Natural Back Pain Relief Treatments You Can Try

lower back pain relief

Today’s article is a guest post from a friend of mine, Carol Nevitt. I hope you find it helpful.

Lower back pain is a widespread ailment that affects millions of people worldwide. Just about everyone has some incident of lower back pain at some time in his or her life. According to the National Institutes of Health, the only thing more common than back pain is the headache.

There are many causes of lower back pain, but most are caused by muscle strain, ruptured (or herniated) disc, spinal stenosis (common in the aging population) arthritis (commonly found in the knees and fingers, but can be found in the spine, as well), and osteoporosis (where the pain is usually caused by compressive fractures).

Most periods of back pain will be resolved in a matter of days or weeks by following the first line of treatment: rest and heat. Rest allows the back to have time to heal itself and the heat soothes the pain and gives much-needed (if only temporary) relief. After a few days there should be significant improvement. After a few weeks, the episode is often completely gone.

There are some symptoms that should cause you to contact your physician right away. These include the following:

If the pain goes down your leg below the knee
If you feel numb in your leg, groin, foot, or rectal area
If you have a fever or nausea/vomiting
If you lose control of your bowels
If you lose bladder control
If you have weakness or sweating
If your pain was caused by an injury
If you are in so much pain you cannot move around
If your pain does not improve in 2 or 3 weeks

There are different types of treatment for back pain. The type of treatment will depend on the cause of the pain, the patient and the doctor. Some of the treatments used for back pain are as follows:

1. Rest and heat, as has been mentioned. These are the first things to try.

2. Balneotherapy is a very old therapy for pain relief. The word comes from the Latin for “bath,” and it is a form of hydrotherapy. It involves bathing in mineral water or warm water. Studies have shown that bathing in mineral water compared to tap water shows marked superiority in pain relief and increased mobility. (Note: People with heart conditions should check with their primary care physician before attempting balneotherapy.)

3. Physical therapy/exercise is used to help strengthen the back muscles and decrease pain. By increasing the flexibility and the strength of the back muscles, weight is more favorably distributed and less pressure is put on the spine.

4. Prescription drugs (such as narcotics and muscle relaxants) are often used for back pain relief. Extreme caution should be used when taking these types of drugs because the side effects can be considerable – even to the point of being able to function well. Addiction can also be a concern for some narcotics. Always ask about possible side effects that you should know about and what symptoms should indicate a call the prescribing doctor.

Meet the Author

Kalidasa

Hello and welcome to my blog! There are several reasons I decided to start writing a blog on natural self-healing. The main thing I want to do is to share information on health and healing so that people can take action to heal themselves using natural techniques. I have met so many people who couldn't afford natural health care. They may have had health insurance, but they didn't trust that model. Many people want to know how to be healthy naturally. They want to know what really works and what doesn't. They want to be health conscious and often fail because of poor information, lack of knowledge, bad science and other factors. This blog is intended to help demystify the body and its various functions and to help people understand what is really needed to obtain optimum health. One of the great things about knowledge of the body is that once you know and understand how it works it becomes easy to know what the right things to do for it. And, it is much easier to do the right things when the consequences of the wrong things are fully understood. To do this I will be drawing from the knowledge of many people that I have learned from. I will talk about biochemistry relating that to what is needed to obtain optimum health. There will be information about the physical structure of the body and how to keep that aligned and functioning well. A major part of yoga has to do with health, so information about yogic techniques will be included. Mental and emotional health are important for the health of the body/mind, so articles about these topics will be included. And, there will be an occasional article about me and what I am up to. Hopefully I can relate that back to some health issue as well. The title Self Adjusting Technique comes from my technique for self-adjusting the structural part of the body, that is adjusting the body's various vertebrae and joints. For this blog it will include the idea of how to adjust health issues for yourself and those you care about. With a little knowledge there is a lot people can do to help heal themselves and stay healthy. I want to explain complex information about the body in a way that is easy to understand and useful. The comments section will help in that goal as people can ask for clarification if there is something they don't understand. And maybe we can get some helpful input from people smarter than me that will benefit us all. I hope you find information that can help you with your health issues. Kalidasa

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