Natural Back Pain Relief

Treating back pain is a bit like trying to put out an out of control fire that should never have got started in the first place.  So the easiest thing is to stop it breaking out in the first place.

Our back is the part of our body that needs more TLC than anywhere else…

Why?

Well, just think about it our spine runs right down the centre of our body and it not only acts as a frame but it also houses our central nervous system – so this includes all nerves.  Our nervous system is a very highly complex system which does multiple jobs to keep us moving, feeling, sensing and generally safe.

As the spine runs centrally down our body it is connected to all major muscle groups and of course our limbs are also appended via the shoulder girdle and hips.  In other words the spine is what pretty much holds it all together.  it is connected to everything and if it is injured then it is going to affect pretty much everything.  Think of the human body as a very finely balanced piece of equipment, if just 1 part falls out of balance then there will be a knock on effect to another part of the machinery and so on.

So, just bear this in mind when thinking about the health of your spine.

What can we all do to help to keep our spine/back healthy and injury free?

Well there are a number of things that we can add into our daily routines which really require no extra effort on our behalf

• Take care when lifting anything weighty.  Keep knees bent, back straight and hold the heavy object close into the body when lifting.  if it is really too heavy then do not even attempt to lift it without help.
• Take care to warm up when preparing to do exercise – never exercise on cold muscles!
• Make sure to get plenty of regular exercise to keep all joints and muscles exercised and supple
• Eat well to feed the body proper nutrients
• Make sure that any furniture you use is well designed with back health in mind.  Especially look at your bed and make sure that the mattress is very supportive.  Most beds we sleep in are just flat beds and yet we have a curved body with each curve having different support requirements.  Electric and adjustable beds are the best type of beds to give correct support to us whilst we sleep.

If you are unlucky enough to injure your back then there are a number of ways to tackle back pain without necessarily needing to resort to the drugs your Dr might prescribe

• Complementary therapies such as Accupuncture, Reflexology, Massage and Aromatherapy are all known to help with back pain and injuries.
• Osteopathy and Chiropractic also help greatly
• Supplements such as Glucosamine and/or Chondroitin are well documented to be successful

However, there is no substitute for looking after your spine properly in the first place so that a problem does not develop at all.

Electric Beds – Growing Older With Dignity

Getting older is something that comes to us all unavoidably – just like taxation and ultimately death.

However, just because we are not able to avoid it does not mean to say that we should accept it lying down (forgive the pun with this article being about beds) – no in fact why on earth should we be lying down when we can in fact be sitting or reposing very comfortably in an extremely comfortable electric bed?

We all have ageing loved ones and we all know how we feel when we see them begin to struggle with everyday things such as moving around pain free, getting into and out of chairs without pain and effort.  We know how much it hurts us emotionally and we also know much it can hurt them physically.

So, why not do something about easing the physical pain and symptoms?

Why not help to make their lives a bit less painful and a bit more independent?

You see there are ways to help our loved ones to live as they want to despite getting older and less mobile.  Today as the general population ages there are now more aids than ever before to make the lives of the elderly easier and richer and to help them to maintain their dignity and independence for as long as possible.

There is of course a knock on from this as it means that anyone who is a carer gets their life made easier too which is no bad thing bearing in mind that so many carers today are also elderly and so will not be as able as someone younger.  Even younger carers need help though as they also need to protect themselves from injury whilst caring for others.

This is why electric beds are so good for so many excellent reasons…

• Electric beds make getting into and out of bed so easy as the head will lift to support the back of the user
• Electric beds make settling down to sleep so easy as the back can be reclined to exactly the right place for personal comfort
• Electric beds make sitting up so easy and effort free as the electric motor does all the hard work
• Electric beds make watching a movie or reading a book a luxurious experience
• Electric beds make painful joints easier to manage whilst in bed
• Electric beds make the unpleasant symptoms of hiatus hernia and gastric reflux to be greatly reduced or even go completely
• Electric beds now look like a regular bed that you already have in your home so no one need know that it is even one of these!

You see in 2012 electric beds are normal looking beds and yet these are fully adjustable beds with all the comfort advantages they bring.  They help elderly people to be able to retain independence and dignity and more importantly allow them to be able to live in their own homes for as long as possible without being a burden to others at the same time.

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.

Adjustable Beds

I cannot answer for you but knowing myself as I do I know that once I buy an item of furniture it simply becomes part of the internal landscape of my home and it really does not occur to me to make changes very often.  In fact I often do not even notice things that have been there so long and rarely question them being there.

Now if this rings true for any of you reading this then you will know how my mind works.

You see, I had had my trusty old bed for so long that it never occurred to me to replace it which is very surprising in view of the fact that it made me ache and toss and turn every single night.  In fact I remember my old mattress was so old that it had a dip in the middle – agghh!

Then one morning I realized that I had backache, it had not just suddenly started that night but more like had crept up on me insidiously over a few days or maybe even weeks and then one morning I became consciously aware of it.  After several weeks of increasing pain it became obvious that positive action was needed and this was the catalyst that led to a new adjustable bed.

After weeks of research I decided to buy an electric adjustable bed and the reasons for this are …..

• Adjustable beds adjust in the 5 major areas which need support the head, neck, spine, hips and knees
• Adjustable beds give an unlimited combination of settings so that everyone and anyone can get comfortable every time
• Adjustable beds make it easy and very comfy to sit up in bed whilst reading or watching TV – no more propping up with numerous pillows and shuffling around to get comfortable.
• Adjustable beds make bed caused back ache a thing of the past as you set the settings to you every single day and you get to change them as often as you like
• Adjustable beds come in many different styles and sizes so rest assured that there will be the perfect one just for you In fact there are wooden ones, leather ones, ‘normal looking ones’, single ones, double ones, double combination ones (this is where you both get a mattress each).  The of course there is the adjustable mattress to choose – memory foam, latex, pocket sprung …..
• Adjustable beds are surprisingly affordable – in fact my new one was less than the ‘ordinary one’ I was going to buy before I decided to buy and adjustable one!

Now, I know that when you start looking to invest in this major new piece of lifestyle furniture that you may well feel totally confused and overfaced by the sheer choice available so I actually recommend that you go and visit a great review site over at http://www.lookafteryourspine.com  where it will help you to understand the different parts and elements of this type of bed and help you to make the best choice just for you.

Recliner Bed

How many times have you gone to bed early simply to relax reading a good book or to watch a great movie?

How many pillows did it take for you to get ‘just where you needed to be’?

How long did it take before you needed to rearrange them to get comfy again?

How long did it take you to rearrange the bed to settle down to go to sleep afterwards?

We all enjoy relaxing in bed sometimes – after all we supposedly spend one third of our lives in bed so we sure need to make this experience as comfortable as we can.

So……. How about investing in the most comfortable bed we can buy and not only the most comfortable bed but also the most supportive one?

Just think about it …… How many mornings have you woken up from sleeping in a ‘flat’ bed and thought ‘ouch I ache’?  or maybe you are now advancing in years and find just getting into and out of bed a little bit more tricky than it once was?

For those unlucky enough to suffer from health problems such as arthritis, rheumatism, aches and pains – you will understand how difficult it can be just to get comfortable in bed.  You also know how hard it can be just to get into and out of bed.

For those of you who maybe have got oedema of the legs or have a Hiatus Hernia or get gastric reflux you will appreciate being able to elevate your legs or upper body so that your symptoms are not worsened by lying flat in bed.

Even worse are those of you who have got a partner who keeps you awake by either constantly moving around trying to get comfortable or whose partner snores all night long.  A recliner bed can help in 2 ways, one because you can buy beds that although they may be double beds they are double beds with 2 separate mattresses so you each get to set your own comfort settings.  Secondly because each person gets to create their own comfort settings it means that snoring and other discomforts are minimised.

So what are YOU doing about it?

Some recliner beds are now pretty much the same price as a decent ‘flat’ bed yet they give your body all the support it needs in the 5 critical areas where it needs support – the head, neck, spine, hips and knees.

You can sit and watch a movie in total comfort without all the palaver of cushions, you can relax to sleep knowing that you are supported and comfortable and also knowing that next morning you will wake feeling refreshed having had one of the best nights sleep ever.

Over here in the UK companies such as the Electric Bed Co specialise in just that electric and recliner beds.

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.

So How Did You Sleep Last Night?

Bit of a leading question I know – but with good reason behind it.

Let me explain ……

When we sleep it is the time our body gets to do it’s major repair and regeneration and this is the major reason why it is so very important that we all get regular great quality sleep.

Now back to my original question…..

I know that most people do not get the best nights sleep that they could get – I know that many people will spend ages just trying to get comfortable, many will wake during the night to get comfortable again, many will struggle to just fall to sleep, and many although they slept will feel like they did 4 rounds in the ring with Mike Tyson when they wake.

All in all the quality of sleep that most people have is pants.

So, what can be done about it I can hear you asking?

Well, one of the main reasons behind this lies (forgive the pun) in the type of bed you sleep in.  You see most people sleep in a ‘normal’ flat bed with a normal ‘flat’ mattress.

Just think about it normal flat bed gives no support to a curvy body.  We have 5 major areas needing support whilst we are lying down the head, neck, spine, hips and knees and yep you got it – a flat bed gives very little support to any of these areas.  Ergo we toss and turn and harumph around trying to get comfortable in almost impossible circumstances.

So, next time you wake up feeling *&%&*  consider how much better you could feel is you had a bed to support you – just take a look at the video just here……

Or take a look at this right here for some more inspiration  http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/02/10/garden/20100211-mattress-slideshow_3.html