Back pain can be one of the worst feelings of all, as there’s a sense of helplessness which sweeps over you. We’ve all experienced it before to some degree or another. It can start as just a mild tweak and a nuisance or a constant nagging or dull pain which develops or transfers back into a sharp debilitating pain which just won’t go away.
There are several causes for back pain along with natural solutions which can help for immediate relief.
Why Is My Back Aching In The First Place?
There is a list of common reasons why most will get back pain.
Muscle Sprains And Strains
One of the most common reasons for getting back pain is from a muscle sprain or a muscle strain. A strain occurs when the back becomes overstretched or becomes torn, while a muscle sprain is a direct injury to the ligaments. Both of these injuries will usually lead towards muscle spasms in the back as well as radiating pain in the buttocks on some occasions.
Excessive exercising as well as improper heavy lifting can lead towards muscle strains, which is usually most common when performing physical labor or by individuals or athletes who chronically work out. Having poor posture habits can also lead to various back muscle imbalances, which will ultimately cause the muscles to tighten up.
Herniated Discs Along With Other Disc Problems
Another condition which leads towards back pain is from disc herniation. Basically, your spine is made up of vertebrae, and between each of the vertebra there’s a disc. This disc is a soft cushion like substance which acts as a shock absorber for the spine.
A herniated or a ruptured disc occurs when the outer wall of the disc begins to crack and the inside contents begin to seep out. A herniated disc can then compress a nerve which is in the spine. This painful back condition is more better known as a pinched nerve.
Degenerative disc disease is another condition of the disc. This involves decreases in the liquid content of the disc, which causes the disc to get smaller in size while becoming harder. The disc pain when this happens is most commonly experienced in the lower back as well as the leg because of nerve pain.
Back Pain When Pregnant
A woman’s body will obviously go through extreme postural as well as basic weight changes during pregnancy. The extra weight the stomach carries causes extra stress directly on the back. This will usually lead towards muscle strain as well as injury to the vertebral discs.
Another common condition experienced when pregnant is sciatica—inflammation. This occurs when there’s pressure on the sciatic nerve, which leads to mild to extreme pain in the lower back. There could also be pain as well as numbness into the buttocks area and down the leg as well. The majority of these symptoms which are associated with sciatica will disappear after childbirth however.
Dealing With Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis, which is the thinning of the bones because of calcium loss, can also lead towards back pain. And in some extreme cases it can also lead towards fracture of the bones throughout the entire body. Post-menopausal women will usually have the most incidences because of the decrease in estrogen levels, which is a hormone that’s important in maintaining bone strength.
Getting Rid Of That Back Pain
Once you’ve narrowed down the cause of your back pain, then you should be able to determine how to properly treat it in both a natural as well as an noninvasive way. This should hopefully ease your back discomfort.
To begin with, ice as well as rest is often the best cure of mild muscular strains. This is due mainly for their ability to immediately reduce the inflammation. Listed are some helpful approaches you can take.
Strengthening The Back
Strengthening the back by involving all of the affected muscles can help in supporting the weakened area, as well as preventing any further injury. Performing expansive exercises such as gentle static stretches or yoga will help in loosening up the tight muscle regions while reducing pain.
Improving Your Posture
By attempting to simply correct your posture, you can immediately take enormous pressure off of your spine and your joints. One technique is putting a dot on the palm of your hand and whenever you happen to look at that dot, remember to take a deep breath and then roll your shoulders back while putting you chin up. After correcting your posture repetitively, this should then become second nature.
Massaging The Back
The majority of back injuries involves tightness of the muscles or muscle spasms. Massage therapy will treat the soft tissue surrounding the muscles and bones in the body. This helps in lengthening the muscles while decreasing their tone. This as a result will eliminate muscle spasms as well as general pain.
Massage therapists will also treat all of the key trigger points. These are the specific points in the muscles which will refer pain elsewhere. This type of pain is usually felt as a dull or a deep ache. By applying direct pressure towards the trigger points, the pain will often be eliminated.
Chiropractic Therapy
Using chiropractors is another effective proven method of dealing with and relieving back pain. Chiropractors will use a wide range of techniques which most commonly reduces pain by manually adjusting and tweaking the small inter-vertebral joints within the spine. They are able to treat certain disc conditions, pregnancy related back pain, and pain that’s caused by general misalignment in the spine.
New Advanced Technologies In Relieving Back Pain
In addition to all of the above approaches, there’s also some new as well as helpful technologies which are now practiced.
Spinal Decompression
Spinal decompression is a nonsurgical as well as a noninvasive treatment for the treatment of back pain. Spinal decompression involves machines which are designed to slowly as well as intermittently stretch out the spine. The purpose is to alleviating the pressure on the discs and the vertebrae. Spinal decompression is commonly used in treatment of herniated discs, sciatica, degenerative disc disease, and pain in the lower back.
Cold Laser Back Therapy
The body’s able to absorb low-level laser therapy, or photons, which is known as light energy. What it does is it transforms this energy into more of a useful form which is known as biochemical energy. This form of energy fuels the healing process in damaged body tissue.
What this results in is tissue regeneration as well as the reduction of inflammation pain. Cold laser therapy is most commonly used for the treatment of arthritis as well as various sports injuries such as back injuries and stress fractures.
Acupuncture To Relieve Back Pain
There has been numerous independent studies on the effectiveness of acupuncture when it comes to relieving chronic pain. Recently, these researchers have shown that there’s a positive outcome for patients who were experiencing chronic lower back pain.