, they have a disc herniation in the back, then it helps [inaudible]. Now, the chief thing is that you got to talk to your doctor, make sure you don’t have cardiac issues, blood pressure issues, issues, because, you know, you’re laying upside down, the blood starts pooling. So you don’t want to lay on it for, like, hours or something, just few minutes at a time, and if you start feeling something funny, get off of it right away. Talk to your doctor about the inversion table. I love, because it’s like a traction, a cheap method of traction, instead of going to chiropractors, spending thousands and thousands of dollars. The acupuncture, I’m sorry, the inversion table is great for that.
And then this is an electrical stimulus?
Yes, so this is a TENS unit, basically. It’s not meant to get rid of the problem. If you have the neurologic issue I talked about, this is not for it. This is just basically helps to the pain inside here. Basically, you have these electrodes right here, basically, that hook up to the wire here, that hooks up to the machine, and the area you’re having the pain and the spasm, we just basically put in an area, in your, in this case you put it on your lower back. You apply it for, for a few minutes at a time. It’s also great if you’ve had surgery, any surgery, musculoskeletal, spine surgery. Another way to put it on to help with the pain, decreasing the pain, so it helps to, you know, avoid narcotics, basically. Another [inaudible].
Yes. Okay, terrific. Once again, Dr. Hooman Melamed is a board-certified spine surgeon. For more information about back-related products and updates, follow him on Twitter. Thank you so much for your, very much.
Thank you. [inaudible]
