05/05/2026
I received an email today that made me both sad and frustrated. It was from a woman in her 60s asking me if there was anything I can do to help her with her back pain, that just isn't getting better, from a fall 5 months ago.
After a visit to A&E she had been told that she hadn't broken anything, but was 'badly bruised' given pain killers and told it would get better. However, after a couple of months she decided she should see her GP again as it hadn't improved, he gave her more pain killers and booked the physio. Physio told her the same as the hospital.
She told me that she didn't know where to go for help and had heard I help women with pain problems or should she try osteopath or a chiropractor? Understandable considering the physio experience she had.
Now healing from soft tissue injuries is 6 weeks so pain should be gone, or going. So why, five months later does she still have pain? We know that pain is essentially the best way our nervous system can protect us from harm. If it's a protection thing what is her nervous system protecting her from?
Well weeks of being unable to move freely can teach your brain that movement itself is the threat. Worry about hurting yourself again can keep the nervous system on high alert. Or maybe there is a problem higher in the back as pain can be referred from here and felt in the lower back, has anyone looked here?
This is what I see over and over again, especially with women over 50, the moment structural damage is ruled out, the search stops.
Even when it shouldn't.
It becomes so easy to label the pain as age. Degenerative changes or wear and tear that somehow is now causing pain, that it didn't before she fell. It's simply just no good enough.
This lovely lady, you and all the other women I see in this situation deserve more. I'd love to know, does any of this resonate with you, or someone you know?