The Brain and Spine Foundation was set up in 1992 to develop research, education and information programmes aimed at improving the prevention, treatment and care of people affected by disorders of the brain and spine.
british brain spine foundation bbsf helpline booklet booklets neurosurgery
British Brain and Spine Foundation, www.bbsf.org.uk Helpline 0808 808 1000 Provides a very informative booklet about Back & Neck Pain
Thank you for visiting our website which is designed to provide you with the most up-to-date information and advice on back care. As the inventor of the original patented BackRack™ which is a unique aid for relieving back pain, we have some strong opinions on back care. So let's start with them first!
Spinal disorders in our view should only be treated specialistically using proven techniques practiced by specialists in ORTHOPAEDIC MEDICINE and SPINAL REHABILITATION.
(with almost 100% curability rates).
In other words this means if you have a knee problem you are better off seeing a knee specialist rather than a doctor or even a physiotherapist. This is because the knee specialist will invariably know more about knees than any other medical practitioner. Likewise a specialist in orthopaedic medicine such as ourselves will know more about spines than any other medical specialist. This is why our services excel compared to treatment you are likely to find elsewhere.
Now here's the rub: NON-SPECIALISTIC care is ineffective, pseudo-symptomatic, and clinically false. This also applies to MRI tests and scans which are practically useless, and what is much worse - and which happens to be bottom of the list of 'cures' - is spinal surgery - which is virtually 100% ineffective!
The silent majority of surgical patients who have been incapacitated for life, and who have to live out their days in wheelchairs, while taking a cocktail of pain-killing drugs to alleviate their misery, do not have a voice with which to warn others. They cannot even afford to sue the hospitals responsible because they would have all been tricked into signing consent forms prior to their operations, without of course being given any idea as to the number of patients whose lives had already been destroyed through such operations such as discectomies and laminectomies etc. Such surgical care and non-specialistic advice is also based on widespread misdisgnoses of the actual cause of the back pain. Any surgical "success" ratio claims that you may have read about on hospital websites to lure you into the operating theatre are absolutely false and misleading.
NON-SPECIALISTIC consultants include neuro-surgeons, orthopaedic surgeons, reumatologists, neurologists, and 'pain management' advisors. These practitioners should not be allowed to treat spinal disorders, but the law allows them to do so with disastrous consequences for the poor patients/victims. Chiropractors, osteopaths, and physiotherapists who treat symptomatically on an 'ad hoc' , 'hit-and-miss' basis can also unwittingly cause more damage than good.
The existing system is faulty due to a lack of spinal specialists and a hegemony among surgeons and hospitals that leads to useless operations and deceived patients undergoing 'therapies' by spinal laymen.
Surgery should only be carried out in 0.2-0.3 % of cases, if it all, where major trauma or disease such as cancer is involved. All other complex and chronic cases can ONLY be cured with expert specialist attention: anything else is clinical quackery. Patients who are persuaded to undergo surgical or non-specialist procedures are victims of institutional negligence and ignorance.
The above treatment regime applies throughout the UK NHS, which is run by unqualified non-specialist 'number-crunchers'. The USA health regime is likewise led by money-grubbing surgeons who collectively deceive more than 800,000 people per annum into having surgery for their back pain, who are then consequently permanently crippled as a result of the operarations.
Phoney implants eg. artificial discs and so-called 'new inventions' for spinal surgery are promoted to a vulnerable clientele.
Back-pain products which are designed by marketing entrepeneurs who have no medical qualifications and who know nothing about the spine, are common (read our section under scam products).
The BACKRACK™ in contrast is a patented medical device that has had 30 years of clinical experience put into it. It is superior to any non-specialistic care or therapies, and can prevent and even cure spinal deterioration, as well as alleviating back and neck pain.
ALWAYS seek a second opinion from a spinal specialist before making a wrong decision regarding treatment, and stay away from spinal laymen who have never studied the spine. Cheap "quick fix" treatments involving traction and injections etc can be very expensive in the long run, and irreversible permanent damage can and often does occur.
Mobilisation
as advocated and practiced by Professor Maitland incorporates the best techniques for spinal treatment.