When I had my first attack of sciatica last winter–and I hope my last–I of course tried everything, overdosing pain pills, visiting an orhopedic surgeon, physical therapy, diet changes and supporting belts. As to the belts, my doctor told me there’s `no definitive research’ on their effectiveness but that many patients reported good results. What I found was that quick easy adjustment was the key, that only keeping my lower back bound firmly, helped. Loose was useless; too tight might aggravate the problem? Belts with buckle notches certainly don’t have the needed fine tuning. I did find one though that made Velcro adjustment easy. The Ortho Back-Up Belt has a fully adjustable Velcro system for frequent adaptive adjustment. Peel off, firm up, ten different ways.

I have so many back problems that I can’t list them all. I also have many back braces which do nothing. This brace is fantastic. It is adjustable easily and lets me not take medications with their side effects. My mother now has one as does her neighbor. I can’t say enough good things about this price. No surgery for me!

My husband recently purchased this and this is his review. I purchased this for golfing and to use for yard work and other chores around the house. I have had lower back pain for quite a few years and have 2 or 3 discs that are degenerating in my lower back, L4-L5 are the worst. I purchased the Ortho belt in hopes it would be better or at least as good as the Futuro Lower Saco belt that I purchased from Amazon a few years ago. My Futuro belt is wearing out and the company does not make them any longer. I used the Ortho belt twice golfing and it did not come close to the support the Futuro belt gave me but, I was wearing the Ortho belt BELOW MY HIPS. like I wore my Futuro belt. I emailed the company about the fact that I was not impressed with their belt. To my surprise I got a call on a Saturday from a man who works/owns the company. He suggested that I should try wearing the Ortho belt higher, or ABOVE MY HIPS. He also had some other good suggestions that I could try. I have now gone golfing twice wearing the Ortho belt JUST ABOVE MY HIPS and have been very happy with it. No pain while golfing or after. In fact I walked 14 holes today and my back feels just as good now as before I went this morning. Also the Ortho Back-up belt allows me pretty good movement to turn my hips without hindering my golf swing. I still have to be careful when bending over to pick something off the ground, bending my knees rather than my back. Also this belt is very well built and I would say that it would pretty much last many years as the straps are pretty heavy duty. The only thing I could say negative about the belt is that the pad that is on the back plastic piece slides very easy and slides out of place when I put the belt on. I was able to fix that by attaching two Velcro strips to the plastic back support which holds the pad in place. All in all I would recommend this belt to anyone who has lower back disc degeneration as I do.

Update: After quite a few trips to the golf course I was getting some pain after golfing in my lower back just above the tail bone. So in addition to wearing the Back up belt above my hips I also put on my Futuro belt below my hips and WOW talk about support. Last week I golfed 27 holes in two days with zero pain. The combination of both belts allows me to turn my hips much farther around and the result is that I am hitting the ball farther. With the support of both belts I am able to turn my hips and back kind of like in “one unit”. Wearing of both belts is NOT uncomfortable either. So just another idea for those of you with similar problems.