Say Goodbye To Your Chronic Back Pain With These Helpful Tips!
Did You Know Physiocal Therapy Could Help Provide Chronic Back Pain Relief?
Do you periodically find yourself disabled by bouts of back pain? Do you experience ongoing chronic back pain that never gives you a moment’s relief?
Whatever form it may take, chronic back pain can put all kinds of limits on your life — until you finally start taking the necessary steps to address it head-on. But you don’t have to schedule major surgery or allow yourself to become addicted to prescription painkillers just to keep this lurking monster at bay.
Conservative strategies such as physical therapy – like physiotherapy, chiropractic, massage, and athletic therapy – combined with smart lifestyle practices can help you manage your pain for life. Ask one of our therapists at Leaps and Bounds Performance Rehabilitation to evaluate your conditions and recommend specific treatments!
What exactly is chronic back pain?
If you’ve ever injured your back in a car crash, high-impact sports injury or work-related accident, you know just how bad back pain can get. As horrendously painful as that acute back pain may be, however, at least it goes away at some point. But sometimes, some form of back pain hangs on long after an acute injury.
Back pain that persists for three months and longer is usually considered chronic. This type of pain can be due to a variety of physical and non-physical reasons, including injury, some illness or condition, and stress, to name a few.
About 20 percent of people who have back pain will have it develop into chronic back pain with persistent symptoms. Back pain ranks number three on the scale for the most burdensome conditions for Americans.
What caused my back pain to develop?
The first step in addressing your chronic back pain is having some understanding of its cause.
Back pain can be caused by many underlying issues, from an acute injury that failed to heal correctly to an exacerbation of age-related changes (ex. arthritis) to some underlying condition, like:
- Fibromyalgia, myofascial pain syndrome and other chronic problems
- Congenital deformities such as scoliosis
- Spinal stenosis
Chronic back pain can also be caused by non-physical factors like stress, emotions, or by associations your body makes with external factors during times of acute pain (think Pavlov’s Dog).
What can physical therapy do for chronic back pain?
Don’t fall into the trap of feeling helpless against your back pain. Our therapists can analyze your current condition to determine the exact cause of your symptoms.
We can then prescribe, not just exercises, but an entire way of living that helps you maintain optimal day-to-day comfort. Here are some tips you can incorporate into your new pain-management routine:
- Exercise – Regular physiotherapy exercises to strengthen your core muscles (including the muscles of the abdomen, pelvis and lower back) can stabilize your spine and ease muscle pain.
- Pursue stress reduction – Yoga, meditation, and other stress-busting techniques can help you keep your back muscles relaxed.
- Improve your sleep habits – More sleep, less screen time around bed, switching mattresses or adjust your sleep position to minimize nighttime (and next-day) pain.
- Improve your nutrition – Emphasize anti-inflammatory foods, “nature’s medicine” for chronic pain. Our physiotherapist can also prescribe exercises to help you lose weight, thus taking pressure off of your spine.
- Change your ergonomics – Move things around in your workplace so that you can reach frequently-needed items with a minimum of stooping, bending or twisting. Get up and move often.
The exercises your physiotherapy, chiropractic, massage therapy, or athletic therapy practitioner prescribes to you will help you improve the mobility and strength of your spine to better tolerate the daily stresses that you require of it. These will be combined with specific hands-on therapy as part of a plan of care tailored to your needs.
Ready to find relief?
Ready to learn more about how to fight chronic back pain? Contact our therapists today!