Achieve A Healthy Weight
More than 70 percent of people in the U.S. are overweight and nearly 40 percent are considered obese. Carrying extra weight can significantly strain your back muscles and spine.
Losing weight can be difficult however, doing so can help control your back pain, prevent the condition from getting worse, and even potentially eliminate the need for pain medication or surgery. If you need help losing weight, request an appointment.
“There are many alternative treatments for back pain, many of which are easy to do at home and affordable, with no doctors prescription necessary.”
Carlos Bagley, M.D.
Support Your Body In A Warm Pool
The buoyancy of the water lets you enjoy the benefits of exercise with less pain. Exercising in water also helps regulate the functioning of nerves and muscles, relieving pain.14
If you prefer warmer pools, look into water exercise classes and hydrotherapy pools. Water therapy exercises are often done in water that is about 83 degrees to 88 degrees. Hydrotherapy pool temperatures are often more than 90 degrees.
See Water Therapy Exercise Program
Ways To Ease Low Back Pain
Just because it’s possible to inherit low back pain doesn’t mean the matter is completely out of your control. “It’s how we’re born and how we take care of ourselves,” Wisneski says.
If you sit in an uncomfortable chair all day, work a jackhammer, or regularly twist your body into uncomfortable positions, your lower back will suffer for it. Smoking — the bad habit that increases the risk of dozens of diseases — can also lead to backaches. One study found that smokers are nearly a third more likely to have low back pain compared to nonsmokers.
Try these five tips to prevent or ease lower back pain:
- If you smoke, get help to kick the habit.
- Practice good posture whenever you sit or stand. When lifting something, lift with your knees, not with your back.
- Do exercises to strengthen the muscles that support your back — especially the abdominals, hips, back, and pelvic area. Developing strong core muscles can make a big difference in how you feel. “When my abs are in good shape and I’m well worked out, I’m the least susceptible,” Snyder says.
- Fight the urge to crawl into bed whenever your lower back acts up. “Our bodies are meant to be used,” Wisneski says. “If you have pain, sometimes you develop a âdisease of disuse.â”
- See your doctor and get treated for low back pain early on, so you can stay moving and keep active.
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Gunnar Andersson, MD, PhD, professor and chairman emeritus, Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago.
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The Best Approach To Getting In Better Shape This Year
Firstly, weve got the plan, and were not doing anything silly, see the last section! Now for all of you, take note that the last few weeks have likely involved some out of the ordinary activities, probably more calorific, sugar and alcohol intake than usual so give yourself this first week to take it easy, dont go out and try to conquer Everest! Get back in the groove first with a 70-75% effort routine or workout.
Next step, for those of you in the program, whichever Phase youre in, resolve to move yourself up to the next intensity, so if thats from 3 sets of 10, go to 4 sets. If youre at the end of Phase Two, move to Phase Three, if youre using certain bands in your workouts, use a stronger one. Whichever step up you choose, do one of these in the second week and stick at it. Sometimes youll need to give yourself a little extra rest between sets in the first week at this new intensity and thats ok. Stick at it over the next few weeks and youll find, like we mentioned earlier, that your body will start to adapt, you wont need that extra rest!
Usually after about 3 to 5 weeks youll find the workout starts to become much more comfortable, still a challenge, but nowhere near the first week. From there, you can make another step up in the resistances or intensity youre doing, just like we mentioned in the last paragraph.
Its not glamorous, but it works, and by the time the summer comes round, youll be a different person!
How Long Is Too Long To Suffer From Back Pain
Nothing makes a long day even longer than having to deal with back pain. If you’re suffering from lower back pain, even simple tasks like picking up a bag of groceries can feel overwhelming.
What’s more, the cause of your lower back pain may be more complicated than the actual twisting or lifting that brought it on in the first place and preventing future pain means getting to the source of what caused it.
“If you wait to do something about lower back pain until it’s become debilitating, you’ve waited too long,” says Dr. Hosun Hwang, spine specialist at Houston Methodist Willowbrook Hospital. “Most people’s back pain dissipates in about a week or two, but if your pain is long-term or chronic, it’s time to see a spine specialist.”
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Don’t Rest An Achy Back
Doctors used to prescribe bed rest for back pain. But now we know that lying still is one of the worst things you can do. It can make back pain worse and lead to other complications. Don’t rest for more than a day or two. It’s important to get up and slowly start moving again. Exercise has been found to be one of the most effective ways to relieve back pain quickly. Try swimming, walking, or yoga.
Acupuncture For Back Aches
Acupuncture is a traditional eastern medicine practice shown to reduce back pain for most people who try it. During this therapy, a trained acupuncturist inserts extremely thin needles at strategic points and varying depths throughout your body. This stimulates your central nervous system, jump-starting your bodys natural healing ability. Acupuncture may help reduce inflammation that causes chronic back pain.
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Prevention Of Back Pain
You may be able to prevent back pain from overuse or improper body mechanics. The following recommendations can help you have a healthy back and lifestyle:
- Perform regular exercise that keeps your back muscles strong. Exercises that increase balance and strength can decrease your risk of falling and injuring your back or breaking bones. Exercises such as tai chi and yoga or any weight-bearing exercise that challenges your balance are good ones to try. Remember to warm up before exercise or other physical activities.
- Eat a healthy diet that includes enough calcium and vitamin D, nutrients that keep your spine strong.
- Maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight can put unnecessary and injury-causing stress and strain on your back.
- Practice good posture and avoid slouching. Try to remember to support your back when sitting or standing.
- Avoid lifting heavy items whenever possible. If you do lift a heavy item, use your leg and abdominal muscles instead of your back.
Yoga Pilates And Tai Chi Seem To Help But Its Not Clear That Theyre Any Better Than Other Exercise
Theres lots of research on back pain and yoga. Not all of it is high-quality, but taken together, the evidence pretty uniformly suggests yoga can both decrease pain and improve back-related function.
The most recent Cochrane systematic review on yoga and chronic low back pain, published in 2017, sums up the results of the best available studies, which mostly focused on the Iyengar, Hatha, or Viniyoga forms of yoga:
There is low- to moderate-certainty evidence that yoga compared to non-exercise controls results in small to moderate improvements in back-related function at three and six months. Yoga may also be slightly more effective for pain at three and six months, however the effect size did not meet predefined levels of minimum clinical importance.
So again, this isnt an end-all treatment but the evidence we have points in the direction of a benefit.
Importantly, the review authors also noted that its not clear whether yoga is better than other exercises, since there were few head-to-head comparisons tracking yoga against other kinds of workouts.
For Pilates, the evidence was a little more mixed: It was associated with small or no effects on pain and no effects on function compared with other types of exercise. Again, though, pretty much every back expert I spoke to said any exercise is better than no exercise, so if Pilates is something you enjoy, do it.
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Know Your Otc Medications
Nonprescription pain relievers can help with muscle aches and stiffness. The two main types of over-the-counter options are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and acetaminophen. NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen.
True to their name, NSAIDs help lower inflammation that can lead to swelling and tenderness. But acetaminophen does not relieve inflammation. You can reach for either type of pain reliever for occasional back pain. NSAIDs may work a bit better, Hemani says, if you have arthritis of the spine or other inflammatory conditions.
Were Learning How Much Back Pain Is Mental And That Mind
So where does physical therapy usually a combination of guided exercises, mobilization, superficial heat or cold, and health advice fit into the back pain treatment picture?
In AHRQs read of the evidence, it didnt seem to work better than simple advice to remain active when it came to reducing pain and improving function.
Nowadays, though, there are also several different kinds of physical therapies that also integrate psychotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy, often called multidisciplinary rehabilitation.
Multidisciplinary rehab takes the biopsychosocial view of back pain again, that the pain arises from the interplay of physical, psychological, and social factors. It can of course be tricky to disentangle whether mood disorders like anxiety or depression contribute to peoples pain, or whether they arise out of the pain, but either way, the biopsychosocial model views the physical as only one part of the equation. So these practitioners deal with whats going on inside the head as part of their back pain therapy helping patients get treatment for their depression or anxiety, or guiding them through cognitive behavioral therapy to improve their coping skills.
Perhaps not surprisingly, multidisciplinary therapy appears to work slightly better than physical therapy alone for chronic back pain in both the short and long term. Patients who get these more holistic treatments are also more likely to return to work.
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What Are The Risk Factors For Developing Low Back Pain
Anyone can have back pain. Factors that can increase the risk for low back pain include:
Age: The first attack of low back pain typically occurs between the ages of 30 and 50, and back pain becomes more common with advancing age. Loss of bone strength from osteoporosis can lead to fractures, and at the same time, muscle elasticity and tone decrease. The intervertebral discs begin to lose fluid and flexibility with age, which decreases their ability to cushion the vertebrae. The risk of spinal stenosis also increases with age.
Fitness level: Back pain is more common among people who are not physically fit. Weak back and abdominal muscles may not properly support the spine. Weekend warriorspeople who go out and exercise a lot after being inactive all weekare more likely to suffer painful back injuries than people who make moderate physical activity a daily habit. Studies show that low-impact aerobic exercise can help maintain the integrity of intervertebral discs.
Weight gain: Being overweight, obese, or quickly gaining significant amounts of weight can put stress on the back and lead to low back pain.
Genetics: Some causes of back pain, such as ankylosing spondylitis , have a genetic component.
Smoking: It can restrict blood flow and oxygen to the discs, causing them to degenerate faster.
Backpack overload in children: A backpack overloaded with schoolbooks and supplies can strain the back and cause muscle fatigue.
Trigger Point Injections Are A Safe And Effective Minimally Invasive Treatment Option
Overall, trigger point injections provide a safe, low-risk way to relieve your pain. Because this treatment is non-surgical, this means the treatment itself is fast and requires zero downtime to recover from the treatment.
This is a major benefit as patients can go about their day as usual after their trigger point injection treatment without having to adjust their life to 1) schedule out a major surgery and 2) schedule out time to recover post-treatment.
Likewise, the pain-relieving results are immediate. Patients can instantly enjoy the fast-acting pain-relieving results of trigger point injections so they can get back to living their normal life with less pain and discomfort.
If youve been holding off on receiving treatment to relieve your trigger point pain symptoms for fear of having to undergo an intensive procedure, trigger point injections are anything but intensive and time-consuming.
Trigger point injections effectively relieve your pain without having to devote tons of time to get and recover from the treatment. This gives patients both a fast and effective way to relieve their pain symptoms that fits in with their busy lifestyle.
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Ask Your Doctor About Biofeedback
In recent years, biofeedback a type of mind-body technique that uses electrical sensors to help you make subtle changes in your body has grown in popularity as an effective way to manage back pain. A suggested that biofeedback could reduce the intensity of back pain and muscle tension, both as a standalone treatment and when combined with other treatments.
Acupuncture Seems To Help Too Sort Of Though Its More Controversial
One of the oldest approaches to back pain is acupuncture, a core part of traditional Chinese medicine. The philosophical underpinning of acupuncture is that disease or pain in the body is the result of imbalances between the bodys yin and yang forces. Vital energy circulates throughout the body along the so-called meridians, which have either Yin or Yang characteristics, the Cochrane authors explain. Using needles to stimulate the parts of the body that are located on these meridians can modulate pain or reverse disease, practitioners claim.
A 2005 Cochrane review looked at the evidence for acupuncture and low back pain and came to a few useful conclusions: There was insufficient evidence to make any recommendations about acupuncture for acute low back pain so it may or may not help people. For chronic pain, acupuncture seemed to offer more pain relief when compared with no treatment or sham acupuncture . The needling also improved function in the short-term when compared with no treatment for chronic pain sufferers. But acupuncture was not more effective than other treatments.
UpToDate looked at more recent research and noted that the studies on acute pain were still limited, and that evidence for acupunctures effects on chronic pain is somewhat conflicting. The review also noted it was unclear whether acupunctures benefit lies in the needling, or in the placebo effect.
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How To Get Rid Of Lower Back Pain
2. Stretch and Strengthen Strong muscles, especially in your abdominal core, help support your back. Strength and flexibility may help both relieve your pain and prevent it. A lot of times, I encourage people to do that first thing in the morning, Ray says.
Contents
How long does it take for lower back pain to go away?
If you have had lower back pain, you are not alone. Back pain is one of most common reasons people see a doctor or miss days at work. Even school-age children can have back pain. Back pain can range in intensity from a dull, constant ache to a sudden, sharp or shooting pain.
Ways To Treat Chronic Back Pain Without Surgery
Back pain is considered chronic if it lasts three months or longer. It cancome and go, often bringing temporary relief, followed by frustration.Dealing with chronic back pain can be especially trying if you dont knowthe cause.
Back pain rehabilitationspecialistAndrew Nava, M.D., offers insights into common chronic back pain causes and nonsurgicaltreatment optionsand advises not to give up hope.
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Release Your Inner Endorphins
Endorphins are hormones made naturally in your body. What many people dont know is that endorphins may help block pain signals from registering in your brain. Endorphins also help alleviate anxiety, stress, and depression, which are all associated with chronic back pain and often make the pain worse.
Spinal Manipulation By Chiropractors Works About As Well As Exercise Or Over
Passive therapies can also play a role in helping people manage back pain, though theres no silver bullet among them, and their effects also tend to be modest and short-lived. The research base for these alternative therapies is also generally weak: Theres a lot of variability among the practice styles and programs on offer, even within one category of treatment like massage. It can be difficult to blind the patients to the treatment they are receiving, and the people who seek out particular therapies acupuncture, massage are probably more amenable to them, which may bias the results. With that said, heres what we know.
Spinal manipulation, the cranking and tweaking on offer when you visit a traditional chiropractor, is among the most popular approaches to back pain. Practitioners lay their hands on the patient and move their joints to or beyond their range of motion a technique thats often accompanied by a pop or crack.
There is some evidence the approach can help people with chronic back pain but not any more than over-the-counter painkillers or exercise, and you need to take precautions when seeking out a chiropractor.
The Cochrane review on acute pain found that spinal manipulation worked no better than placebo. So people with a short episode of back pain should probably not bother seeing a chiropractor.
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