Word: problems
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Dates: during 1980-1980
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...strike almost everyone, the young and the old, males and females, people of all classes and professions. Thomas Jefferson suffered an acute case of backache when he rashly took it upon himself to show his slaves how to use a plow. Ernest Hemingway, who had a nagging back problem, chose to write standing up. To ease the pain of a wartime injury, John Kennedy spent hours in the soothing comfort of a White House rocking chair...
...people grow more and more sedentary in an increasingly automated world - doing most work sitting down, adding extra pounds of girth - their backs become ever more vulnerable to injury. Ex plains Dr. Kenneth Casey, a pain specialist at the University of Michigan: "Low-back pain is largely a social problem. It's as much due to the way we live as anything else...
...difficulties? The doctor will also inquire closely into the patient's general health, past illnesses, work and leisure activities, even sexual habits. Orthopedic Surgeon J. William Fielding of New York City's St. Luke's Hospital says that he can usually pinpoint the patient's problem from this ritual alone. He also points out that the pattern of pain is itself a diagnostic tool. Reason: the nerve pathways branching off different areas of the spinal cord have been so well mapped that any pain along them can be used to point back to the spinal injury...
...bending from the waist, twisting, reaching as high as possible with the hands. Lying on the table, the patient will probably be made to continue the gymnastics with movements of the legs and hips. The doctor will feel around the abdominal area for tumors, which may be the real problem. He will also probe for pain around the kidneys and explore the rectum (purpose: to look for growths and check the condition of the coccyx, the lowermost four vertebrae, which are the evolutionary remnants of a tail). Finally the doctor will test the patient's reflexes with the time...
When all the prodding and poking are done, the patient's spine will be Xrayed. If this does not reveal the exact nature of the problem, the physician may turn to a more complex radiological examination...