How To Get Rid Of Back Pain

How to Get Rid of Back Pain

Good Stance
Grandma did know best! It’s bad for you to slouch. And sitting for a long time with bad posture can make back pain worse. Don’t slouch while you type. Sit up straight with your shoulders relaxed and the back of your chair supporting your body. Try putting a pillow or a rolled-up towel between your lower back and the seat. Put your feet on the floor flat.

Getting Medicines from the Store
Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and acetaminophen are two types of over-the-counter painkillers that often help with back pain. Both have some side effects, and some people might not be able to take them. Before taking painkillers, talk to your doctor. And don’t count on painkillers to get rid of your pain on their own. Studies show that you are likely to need more than one kind of treatment.

Painkillers by prescription
Some people may need NSAIDs or opioid painkillers that can only be bought with a prescription. If you are taking other medicines, even over-the-counter ones, you should talk to your doctor or pharmacist to make sure you don’t get too much of certain active ingredients. Your doctor may also give you medicine to help relax your muscles and stop painful spasms.

Antidepressant Medications
Even if you aren’t depressed, your doctor may give you antidepressants to help with your chronic low back pain. It’s not clear how antidepressants help relieve long-term pain. People think that the way antidepressants affect chemical messengers may change how the body sends pain signals.

Therapy for the body
Physical therapists can teach you how to sit, stand, and move so that your spine stays in the right place and your back doesn’t have to work as hard. They can also show you how to do specific exercises that strengthen the muscles in your back’s core. One of the best ways to avoid back pain in the future is to keep your core strong. Studies show that when you get stronger, more flexible, and have more endurance, your back pain goes away, but it takes time.

Don’t let a sore back rest
Doctors used to tell people with back pain to stay in bed. But now we know that one of the worst things you can do is just lie there. It can worsen back pain and cause other problems. Don’t take more than one or two days off. It’s important to slowly get up and move again. Researchers have found that exercise is one of the best and fastest ways to get rid of back pain. Try swimming, walking, or yoga.

Cold and Hot
Putting ice on your back where it hurts on a regular basis may help reduce pain and swelling from an injury. Try this several times a day, each time for up to 20 minutes. Wrap a thin towel around the ice pack to protect your skin. Change to heat after a few days. You can use a heating pad or warm pack to help your muscles relax and get more blood to the area. You can also try taking a warm bath to calm down. Don’t sleep on a heating pad because you could get burned or damage your skin.

Hands-On Counseling
Does massage really make back pain go away when you get up? A recent study found that people with chronic back pain felt less pain and could do more after getting a massage once a week for 10 weeks. The benefits lasted about six months, but after a year, they got less and less. Spinal manipulation is another hands-on method. This treatment, when done by a licensed specialist, can help fix structural problems in the spine and bring back lost mobility.

Stimulation of Nerves
Some treatments that stimulate nerves are being looked into to see if they can help reduce chronic back pain. If you aren’t getting better with other treatments, your doctor may think about adding acupuncture to your plan. Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) is another method your doctor might suggest. In TENS, mild electric pulses are sent to the nerves to block pain signals.

Talking It Over
You might think it’s strange to go to a psychologist for back pain. But studies show that cognitive behavioral therapy is a very good way to treat chronic back pain in the short and long term. For example, CBT may focus on how people with back pain think about physical activity and why they might be avoiding it to help them change how they feel about being active. People who do CBT say that their pain and disability go down a lot.

Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a method that uses a special machine to teach your brain to control how you react to pain. You learn to control your breathing, your heart rate, the flow of blood, and the tension in your muscles. Some studies have shown that it relieves back pain better than medicine, cutting it by about 30%. The best part is that it doesn’t hurt anyone else.

Injections in the back
If you have back pain, your doctor may tell you to get an injection in your spine. Doctors who specialize in pain relief may use different kinds of injections. For instance, an injection of a corticosteroid can help ease pain caused by inflammation. Depending on the type of injection, your doctor may limit how many times you can get it in a year to prevent side effects.

Back Surgery
If a bulging disc is putting pressure on a nerve, your doctor might suggest a discectomy to remove some disc material. Or, a laminectomy might be suggested to relieve pressure on the nerves or spinal cord in an area. Spinal fusion is sometimes done to help keep the spine stable. As with any surgery, these have risks and don’t always work. So they should be the last choices you have.