Banish Lower Back Pain: Tips for a Speedy Recovery

Lower back pain affects over 80% of people at one point or another. With some facts about low back pain, you can decrease your suffering.

1. Herniated Discs: Lower Back Pain

Herniated discs are painful and can be debilitating. You may think you need surgery or therapy but the vast majority of you can get by without surgery or chiropractic care. Low back pain tends to go away without any therapy including chiropractic care and physiotherapy. It usually takes 4 to 6 weeks to recover from lower back pain without any treatment.

You can simply try not to bend as much and get up from your chair every 2 hours if you sit a lot.

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2. When Should I Get Therapy For Lower Back Pain

Chiropractic and Physiotherapy are both very helpful for low back pain. You should get therapy when:

• Your symptoms are more severe than your previous episodes of low back pain.
• Your symptoms are now constant or started intermittently but are now more constant.
• Your symptoms are now starting to go into the buttock or thigh where it didn’t before.
• You have a hard time doing your everyday tasks at home or work, although some discomfort is OK.

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3. Staying Active Compared To Resting For Lower Back Pain

Resting until you are better is not a good idea. If you have been prescribed bed rest your doctor is out of date. Resting is harmful in study after study. You should try to go about your everyday activities like work and life at home. Complete bed rest will only make your discs enlarge and make it more painful when you get up, giving you lower back pain.

While at work or home, you should not stay in any position for more than 15-30 minutes. Always move about from position to position. Remember that bending forward puts the most pressure on your spine followed by sitting, then standing and the least pressure on your spine is in the lying position.

So, standing while working is a better option than sitting. You won’t find me sitting at work very often or for very long as I do what I say and stand a lot more than I sit even when doing paperwork.

If your pain is acute or if you have a bad disc herniation even standing will cause your pain to to get worse over time. Occasionally lying down is helpful when you have a lot of lower back pain. If lying down once in a while isn’t possible at your workplace that’s when staying home and working from home can be helpful. Remember, though you should not have bed rest.

4. Hot Showers, Hot Baths and Cold Baths

Warm showers if done for short periods like a few minutes can be helpful. Get in a hot shower or worse yet a hot bath for a long period can increase inflammation and cause you pain. For most of you, it won’t harm you but for those of you that have inflammation, the heat will make your lower back feel so much worse. If you’ve had a more severe episode chances are there is inflammation so you don’t want to heat up your back with a hot shower or bath.

If you are unsure just avoid the hot showers and baths and go for a quick warm shower. For those of you, that know you have inflammation you can put an ice pack on your low back for 10 minutes. A cold bath will help too but is very uncomfortable. Brrrrrrr.

5. Massages

Have you ever had a massage for lower back pain and it got worse? Often this happens when people have thigh or leg pain in addition to lower back pain. Most people get worse as they need to have their lower back worked on not their legs. Sometimes it is the reverse. A good chiropractor can tell the difference.

6. Getting Better ASAP (faster)

If you want to get better faster rather than waiting 4-6 weeks and don’t want to miss any work or want to get back to sports as quickly as possible then you should see a professional. Try finding the best chiropractor or physiotherapist in your area. If you don’t have any urgency and want to save money most of you can simply wait it out for 4-6 weeks and you will get better with time.

For those of you having low back pain chiropractic can be the fastest way back to a pain-free status but if you are not in a hurry just let nature take its course and the vast majority of you will be fine again.

Hope that helps you with your lower back pain.

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