Although it is one of the most common ailments in America, back pain is not often successfully treated no matter who you see about it. From primary physicians to chiropractors, people do not often get relief for their back pain from conventional sources. Read on for some tips on how you can address the issue of back pain yourself and hopefully find some remedy.
Use ice to help alleviate back pain, as it can reduce swelling and inflammation from injuries that cause back pain. Apply the ice to the affected area two or three times per day for 10 to 20 minutes, and this may help you feel better. An ice pack or a bag of frozen vegetables can be used for this purpose.
Maintain proper posture in order to prevent back pain. It is important to stand, sit and walk properly so that your muscles and ligaments do not pull your vertebrae out of alignment and cause pain. Your head, neck and spine should be aligned properly at all times to help prevent any pain.
When engaging in household chores such as vacuuming or mopping floors, resist the inclination to slouch. Back pain from vacuuming is a result of the constant pushing and pulling of the vacuum that causes you to slouch. Use you legs to propel the vacuum forward and you will avoid placing unnecessary pressure on your back.
Strengthening your muscles is as important to healing from a back injury as it is to preventing future injury. That said, people already experiencing back pain should not engage in exercises that put undue strain on their injured muscles. For that reason, walking briskly every day is the best way to work through injuries while also working all the muscles in your body to prevent future injuries.
Stopping back pain can be achieved by having good posture early on in life. Sitting up straight in your computer chair can help greatly if you spend a lot of time in it. If you're always slouching, you can develop back pain later in your life and so it's best to keep a good posture early on.
Breast implants are more well known than breast reductions. If you believe your breasts are the source of serious back pain, then a reduction may be your best option. Big breasts may cause strains on your back, causing you much unneeded pain. Women have have their breasts augmented are at specific risk for this.
In order to prevent back pain and injury, you should face the object you are lifting, bend at the knees, tuck in your stomach muscles and avoid jerking or twisting. If you jerk, twist or bend at the waist, you are very likely to get injured or make any existing back pain worse.
Back Pain
If you are a new mother, you need to breastfeed the baby while you are sitting in a chair, not on the couch. When done in an incorrect position, breast-feeding can can cause back pain. Put comfortable pads behind your lower back when breastfeeding.
Taking a pillow with you on long drives can help to relieve back pain. By placing a soft pillow between the small of your back and the seat of the automobile, you are creating a cushioned support that will help you maintain proper posture when driving those long hours and thus help to decrease back pain.
Some methods are better to try than others when fighting against back pain, and one of the best you can try is to simply elevate your legs. By lying flat on your back and elevating your legs, you are taking a whole heap of tension off of your back muscles. This will allow for the muscles to relax.
Be extremely careful that you do not develop immunity to any type of medication you're taking for back pain. Even anti-inflammatory pills like ibuprofen can become essentially useless if you're taking too many of them. Only take medicine when it is absolutely needed and never as a crutch or you run the risk of having medicine not work at all.
Think a 135 degree angle instead of 90 degree angle while sitting. Many people think the proper angle for sitting is 90 degrees, but researchers have found that the most optimum angle for sitting is actually 135 degrees. Sitting at 135 degrees puts much less strain on your back, which in affect will lower your back pain.
Build massage into your lifestyle. Studies have found that massage not only benefits you physically (by alleviating back pain), but also mentally. Massage therapy has been linked to lowering anxiety and depression, as well as, increasing the quality of the patient's sleep! All of which are stressors that can be triggers to back pain.
Heat therapy is a good method to relieve back pain. Heat therapy (such as heating pads, hot bath, etc.) will not only relieve pain in the affected area, but also will provide some healing benefits. Applying heat directly to the affected area will provide instant relief, some people find alternating heat and ice therapy provides the maximum benefit.
Hopefully you have discovered a few new tips and tricks on how to alleviate the problem of your back pain. It can be a simple matter of finding just the right solution which will make a world of difference in either treating your pain or eliminating the source of it and making your life much more enjoyable when free from back pain!