5 Things You Can Do to Decrease Back Pain Today

5 Things You Can Do to Decrease Back Pain Today

5 Tips for Back Pain Relief

When you have back pain, all you can think about is how to start feeling better again. You want to return to your ‘normal’ life and its social and business events, and stop saying no to playing baseball with the kids.

You Can Take Simple Actions to Feel Better

Did you know that while you’re under medical care for your back pain, there are still things you can do on your own to relieve your back pain? Here are five out-of-the-box solutions that can make a big difference:

1. Decrease the Couch Time

Studies now show that the worst thing you can do when you have back pain is to stop moving. This seems like an oxymoron, as back pain generally prevents you from moving.

When you don’t move for long periods of time, blood doesn’t circulate as well, and this means less new oxygen to the hurting tissues. Some movement is better than none.

Make a pact with yourself to move at least once every 30 minutes by getting up and walking around the house.

2. Consider Inversion Therapy

Contracted muscles that can’t or won’t relax often accompany back pain. One way to ‘force’ them to relax is to hang upside down with inversion therapy. Don’t worry; you won’t need gravity boots and acrobatic talent for this.

Companies have created inversion tables that allow you to be fully supported while you control the table to tip backwards first and then upside down. Once you’re upside down, the effects of gravity on the spine are decreased and the muscles that are excessively firing relax and say, “Ah…that feels so good! Thank you!” The hanging time is only a minute.

Don’t try inversion therapy if you have high blood pressure, retinal disorders, or heart disorders, as the extra blood circulation to the head when you’re upside down can be too much too fast.

However, inversion therapy is safe for others without these disorders. Always check with your doctor and the company you purchase the inversion table from as well.

3. Try a Calcium/Magnesium Supplement

Muscles need calcium and magnesium for their contraction and relaxation. Calcium deficiency causes muscles to seize up, such as with charley horses.

Magnesium deficiency increases inflammation in the body. These two deficiencies could be contributing to your back pain.

Start with a supplement of 500 to 600 mg calcium, 250-300 mg magnesium, 250-300 mg phosphorus, and at least 400 IU vitamin D. If you take the liquid version, you may be able to feel a big difference within minutes.

Many people are deficient in these nutrients and don’t know it until they are diagnosed with osteoporosis. That’s because blood calcium levels will always show up as normal unless there’s a parathyroid abnormality, so this is not a good way of determining calcium status.

Urine calcium is a better test for status. Calculating if you’re getting 800 mg calcium per day from food from food tables will also give you a clue as to whether or not you need more.

4. Check Your Levels of Vitamin D

One sign of a vitamin D deficiency is muscle aches and pains. Weakness is also a symptom.

Health experts estimate that at least half of the population is vitamin D deficient. This is another nutrient that can help improve your back pain, plus it increases the absorption of calcium in the body.

Ask your doctor for a vitamin D test to see your levels. Ideal vitamin D is 55-65 ug/dl on a 0-100 ug/dl scale. If deficient, it takes three months of supplements at the dosage of 10,000 IU per day to boost levels to normal.

5. See Your Chiropractor

Chiropractic manipulation re-establishes the nerve impulses that travel from the spine to the muscles, skin, organs and tissues. Every organ and tissue needs to receive these impulses in order to have health in that organ and tissue.

Chiropractic treatments are the only ones that will re-establish them and stimulate the healing that is needed in your body.

Your body is waiting for you to choose any of the five ideas and get started. Test out your body and see how it responds. Expect the best!

 

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