Q: My 69 years old wife has suffered acute pain in her hands, which lead to a frozen shoulder. She had to take an emergency steroid injection in the bone and took medicines for nearly 2 months. She was then advised to take calcium tablets regularly, but she continued to take it off and on as she is not used to taking any medicines regularly. Now last week she got acute low back pain and the chiropractor diagnosed it as sacroiliac dysfunction. Now she is undergoing the treatment for the same. She is, however, not recommended any medicines further as the treatment comes under Naturopathy. How and why is she suffering from such bone problems? What course of treatment should be given to her? Can she continue to take calcium tabs now?

A:Do an X-ray of the L-S spine to rule out any major problem. If everything is OK in the X-ray, then you can proceed ahead with basic back exercises, which will be taught to your wife by a trained physical therapist. Do the exercises for 4-6 weeks and see the effect. If the pain is not relieved with the exercises get an MRI and see a specialist.