Unnecessary Spinal Surgery Will Waste Billions of Dollars in 2009 and Patients Will Continue to Suffer Unless the Primary Cause of Most Back Pain is Treated, Says Pain Specialist Norman Ma...( NEW YORK Jan. 6 /- During 2009 millio...),Health

NEW YORK, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- During 2009, millions of Americans will undergo unnecessary and costly spinal surgeries and injections or be given mind-altering drugs that fail to eliminate their back pain -- unless their physicians recognize and treat the actual source of most back pain, says pioneering pain specialist, Norman Marcus, M.D.

It's muscles, not the spine, says Dr. Marcus.

Back pain is the most common disabling pain experienced by Americans, and, according to the National Institutes of Health, eight out of ten people will suffer from it during their lifetime.

Dr. Marcus is Clinical Associate Professor in Anesthesiology and Psychiatry and Director of Muscle Pain Research at the N.Y.U. School of Medicine, a past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine and founder and medical director of the Norman Marcus Pain Institute (www.nmpi.com), which is dedicated to pain elimination, rather than pain management.

He says that despite more healthcare dollars than ever being spent on back pain ($86 billion yearly, almost equal to what is spent on cancer, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association), treatments are failing, more people are suffering and the number who report that their pain is limiting their ability to function is increasing. The study makes it clear that the battle against back pain is being lost.

In addition, the annual productivity loss from chronic back pain is approaching $30 billion.

The reality is that most back pain originates in weak, stressed or damaged muscles, not in the spine, says Dr. Marcus, who has shown that muscle pain can be successfully treated without surgery or drugs.

Although muscles constitute 50 percent of the body, they are rarely even considered as a possible factor in low back pain, neck pain
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