By Nicolas Desjardins, PhD in Natural Medicine · DBA(c) · Master’s in Neuroscience (in progress), designer of the Q-Technology system. Nicolas Desjardins is not a medical doctor. October 2026.
Lire cet article en français : Ton dos lâche toujours du même côté ?
The short answer. If your back always gives out on the same side while your scans are normal, your pain is no less real. Imaging shows the structure: the discs, the vertebrae. It doesn’t show how your nervous system organizes your body around it. And research is a reminder: signs of disc degeneration show up in a large share of people who have no pain at all, more and more with age. Looking for the causes of your pain is your doctor’s job. During the Test Posture Parfaite, we look at something else: whether your posture compensates, on which side, and by how many centimeters.
Your doctor comes first. This article does not replace medical advice or an examination. See a doctor without delay if your pain started after a blow or a fall, if it comes with fever or unexplained weight loss, if numbness or weakness is spreading, if you lose control of your bladder or bowels, or if it wakes you at night and won’t ease. These are signs for a doctor, not for a functional test.
“Everything is normal”, and yet it keeps coming back on the same side
You know the story. Normal check-ups, normal scans, and yet the pain is there, always on the same side. You get a session, it holds for three weeks, and it comes back. After a while, you start wondering whether you’re exaggerating.
You’re not. Your body may have adapted: to an old sprain, to years at a desk, to one side that works harder than the other. It compensates, often so well that you no longer feel it. It isn’t weakness, it’s an adaptation: you’re not weak, your system is under load. This adaptation doesn’t tell you where your pain comes from, but it shows up nowhere on your scans, and what you can’t see, you can’t discuss with your practitioner.
Your MRI shows the structure, not the organization DOCUMENTED
A team led by Mayo Clinic radiologists asked a simple question: what does spine imaging show in people who don’t have back pain (Brinjikji et al., 2015)? Their systematic review gathers 33 studies, or 3,110 people without pain, examined by CT or MRI. By age:
- disc degeneration rises from 37% of 20-year-olds to 96% of 80-year-olds;
- disc bulge rises from 30% to 84%;
- disc protrusion rises from 29% to 43%;
- annular fissure (a tear in the outer ring of the disc) rises from 19% to 29%.
For the authors, many of these findings are likely part of normal aging and unrelated to pain; they must be interpreted in the context of each person’s clinical condition.
Remember two things. An “abnormal” image doesn’t necessarily explain your pain. A normal image doesn’t rule anything out either: it says the visible structure is fine, not that everything is fine. Both are read with your doctor. What an image never shows is how your body organizes itself standing and moving. If you have scoliosis, the same logic applies: read our article on scoliosis and postural control.
With back pain, standing balance and trunk control often change DOCUMENTED
Organization, on the other hand, can be measured. Several reviews have compared people with low back pain to people without pain, and their results deserve an honest reading:
- More sway, in many studies. Of 16 studies on a force plate, standing still, 14 concluded that the center of pressure of people with non-specific low back pain moved more and faster; increased front-to-back sway was also observed. The authors found no link between pain intensity and the size of that sway (Ruhe et al., 2011).
- But not everywhere. Of 23 studies, most found more sway in people with low back pain, or no difference, and a minority found less. Nothing systematic separated the studies that saw an effect from those that didn’t (Mazaheri et al., 2013).
- Pain itself changes trunk control. A systematic review and meta-analysis gathered 26 studies that induced experimental pain in the lower back of healthy people. During the pain, the erector spinae muscles were more active in full trunk flexion, and the transversus abdominis responded on average 25 milliseconds later to a postural perturbation (Devecchi et al., 2023).
What to remember: in many people with back pain, postural organization is not the same. These studies don’t say that this difference causes the pain; the last one even shows that pain alone can change trunk control. What they show is that this organization can be measured, in a lab, with tools other than imaging. None of these studies is about our circuits.
What we look at, and what we don’t touch
We promise you nothing for your back. We show you what can be measured: the left-right gap in your posture, your neck rotation, your strength and stability tests.
What we don’t touch: your pain. We don’t measure it, we don’t look for its cause, and the test doesn’t replace an examination, your physio, your osteopath or your doctor. It doesn’t measure your balance on a platform: the studies above did that in a lab, we don’t.
What we look at, before and while you wear the circuit, during the Test Posture Parfaite (fifteen minutes, with a certified tester, no equipment):
- the tilts of the pelvis and shoulders on three planes, in centimeters;
- neck rotation, scored out of 7 on each side (for example 4/7 to the left, 7/7 to the right);
- strength and stability tests, right and left, holding or giving way.
If it shows nothing, the test is refunded.
What we observe OBSERVATION: while the circuit is worn, we observe a postural correction during the test: tilts decrease, neck rotation evens out, tests that gave way now hold. It is the organization of the body while the circuit is worn, and we draw no conclusion from it about your pain.
Functional assessment, non-medical · Before/after protocol · Observations from internal tests · Individual results vary · Not a medical claim.
Our hypothesis HYPOTHESIS: the passive resonant circuit removes nothing and blocks nothing. It gives the nervous system a coherent, stable reference. This is a hypothesis about the mechanism, and it may be wrong.
Support, not cure. While you wear the circuit, the effect observed during the test is there. Take it off, and you’re back where you started, like glasses: you wear them, you see; you take them off, you don’t. Your pain remains a matter for your doctor.
FAQ
My scans are normal: is my pain all in my head?
No. Imaging shows the structure of your spine, not everything happening in your body. A normal image doesn’t mean your pain doesn’t exist. Its origin is something to look into with your doctor.
Does a worn disc on my MRI necessarily explain my pain?
Not necessarily. In a review of 33 studies covering 3,110 people without pain, disc degeneration was found in 37% of 20-year-olds and 96% of 80-year-olds. These findings are interpreted in your clinical context: that is your doctor’s role.
Does the test measure my back pain?
No. It doesn’t measure your pain, it measures your function: the left-right gap in your posture in centimeters, your neck rotation scored out of 7, your strength and stability tests, before and after.
Does the test replace my physio, osteopath or doctor?
No. It is a functional assessment, not a medical one. Keep your practitioners: we add a measurement, we take nothing away.
How can I check for myself?
Book a Test Posture Parfaite: fifteen minutes, €33, with a certified tester. You compare before and after, on your own body. If it shows nothing, it is refunded (Terms of Sale, article 36).
Your scans show your structure. Come and see on which side your body compensates: book your Test Posture Parfaite, refunded if it shows nothing.
Sources
- Brinjikji W, et al. Systematic literature review of imaging features of spinal degeneration in asymptomatic populations. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2015;36(4):811-816. https://doi.org/10.3174/ajnr.A4173
- Ruhe A, Fejer R, Walker B. Center of pressure excursion as a measure of balance performance in patients with non-specific low back pain compared to healthy controls: a systematic review of the literature. Eur Spine J. 2011;20(3):358-368. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-010-1543-2
- Mazaheri M, Coenen P, Parnianpour M, Kiers H, van Dieën JH. Low back pain and postural sway during quiet standing with and without sensory manipulation: a systematic review. Gait Posture. 2013;37(1):12-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gaitpost.2012.06.013
- Devecchi V, Falla D, Cabral HV, Gallina A. Neuromuscular adaptations to experimentally induced pain in the lumbar region: systematic review and meta-analysis. Pain. 2023;164(6):1159-1180. https://doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000002819
