Featured Image Caption: What to Do for Back Pain
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When you have debilitating back pain, it can feel impossible to perform basic tasks. Standing, walking or sitting can lead to horrible discomfort, making it difficult to work, drive a vehicle or perform household chores. Here are five tips for coping with debilitating back pain.
Resting is a Way to Help Your Back
Rather than continuing with your normal activities, experts recommend resting for a few days until the inflammation in your back reduces. Make sure to recline on a supportive surface so that your back won’t feel worse. Walking occasionally or performing gentle stretches can help to relieve the tension in the muscles of your back. Don’t try to lift anything heavy while your back heals completely.
Applications of Heat and Cole to Your Back
With the applications of heat to your back, you can feel a reduction in pain. You can use an electric heating pad, but you may prefer using a bag of rice or similar item that you can warm up in a microwave. Avoid sleeping while using a heating pad or other heated device because it can lead to burns on your body. You should only keep heat on your body for up to 20 minutes at a time for this purpose.
You can also apply ice packs to your back to alleviate your discomfort. There are ice packs that have adhesive that a friend can place on your back. Similar to heated items, these ice packs should only remain on your skin for 20 minutes every hour. The cool temperature can reduce the heat in your inflamed tissues so that you have less pain. This is especially important in the first 24-72 after your injury, when your injury tends to inflame.
Talk to a Physician about Your Backaches
With an evaluation at a pain center, you can learn more about how to alleviate a chronic backache. You may need to wear a supportive brace on your back, but a physician can also prescribe muscle relaxants or pain-relieving medications. The right types of physical therapy or chiropractic manipulation can also improve the condition of the vertebrae, tendons and muscles in your back.
Watch How You Move
While resting is an important part of recovering from back pain, movement can also help treat and prevent back pain. If you have frequent problems from backaches, then you should learn how to protect your back with proper lifting movements. You should lift with your knees rather than your back and lean down with your entire body to pick something up. Stretching is also an important way of both treating and preventing back pain. You’ll need to do various stretches to cover all the muscles in your back. Exercises like “superman” and “spinal twist” can help keep your back in good shape. If your injury prevents you from moving around a lot, consider what exercise or movement you can do and consult your doctor.
Using Massage for Your Back Pain
A professional massage therapist can use bodywork to help your back. A soothing massage can loosen the tight muscles or the pinched nerves in the back. The therapist can also apply healing essential oils to help you feel better. A massage can also help with the release of the toxins in your body so that your immune system will heal your back naturally.
Back pain can be incredibly painful and difficult to deal with, especially if you are used to moving freely. It might require adjustments in your lifestyle and require you to move and act more carefully. However, you can make those change and find healing and help. The above suggestions are a great place to start.
By Lizzie Weakley
who is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. In free time, she likes outdoors and walks in the park with her three-year-old husky, Snowball. She recommends the Florida Pain Center.
Member since August, 2019
View all the articles of Lizzie Weakley.
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