The Leading Pharmaceutical Recommendation for Back Pain Doesn’t Work

In Vol.17, No.10 of The Natural Path, we looked at the advantages of natural treatments over pharmaceutical treatments for back pain. Well, here’s another huge reason to go the natural route. . . .

Acetaminophen (commonly known as Tylenol in North America) is the first line painkiller recommended by doctors for acute low-back pain, “even though,” according to the researchers of this study, “no high-quality evidence supports this recommendation.” So, they decided to see if there was any high quality evidence. There wasn’t.

They conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled study of acetaminophen and back pain. 1643 people with low back pain were given either a regular dose of 3990mg a day of acetaminophen, acetaminophen as needed for pain relief up to 4,000mg a day or a placebo for four weeks. They were then followed up for three months.

There was no difference in effectiveness in any of the three groups: the median time to recovery was seventeen days in both acetaminophen groups and sixteen days in the placebo group. There was also no benefit to acetaminophen on other measures like disability, function, sleep quality or quality of life.

The researchers concluded that acetaminophen “does not affect recovery time compared with placebo in low-back pain.”

So while all of the natural options discussed in Vol.17, No.10 of The Natural Path do work, and while several of them–like white willow bark, devil’s claw, magnesium and comfrey root extract ointment–have been shown to work better than placebo or drugs, the first line pharmaceutical recommendation does not work any better than placebo.

Lancet 2014;doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60805-9