Tips For Back Pain – Once You Have Got It

Back Pain misery is something that blights the lives of most people at one time or another.  The degree to which it hits varies as does the length of time it lasts – but one thing is clear however you suffer – back pain sucks!

Just think about it – your spine runs right down the back of your body and it holds together everything….. shoulders to arms, hips to legs and everything in the middle.  The spinal cord contains all the major nerves and all the back muscles are interconnected very closely with other back muscles and adjoining muscles.  So, all in all your back totally supports you in everything you do.

No wonder Back Pain is so bad!

So what can you do to help it once it hits?

Top tips for back pain once you have got it …..

• Depending on the severity of the pain and depending on how debilitating it is seek professional help from either the physio, chiropractor, osteopath or Dr. Get a proper diagnosis as soon as you can so that anything you do next is going to be the ‘right’ thing.
• Follow the advice of the health care professional so if they give you exercises – then do them, if they recommend sitting still – then do it….
• If getting an appointment to get professional help is going to take time then in the meantime remember to get out the ice pack, elevate if it is a foot or leg, if unbearable then take some sort of pain relief/anti inflammatory (seek help from the pharmacy if you are not sure what to take)
• Keep the area mobile, keep the muscle moving so that it does not seize up completely
• Once the initial acute phase has subsided then heat can help so warm baths, heat packs will all bring fresh blood to the injured area and will help the muscle to relax and repair faster
• Depending on what you have been advised to do by your healthcare professional then the following therapies can help.  Reflexology, massage, accupuncture, reiki.  See here to learn how Reflexology can help.
• Look at replacing your bed with one that is truly supportive and that will give you the quality and type of sleep that you need for good health.  Traditional ‘flat’ beds are not the most supportive for the human frame with all of it’s natural curves.  Electric adjustable beds are a far better option as they allow for custom adjustments and support no matter what is wrong or right with you.  Have a look here at our favourite adjustable bed reviews site.
• Take measures to make sure that the chances of the injury happening again are minimal.

Back problems can be unbearable for many and doing our best to avoid these should be high on our list of ‘body maintenance’ tasks.  Looking after your back should be something you work hard at particularly when it is in great health and not just when something goes wrong.  By keeping it in tip top health it hopefully will minimise the chances of things going wrong in the first place.

Ways To Prevent Back Pain

Back pain accounts for millions of sick days each year and unfortunately for many sufferers the back pain could have been avoided had they taken a few steps to take care of their backs better than they were doing.  We all know what we should do to help minimise any back injuries but we do not all practice what we preach.

In fact here in the west we are exceptionally good at crisis management – other words when the proverbial hits the fan we will react.  However, what we really need to do it to practice looking after ourselves in the first place so the crisis never happens at all.

So, what should/can we be doing to keep our backs and bodies in tip top shape?

• Stop and think about our posture and get into a habit of doing this every hour or so.  If you need to pull your shoulders back and chest out
• If you need to reassess your work space to get it more ergonomically set out then do it
• Get a regular oil massage on your back, neck and shoulders to keep those tension knots under control.  If massage really is not your thing then look at therapies such as reflexology as this too is very effective.
• Take a good look at your bed and inparticular your mattress.  When did you last invest in a new mattress and what sort was it?  The best types of bed for support and comfort everytime are electric adjustable beds.  The adjustable frame allows you to set the adjustable mattress to a position to suit you perfectly everytime.
• If you have got a problem then do not waste time in getting professional help from a physiotherapist or Osteopath to get it sorted as quickly as you can
• Make sure you are eating well and drinking plenty of water to keep your body well hydrated and so that toxins are readily flushed away
• Check out your lifting technique – knees bent, back straight and hold the object close in to your body
• Buy a back pack instead of a bag you carry to one side
• Get regular exercise to keep your back supple and the muscles nice and strong, but make sure that any teacher or personal trainer knows exactly what they are doing.  Take a look at this article here to see what we mean

There are plenty of things you can do to improve the health of your back but unfortunately the majority of people only do these things once they have got a problem instead of doing it before the problem started.  it is a whole lot harder to put out the fire once it starts that to stop it starting in the first place.

Back Pain Tips – Top 10

Back pain and injuries count for tens of thousands of days lost working and of these many will need weeks to recover and indeed they may even suffer relapses from time to time.  But despite this most people do not give a second thought about how they can look after their back and then once they injure it they regret not having taken more care of it whilst it was good.

People who love in the west are extremely good at ‘fighting fires’, but they should spend their time and energy making sure that the fire does not break out in the first place because fires have a nasty habit of being very difficult to put out once they get started.

With a few simple additions to our daily lives we can help to safeguard our back health and limit the times that we do any serious injury.

1. Learn how to lift correctly and make sure this is exactly what you do every time.  So, knees bent, back straight, hold the object close in to your body and do not carry anything too heavy for you to manage.
2. Be posture aware so whether you work at a computer all day or do manual work get into a habit of regularly checking and correcting your posture.  Shoulders back and chest out.
3. Use a back pack style handbag so that the weight is distributed evenly and not just constantly onto one side
4. If you carry children or heavy shopping then keep swapping sides – do not use one side more than the other
5. Get a regular oil massage on your back, neck and shoulders to keep your muscles in good health and to get the knots broken down before you become aware of them
6. Get regular exercise to keep your whole body fit and well and make sure to warm your muscles first to avoid muscle strains
7. Take a good look at your diet and make sure it is balanced and healthy – for a healthy body you need to feed it healthy fuel.
8. If a problem starts to develop do not wait until it is at screaming pitch before you do something about it, get it sorted professionally as soon as you can
9. Try to stop worrying because we do carry the weight of the world on our shoulders and it weighs us down
10. Take a good look at  your bed and particularly the mattress.  Electric adjustable beds are truly the best beds to use as they adjust to give support in the 5 main areas that need different levels of support the head, neck, spine, knees and hips.  They come in a variety of styles and with a choice of adjustable mattress so you can easily find one to suit you.

Back Pain Bed

Back pain is one of the biggest causes of ‘sick time’ from work today and it counts for millions of $ or £ of lost revenue to the economy.

Just think about it – the spine is literally the backbone to the whole skeletal frame, it supports and carries us (and whatever else we are carrying at the time). It takes all the strain and stretch and yet on the whole we do not respect it as we should and we do not treat it with the love and care that we really should.

Back care should be right up there in the top 3 things we do for ourselves, but alas as a therapist I know only too well that back care is only ever considered when there is a problem – we tend to fight fires not stop them starting in the first place!

I have a question for you …… How often do you get a really good back massage?  Come on now be honest?  Once a month?  Once a year?  Almost never unless you have a problem?

I would bet that the majority fall into the last group – only when there is a problem.  It is a problem of western culture that we do not like to spend money on ‘ourselves’ – we tend to regard massage as a luxury that maybe we think we cannot afford.  Yet we happily spend a small fortune on eating out and going out and new clothes and hairdo’s……..  What is the point to any of this if we are not at all well?

So, back to how we can better look after ourselves and in particular our backs.  We can schedule a regular massage with a good massage therapist and this will help us to keep on top of those painful muscle knots and tension areas (yes, YOU will have them as everyone does to some degree).  We can make sure that we get regular exercise to keep our muscles moving and mobile – especially if we have a sedentary job.  We can also take a look at the furniture we have and buy because badly designed furniture is a major cause of aggravation to back problems and those who have got mobility problems know how essential it is to get comfortable chairs and beds – not least to help them to be able to get into and out of them with more ease.

We always recommend that our clients first of all take a good look at their bed because we spend approximately one third of our lives in bed and it is when we are in bed that our body gets the chance to do it’s repair and regeneration to be able to serve us as best it can.

The best beds we have ever found are electric adjustable beds because they give support to the 5 critical areas of the head, neck, spine, hips and knees.  They allow personal adjustment of all of these areas so that each person sleeps in the correct position just for them.  This supports the frame whilst asleep and also gives us the chance of having undisturbed good quality sleep so that our body can get on with what it is supposed to be doing.