When I couldn't find relief from my back pain in any of the traditional (allopathic) and alternative medicine programs, I looked at things I couldn't do compared with those who had healthy backs. Complex activities were broken down to the individual muscles and muscle groups preventing me from accomplishing these activities.
Having been trained in traditional medicine I had been taught that stretching was "not effective in preventing back pain". However, I realized that if I was going to achieve these pre-determined activities, it would have to be done gradually. After accomplishing my goals and the back pain was gone, extensive investigation ensued as to why it worked from both an anatomic and pathophysiologic perspective. Opti-stretch is the composite knowledge base that ensued from this research. It is also why the program was tested for 5 years before sharing any of these findings.
I believe that Opti-stretch is founded on solid scientific theses and remains the most simple and efficient way to safely prevent the more severe forms of reoccurring back pain.
For less severe forms of reoccurring back pain, there are some very good programs which have been developed.
I would agree. Back pain has been described since the beginning of man. Even with the advent of modern medicine in the 17th and 18th centuries no other malady has been so controversial. Even new scientific disciplines have broken away from traditional medicine (i.e. Osteopathy and Chiropractory). Several hundreds of other programs and inventions exist. Never-the-less in the 21st century, the cause of Benign Back Pain is considered a scientific enigma despite thousands of theories, researchers and scientific papers. In 2009 most medical schools still teach that although enigmatic, it remains a self limiting disease process due to muscle strain of poorly understood muscles or muscle groups which then resolves usually after the age of 60. This is also the age when heavy lifting is decreased and back pain commonly attributed to osteoarthritic changes. No treatment at all has shown just as effective as the most advanced medicines and programs known. Still it remains nearly a trillion dollar annual drain on the US economy and has a severe negative effect on the activity level of millions.
Any scientist will tell you that by answering a single question gives rise to dozens of other questions.
To paraphrase Einstein, complex theories should be able to be reduced to a simple easily understood mathematical equation. Translated into medical science, complex medical theories have to be built upon simple physiologic facts.