Its an often-quoted statistic that medical errors are the third-leading cause of DEATH in the United States after heart disease and cancer. 

Its highly unlikely to be much different here in Canada.

When licensed physicians can muck things up badly enough for you to DIE, what chance do YOU have of figuring out health challenges for yourself?!?!

And yet, that’s exactly what most of us end up doing,… or trying to do.

Since Amazon.com and Google showed up we have slowly become conditioned to “researching” things on the internet. It began with books, then movies, and now it's almost everything.

Is that new restaurant any good? What do the reviews say? If you need a new car. You check online for the best prices and see if that dealership has good reviews.

Sound familiar?

Those strategies have even extended to healthcare…

Both to finding healthcare providers AND for finding self-care strategies.

If you’ve followed me for very long you know of my fondness for automotive analogies (here I go again)... 

Back when I was growing up if you had some basic tools and a little instruction you could do a lot of your own automotive maintenance, including significant repair jobs. Now??? Do you have a computerized diagnostic machine in your garage? No, neither do I,… so even though I am more knowledgeable and more capable than I was forty years ago, now I take my vehicle to a professional for regular maintenance and repairs. You probably do too.

Nevertheless, millions of people consult Doctor Google for answers to their healthcare challenges every day! Something so incredibly complex,… infinitely more complex than the car in your garage,… has found its way onto your DIY list!

I remember a conversation with a patient I had in 2003 that perfectly sums up the common delusion that you “know” your body. 

This patient had come to see me for help with a chronic shoulder problem and he was more than a little concerned that his shoulder was sore the day after his first session with me.

I told him that it wasn’t strange for his shoulder to feel some post-treatment soreness given the kind of work I did on it. I assured him that I knew what I was talking about,… at that point I had been helping people with sore shoulders for more than ten years. However, he assured me that he was the bigger expert because he had been the owner of the shoulder we were talking about for over forty years!

Fond memories 😉

I have people ask me internet-search related questions all the time.

Bodypart-specific questions. Disease and dysfunction-specific questions. Even treatment technique questions.

Recently I had a video consult with a patient in Toronto. It was her third session, and I could tell from the look on her face that something was wrong before she even opened her mouth.

She told me that her lower back had really flared up since our previous session. When we got talking about what she’d been doing lately, it came up that she had taken some training sessions with a renowned local personal trainer… 

“The Glute Guy”

UGH

While glute-specific training has its place in the rehab world, the LAST thing this woman needed was glute strengthening exercises! 

All else being equal, glute training would almost certainly push her (already too far forward) hips further forward, created more extension and compression in her already hyperextended and overly compressed lower back.

Hypothetically, if we had wanted to INCREASE her lower back pain, intense glute training would have been my Number One suggestion!

I’m not out to shame anybody, especially not you. What I need you to understand is that while our goal is for you to be able to manage your own rehab process,… you need expert coaching to get you far enough into your process that occasional check ups with me are sufficient to keep you pointed in the right direction.

Doctor Google has LOTS of information. But out of all the available info, what bits and pieces apply to your situation? And how will you use that info? With all due respect, most of the people in my profession don’t know, and your personal trainer certainly doesn’t. Nor does the neighbourhood yogi or the local Pilates instructor. 

No, you won’t die from misusing Doctor Google or a smattering of videos you found on YouTube for back pain self-treatment. What you can do, and what many have before you, is to turn a three-month project into a three-YEAR project,… or worse yet, a never-ending project.

Don’t let your copy of The Body Mechanic’s Handbook get dusty. Pick it up. Read it. Use it.

After a number of delays The Body Mechanic’s Handbook Journal will be published next month!

That book will make it even easier and more convenient for you to successfully navigate your back pain journey towards a pain-free future.

Stay healthy!

Yours in health,

Geoff “The Body Mechanic” Dakin