‘Oh, my poor aching back...’

Press, 11 April 1979, Page 25

‘Oh, my poor aching back...’

Diana Rigg, the actress who played the dashing Emma Peel in the first “Avengers,” returned to the West End stage recently after a month’s absence caused by a crippling back pain. She has a leading role in an award-winning play, “Night and Day,” but she had a recurrence of back trouble and life became a misery. Diana could barely walk; she slept on a board; she could not drive; and pain-killing drugs took away her appetite. In desperation she tried everyone, from faith healers to osteopaths, and eventually found relief from a course of sedation and injections. She has been astonished by the number of letters she has received from fellow-suf-ferers. According to the Back Pain Association, one in three Britons suffer from back ailments at some time in their lives. We invite trouble, say the experts, by spending too much time slumped in easy chairs in front of TV, sleeping in soft beds, driving cars with ill-designed seats, and crouching over an office desk or hunched at the factory bench. Even mental depression can cause back-ache, says the British Medical Association in a booklet just published, “Understanding Rheumatism,” by Dr F. D. Hart. Ligaments may be torn or strained by sudden exertions, particularly lifting weights with the spine bent, sudden twisting movements, or falls.

He points out what most back sufferers already know — that few backaches do not respond to rest, supports, or painkilling medicines, but they may take days, weeks, and sometimes months to mend. Some patients need surgery according to Dr Kart, but time, rest, and avoidance of strain heal the vast majority. Some rheumatic conditions are trivial and are nothing more than a passing nuisance; others need treatment and may get worse. The simple ones include cramp, creaking joints, pins and needles, and stiff neck, followed by

the not-so-simple bursitis, frozen shoulder, tennis elbow, and trouble with knees, feet, and ankles. Then there is osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, backache and lumbago, and gout. . . Gout is caused by too much uric acid in the body, and is a disease that is often hereditary. It often comes on in the night and may be triggered by too much food, or alcohol, or just too much exercise — in fact too much of anything. But encouragingly, Dr Hart says that many useful drugs are now available for its prevention and treatment, and gout is now a controllable and largely preventable discease. There are many patent medicines which can be bought across the counter

which claim to help rheumatic sufferers. Many do; they contain simple pain-killers, such as aspirin or paracetamol. But contrary to what many people believe, purgatives and laxatives do not directly affect the rheumatic condition. Dr Hart is unimpressed by “magical cures” claimed by wearers of copper bangles, carriers of nutmegs, or eaters of fancy diets —- although a warm, dry house, and a warm, sunny day may help you feel a lot better. Among helpful drugs, the most valuable remains aspirin, the great standby

in every home. It takes moderate and mild pains away, and eases the more severe ones.

In larger doses at regular intervals, under your doctor’s instructions, aspirin can reduce inflammation and be useful in many different types of arthritis. But aspirin can cause indigestion and, at high doses, deafness and ringing in the ears. In general terms, according to Dr Hart, people with rheumatism should “keep going” — although too much exercise for too long may do more harm than good. As he says, “with any arthritis, it is wise to. travel in a gear lower than the one in which you can just manage so you do not run on your reserves.”

From KEN COATES in London