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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. LOW BACK PAIN Whenever I see a man with a stiff or "poker" back and a drawn expression ex-pression on his face walking "carefully" "care-fully" along the street, I want to stop and ask him about what caused it. I feel this way because be-cause I had an attack at-tack of low back pain due to injury and others due to infected in-fected teeth and tonsils. ton-sils. As I have had no trouble for many years I am naturally natural-ly anxious to help others get rid of Dr. Barton their trouble. Being I a physician, I can not, of course, discuss the matter with these patients. One of the causes of low back pain and sciatica (pain in hip running down back of leg) which was unknown un-known until recently is rupture or crushing of the cushion or disk between be-tween two of the bones in the spinal column in the lower back. In the Canadian Medical Association Associa-tion Journal, Drs. Donald McEach-ern McEach-ern and William V. Cone point out other symptoms besides the low back pain and sciatica. The full picture pic-ture includes (a) onset of back pain and sciatica, or both, foDowing strain or injury; (b) the symptoms symp-toms come and go; (c) symptoms grow worse by bending backwards and sideways and by coughing and sneezing and straining; (d) tenderness ten-derness on stretching or pressure on the sciatic nerve situated on the buttock and down back of thigh and leg; (e) tenderness on deep pressure pres-sure on the back to the side of the disk or cushion that is crushed or ruptured; (f) increased pain, decreased de-creased pain, or complete lack of pain in the part of the skin over the nerve root supplying the part; ankle jerk is less than normal or absent altogether. Drs. McEachern and Cone point out that low back pain due to a ruptured disk may be severe but the patient is unable to describe it clearly and that disease of kidney, bladder, or abdominal organs may be suspected and even operations performed. Where the skin over the back and the affected side is unusually un-usually painful or sensitive to the prick or stroke of a pin, and the sensation is described as "vibrating," "vibrat-ing," "spreading" or painful, it is considered due to a ruptured disk and not to any kidney or abdominal disease. |