Piercing Relief for Back Pain?

Nov. 21, 2006 — -- A sharp twinge. A deep ache. A relentless, stabbing pain.

Back pain takes many forms, yet nearly any severe incarnation of it is going to be debilitating.

Just ask Sandy Teller, who says pain that started in his back and ran down his legs took a major toll on his day-to-day life.

"It was hellish pain," said the New York City-based marketing and public relations consultant. "I had a cane. I couldn't walk around the block, couldn't go out, had trouble sleeping, and life was pretty bleak."

Teller had a spinal fusion operation in 2002 to improve his condition. The procedure worked for his back pain, but he says the pain in his upper legs continued.

When a second spinal fusion failed to remedy the problem, he started looking at other solutions.

His search led him to Norman Marcus, a doctor who says that the source of many people's back pain may not lie in their spines but in their muscles.

Rather than scalpels or drugs, the approach used by Marcus involves a series of slender needles.

It is an approach that is not currently accepted by many in the field of back pain management, but Teller swears by it.

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And Marcus says thousands of other patients he has treated share Teller's story.

Teller is not alone in his pain. The Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research estimates that four out of five adults have at least one bout of back pain sometime in their lives.

Beneath the skin, the back is actually a complex network of muscle and nerves, stretched across a bony frame.

Its solid design and central location make it a central player in nearly every move you make -- including everything from lifting a stack of books to getting out of bed in the morning.

Because of this, there are a host of movements that can result in injury to the back.

Fortunately, most sufferers will get over their back pain in a few weeks, but 1 percent to 2 percent will eventually resort to surgery, most often to fuse together the bones of the spine or to remove a problem disk.