Back pain can make you feel terrible and interrupt your daily activities. If you are working, back pain can become a distraction. If you are trying to fall asleep, back pain has the power to prevent it from happening. That’s why treating back pain is so important.
Here are a few soothing solutions for back pain.
Stretching
Stretching helps relieve back pain that may be due to tightness in back muscles and hamstrings from holding a position for too long. You need to stretch these muscles, keep them flexible, and reduce pressure on the joints to ease the pain. Examples of stretches include knee-to-chest and toe-touches, the cobra pose – where you lie on your tummy and bring your chest up – and the child’s pose – where you sit on your heels with your knees apart and lean forward to stretch your arms out. Each stretch should be held for at least 30 seconds and done at least twice a day. Yoga exercises help strengthen back muscles and improve posture, which is also a factor in lower back pain.
Aerobic Exercises
Aerobic exercises release endorphins, which are the body’s natural painkillers. The moment you start feeling discomfort in your back, get up to move. Even something simple such as walking, which is a low-impact activity, can help soothe your back. Similar to stretching exercises, aerobic exercises can also loosen back muscles. Avoid high-impact exercises such as jogging and running that can put undue stress on your back and spine.
It helps to exercise daily but always check with a doctor before starting an exercise program.
Temperature Therapy
Heat and cold — both help soothe back pain. Cold therapy helps relieve inflammation and delivers a numbing sensation that helps reduce the intensity of back pain. Apply it to the back for no more than 20 minutes at a time. Heat therapy helps improve blood flow and soothe back muscles that are stiff and achy. Heat also has a relaxing effect, which helps improve how you feel.
Reducing Stress Levels
Mindfulness techniques such as mediating and performing breathing exercises may help reduce back pain. Studies show that psychological factors, such as stress and anxiety, can increase a person’s perception of pain. It may have something to do with shallower breathing and tense muscles from stress which can worsen one’s experience with back pain.
Back Pain Treatment in Delaware
Delaware Back Pain & Sports Rehabilitation Center is a full-service rehab center that provides a wide variety of noninvasive and minimally-invasive treatments for back pain. Our patients, especially chronic back pain sufferers, are provided pain management counseling by our psychologist, Dr. Irene Fisher, to help with adaptive ways of coping with back pain. Depending on the assessment, you may also benefit from chiropractic care, which is noninvasive and restores the alignment of the spine, and physical therapy to help reduce pain and muscle spasms. We also offer massage therapy, acupuncture, and injection therapy.
If you want new and better ways of soothing back pain, our team of healthcare providers welcomes you to our Delaware clinic. To make an appointment, call our clinic closest to you, or use our online appointment request form.
