Back pains are horrible because they can stop you from enjoying life. Often, you end up having a hard time moving around, carrying stuff from one point to another, or doing even the simplest household chores.
If you’re lucky, you might only experience mild aching. But what happens if you feel intense and debilitating bouts of pain? If you have been dealing with this problem for quite a while, you may find our list of back pain remedies quite helpful.
We’ve included plenty of remedies you can try, like doing gentle stretches and seeking chiropractic care in Vancouver. Let’s kick off the discussion by taking a look at the common causes of back pain.
What triggers back pain?
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When suffering from back pain, you need to know why it’s happening in the first place. By doing so, you can effectively find a remedy that could provide you with maximum relief. Here are some specific conditions that may cause you discomfort:
- Herniation or bulging disc – When the cushioning material found between your spinal vertebrae bulges or leaks into neighboring tissues, you will most likely experience pain along your spine and the back.
- Muscle strain – Overworking your muscles or lifting a heavy load the wrong way can potentially lead to muscle strain. Other factors such as sports-related trauma, weakened core, and awkward or sudden body movements can also result in a strained back.
- Ligament sprain – Aside from muscles, ligaments are also susceptible to wear and tear. They can also get sprained when you twist, trip or fall.
- Spinal arthritis or lumbar spine osteoarthritis – Aging people tend to suffer from a degenerative type of spinal arthritis. This brings about inflammation, stiffness, and pain in the areas near the affected vertebral joints.
- Internal organ problems – Sometimes, back pain originates from infected or damaged organs like kidneys and the appendix. It’s extra important to have yourself checked by your primary healthcare provider if you suspect internal organ problems, especially after an accident.
Now that you have a bit more background on back pain and its possible causes, let’s start looking into your options for natural pain relief.
Ten Tips for Back Pain Relief
- Stay active
Maintaining an active lifestyle even when you have back pain can be quite challenging. But we believe that’s it quite necessary. Otherwise, you risk increasing the intensity of your condition. A sedentary lifestyle would only weaken your bones and stiffen your muscles. There are many gentle and light exercises you can try to keep your body in good condition. A few examples include neck stretches, side bends, toe touches, and head turns. You can also pursue other physical activities like brisk walking.
- Strengthen your abdominal and back muscles
The core plays a pivotal role in supporting your spine. Ensuring that it’s always in tiptop shape allows you to prevent or minimize pain. Some of the core strengthening exercises you can do include Pilates, yoga, planking, squats, and oblique twists.
- Work your body flexibility
Besides making sure that you have a sturdy core, increasing muscle flexibility also comes in handy in coping with back pain problems. We recommend working on your hamstrings. You can find these muscles along the back of your thighs, with their tip connected to the hips and the other end attached to your knee. Regular hamstring stretches can minimize pain and improve your overall condition.
- Mind your diet – avoid irritants at all costs!
The last thing you want is to aggravate your situation because of food irritants that trigger body inflammation. Some of these food products may include those that you have allergies to. It would be best to avoid or at least minimize your consumption of items that contain high fructose syrup, artificial trans-fat, alcohol, preservatives, and refined carbohydrates.
- Work on your posture
Poor posture may result from all kinds of things like your long hours of sitting down in front of a computer. It could also stem from occupational hazards, especially if your job requires you to carry or lift items on a regular basis. Alternatively, it could because of a structural problem along your spine or excessive body weight. Whatever is causing your posture problem, we recommend working them out as soon as you can.
- Use heat or ice on the affected area
A cold compress may help you ease the pain by reducing inflammation around the affected area. A hot compress, on one hand, helps in speeding up your body’s recovery. Make sure to use heat or hot packs only after the inflammation goes away. Otherwise, you may end up increasing blood circulation. Consequently, you will have to deal with more swelling and pain.
- Get enough sleep
Allow your body to heal naturally by making sure that you get enough sleep at night. If you have a chronic back pain problem, you should try doing any of the following practice below to enjoy a relaxing and uninterrupted sleep:
- No caffeine before bedtime
- Practice relaxation methods to promote muscle relaxation
- Avoid over-eating, especially before your usual sleeping schedule
- Invest in a comfortable pillow and mattress
- Say goodbye to smoking
Smoking can wreak havoc on many parts of your body aside from the lungs. It could impact blood circulation and increase your risk of developing cardiovascular problems and back pains. Stop smoking as early as you can to prevent further compromising your health.
- Make necessary changes to your workstation
One of the main reasons why a lot of people complain about back pain is because of the long hours of sitting down in the office. As we discussed earlier, this could cause serious problems that could impact your everyday life.
Thankfully, nowadays, it’s easier to make necessary improvements to your workstations because of work-from-home arrangements. Now you have the option to make everything ergonomic to provide enough support to your back and spine while you work. Consider switching to a standing desk or invest in a good quality ergonomic chair.
- Get proper care for your spine
Your spine does a lot of things for your body. It provides structural support, protects the spinal cord, and allows your body to move in various directions. Optimizing your spine health through chiropractic care in Vancouver may help improve and maintain a healthy spine and back. It could also prevent your back pains from recurring after they go away.
Specific Chiropractic Care in Vancouver – A Good Choice for Relief
If you have tried every option for back pain relief and you haven’t seen improvements, it may be helpful if you take a chance on specific chiropractic care and see a Vancouver BC Chiropractor today. It’s an all-natural procedure that aims to correct faulty spine alignment. By restoring your spine’s original alignment, you encourage your body to heal itself. You also get to relieve pressure on the compressed veins or nerves along the spine and restore normal communication between your brainstem and the central nervous system.