Lower Back Pain Treatment

At some point in their lives, four out of five adults will experience lower back pain. It is one of the most common conditions in the United States and one of the leading reasons why people visit the doctor’s clinic every year.

The effects of lower back pain can be great. But ironically enough the extent of the pain is wholly unrelated to the extent of the damage.

For example, muscle spasms as a result of back strain can be so excruciating that persons suffering from it will find it difficult to walk or even stand. Whereas, degeneration of one of your vertebral discs (herniated disc) will cause virtually no pain at all to arise.

There is no definitive cause of lower back pain. Sometimes, the causes of the condition are so complex that it is difficult to pinpoint just a single one. For this reason, lower back pain treatment largely aims only to help patients manage their pain by providing relief.

Below are few common lower back pain treatment methods suggested by therapists and other healthcare professionals:

Exercise

Lower back pain that lasts more than two weeks should be treated with exercise. The general rule is that people who are active and well-conditioned are less likely to suffer from lower back pain. Regular exercise will stretch the muscles of your lower back, thus reducing the risk of strain, tear, or spasm.

Types of exercises for lower back pain treatment include

• Yoga - A good, regular yoga practice will go far in relieving the stress and tension that sometimes cause mild lower back pain, and in fact, studies have shown that yoga is the number one most effective lower back pain treatment.
• Stretching - Stretching is very important lower back pain treatment for several reasons: 1) it improves your flexibility, which in turn allows your back to move through its natural range of motion painlessly, 2) it sends necessary nutrients to the tissue along the spine that keep your muscles from getting stiff and weak, and 3) it helps to prevent further injury to the back.
• Pilates - Pilates is another great lower back pain treatment because it focuses on strengthening your core muscles, which include the back. Pilates exercises are very smooth and controlled movements, so there is little danger of getting injured while exercising.
• Tai Chi - Tai chi is an ancient form of martial arts that is soft and slow, making it great for people who have back pain.
• Exercise balls - One way to get a good stretch is with an exercise ball. Many people like these because you can stretch your back without straining it and other muscles.
• Strengthening - Strengthening exercises are great for lower back pain relief, as well as preventing future injury.
• Aerobic exercises – It is a good idea to incorporate aerobic exercise into your lower back pain treatment plan. For those who suffer from back pain, the best aerobic exercises are low impact. These include swimming, walking, water aerobics, and bicycling.

Manual Physical Therapy

Sometimes, rest and exercise, the most common forms of lower back pain treatment, may not produce the desired results. Even so, pain may still be treated without going for surgery. Manual physical therapy is a method of lower back pain treatment that uses a specialized type of physical therapy to relieve pain.

Physical therapy uses different techniques, such as ultrasound, electrical stimulation, cryotherapy, massage, exercise, and heat in order to relieve muscle spasms, increase flexibility, strengthen muscles, relieve pain, and accelerate the healing process.

Basically, this lower back pain treatment method delivers with the hands as opposed to a device or machine. The practitioners of this type of therapy will be using their hands to decrease back pain by applying pressure on the muscle group affected.

There are basically two types of physical therapy, passive and active. Passive therapy is done to you and includes heat, cryotherapy, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, massage, and lontophoresis. In active therapy, and it includes stretching, strength building exercises, and aerobic exercise.

Rest

The good news is that most cases of lower back pain last only for a couple of days. The suggested lower back pain treatment method therefore is rest. This will allow the muscles of your lower back to regain its supply of blood, nutrients and proteins which are necessary for healing to take place.

However, if pain persists even after a couple of days or a period of a couple of weeks, then resting as a lower back pain treatment method is not advisable. That’s because resting for longer than two weeks will lead to weakness of the muscles, which would in turn slow down the healing process, or worse, lead to atrophy (muscle wasting).

There are several more forms of lower back pain treatment options available for those seeking to relieve pain due to muscle strains of the lower back.