Many people across the world suffer from back pain, from teenagers to older adults. This can be caused by a wide range of reasons, including sports injuries, degenerative diseases, and genetic conditions. Fortunately, there are many types of treatments that can help heal your back and reduce pain symptoms.
In this article, we will discuss what can heal a person’s back, looking at both medically advised treatments and self-care methods.
The Main Causes of Back Pain
Below is a list of the various causes of back pain.
Lifestyle
- Being physically unfit and having a lack of strength in the back
- Obesity and experiencing rapid weight gain
- Manual jobs that apply continued stress on the spine, including jobs that require lots of heavy lifting, pushing, pulling, etc.
- Office jobs that involve sitting for long periods
- Poor posture when sitting
Mental
- Stress, anxiety, and depression can be linked to back pain
- A lack of sleep
Natural
- Aging – especially people aged over 45
- Genetic/ hereditary disorders
- Pregnancy
Injury
- Strains and sprains of muscles, ligaments, and tendons
- A fractured vertebrae
Conditions, Infections, and Diseases
- Degenerative disc disease
- Arthritis
- Spinal stenosis
- Herniated/ ruptured/ slipped discs
- Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS)
- Spondylolisthesis
- A spinal tumor
- Scoliosis
- Kyphosis
- Myofascial pain
- Osteoporosis
- Fibromyalgia
- Kidney stones and other infections, such as in the bones or discs
- Endometriosis
4 Medical Treatments To Cure Back Pain
In this section, we will outline a number of treatments that can help to cure spondylolisthesis and other conditions that can cause severe back pain. By following medical advice, combined with one or multiple treatments, measures such as invasive surgery can hopefully be avoided.
Physical Therapy
Often, a doctor’s first recommendation of treatment will be physical therapy, in an attempt to help the patient strengthen their back. The therapy will usually be overseen by a physician and a physical therapist that specializes in spines. There is no set exercise routine that will work for everyone, so it is up to the physical therapist to devise a training plan for each individual.
Exercise will be tailored to the specific issue, ensuring muscles become stronger to better support your spine so that the condition, injury, or disease can heal naturally. As well as visiting the therapist for dedicated sessions, patients will often be given a number of stretches and exercises that they can do at home to help speed up the recovery.
Physical therapy for back pain may include:
- Stretching
- Flexibility exercises
- Aerobics
- Core strengthening
- Posture retraining
- Pain tolerance testing
Pharmacologic Treatment
Your doctor may also provide a pharmacologic solution to help ease any pain symptoms. Medication may include non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), analgesics, muscle relaxants, and other drugs that can help to reduce inflammation.
Medication is usually prescribed to people who are experiencing chronic back pain that does not ease with gentle exercise. Unfortunately, some of these drugs can come with unwanted side effects, such as drowsiness, and are not intended for long-term use.
Opioid medication for example is very addictive and should only be used as a last resort to help ease chronic pain. Opioids do not directly address the cause of pain and will only be prescribed after a thorough examination by a specialist after another medication has failed. If opioids fail to tackle pain symptoms or a dependency develops, then surgery would typically be the next step.
Injection-based Treatment
Injection-based treatments include nerve blocks, nerve ablations, epidural steroid injections, and other types of procedures that can help to ease chronic back pain. This type of treatment is recommended when your doctor has diagnosed the cause of the problem and its specific area.
Injection-based treatments are not a long-term solution and are intended to reduce or eradicate pain for a period of time, helping a person continue their daily activities.
AlternativeTreatment
When a doctor feels a patient would not benefit from a pharmacologic or injection-based treatment, they may suggest an alternative treatment that does not have side effects or run the possibility of becoming addicted. These treatments may include acupuncture, biofeedback therapy, and laser therapy. Electrical drive stimulation, or nonsurgical spinal treatments.
These alternative methods have been proven to help ease pain symptoms for many people. Therefore, if you are suffering from back pain, it is advised to consult with your back doctor who can determine whether this type of therapy could be a good course of action.
3 Self-Care Treatments For Back Pain
If you have been experiencing back pain for a number of days and want to avoid a visit to the doctor, then there are a few self-care treatments that you can try yourself to see if they have a positive impact.
Diet
Inflammatory foods can worsen the symptoms of back pain and interfere with medical treatments. Food that is high in fat and refined sugar, as well as processed foods all fall into this category and should be avoided if you are suffering from back trouble. In fact, these foods should be eaten in very small quantities, if at all, if you want to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
These foods can also contribute to weight gain, placing additional pressure on the back and other parts of the body. You can consult with your doctor or a trained dietician to discuss a diet plan to maintain a healthy spine, or you can browse the many online sources relating to a healthy diet.
Meditation and Relaxation
Chronic back pain can affect people mentally so it is important to learn how to cope with the symptoms to avoid feeling depressed and frustrated about your situation. Physical therapists may recommend activities such as meditation, yoga, tai chi, and other relaxing methods to take your mind off the pain, while also improving your physical conditioning.
Lifestyle Adjustments
There are also many lifestyle changes you can make to improve spinal health, including taking regular breaks when doing physical tasks, going on leisurely walks, and avoiding heavy lifting. If you experience back trouble when performing certain tasks, then you should try to avoid them or complete them in stages to give your back the required rest.
If you are a smoker then quitting is highly advised, as nicotine is proven to contribute to the deterioration of the spine and other parts of the body.
Thank you for reading. We hope you have found this article useful and that some of the recommended treatments can help to improve the condition of your back.