Back Pain Relief

Proper Back Pain Relief

Once a person starts to develop back pain, it is only normal that they will start to search for the best way to get relief. Even if it seems as though the pain is going to be unbearable, what you should know is that there are good ways that you can get some quality back pain relief. Learning how to take care of your back will help you to get back on track so that you can enjoy your normal routine. Your back is actually an amazing structure that is both flexible and strong, so with the right treatment you can achieve a good level of relief.

A major percentage of lower back pain that is reported will be nonspecific in nature, meaning that it is not actually related to fractures, infections or diseases. However, the muscles do not start to cause pain for no reason at all so there has to be something that is causing the pain. Achieving back pain relief will be the first step to recovery and you may be able to get some initial help with over the counter medications to reduce pain and inflammation.

Once you take the initial edge off of the pain, you will need to look at the physical damage. Be sure to rest your back as much as possible, putting yourself in a comfortable position for a couple of days. Heat is always something helpful that can be applied, using it for 20 minute intervals every two hours or so. While you are in a resting state, you will also want to make sure that you move slowly from time to time so that you do not become stiff as you are working to recover the muscles.

If you find that you are still having issues achieving back pain relief after three days, you will want to consult your physician or chiropractor to see if there are treatments that can be done. In some instances, you may actually have an underlying cause of the back pain that should be addressed. These could include kidney complications, bladder or bowel issues and more. Talking with your physician will give you some insight on what might be the cause of the back pain that you are experiencing. Once you have a proper diagnosis, you will be able to work on a treatment plan that will help to get you back up on your feet and feeling better once again.

Is it my Posture?

Commonly patients ask if their back or neck pain is caused by their posture. This is complicated because pain can cause you to have a bad posture,also some of us were born and developed a poor shape to the spine due to the genes they inherited.But it is certainly true that most of us do not stand properly and very few of us sit well; we have lazy postures when sitting watching the television,and poor posture when we are working on the computer because the seat /desk set up is not right. And worse still, is our posture using laptop or tablets, because it is often held on the lap which means the posture has to be bad.

Simple rules are easy to say and yet hard to implement, as we have already got into the ‘bad habit’, and undoing that is not so easy.However with both sitting and standing if the head posture is good often things improve below, again you need to go through this with your Osteopath.But as a general rule when sitting if your knees are below the level of your hips, your back is thrown into the natural curve (Lordosis) that is good for it.(s0 actually, virtually all car seat do the opposite and your knees are above the level of your hips; so to counteract that they put in a lumbar support!!)

The Alexander technique revolves around good posture and is well worth a look.But the system of our body is so integrated you cannot look at one part in isolation, thus, to maintain a good posture you will need a good core. So it is very rarely as simple as ‘standing up straight’.

Osteopaths understand the integrated nature of the body and will help you put these things together in a way that works and will benefit your underlying problems.