Nearly everyone experiences some form of back pain or another at some point throughout their lifetime. Of course, as with many conditions and ailments, the degree of severity varies greatly.
However, there are things that you can do to strengthen your spine and support your back, which could alleviate pain, stiffness, and tension.
Here are some tips on how to alleviate back pain and improve spine health:
- Don’t slouch! Proper posture is essential to good back health and is the reason for many back problems.
- Try yoga! It will improve flexibility and core strength, which can help take pressure off the back.
- Use an ergonomic desk chair at work and/or try a lumbar pillow, or, a posture-correcting device.
- Deep belly breathing: according to Dr. Kenneth Hansraj, a spinal & orthopedic surgeon and author, deep belly breathing can improve posture, thus helping with back health.
- He also states that what you eat can affect your spine: “
You may not think that your diet affects your spine, but it actually plays a key role. A healthy diet consisting mostly of lean proteins, healthy fats and lots of fresh fruits and vegetables is ideal for building a lean body and muscles that support the spine.
To improve the condition of your spine, supplement your diet with a multivitamin along with a B-complex and Omega-3s, as they have been shown to help decrease pain in the nerves of the spine.”
- Get out in that sunshine! Vitamin D can help build healthy bones.
- Walk! Any moderate exercise such as walking or light strength training can lessen back pain.
- Stretch! A good stretch to break up the day is key, especially if you are often sedentary.
- Warm baths with epsom salts can help alleviate muscle tension in the back.
- Bodyweight exercises can also strengthen back and shoulder muscles, in turn strengthening the core and increasing spinal health.
- Rest — but not too much! Proper, adequate sleep is essential for overall health and for the body’s healing process. However, getting TOO MUCH sleep can also be detrimental to one’s health, too.
- Get a massage!
- Try acupuncture.
- Chiropractors can be amazing source of healing for people with back problems but it is very important to do your homework and choose a very reputable, trusted Doctor of Chiropractic who has a good background.
- Physical therapy can help improve back pain.
- Swimming is also a great exercise for people living with back and spine issues.
- Surgery and medication are also options to treat back pain, as are holistic measures.
Back pain can be caused by many things: injury or accidents, arthritis, scoliosis, birth defects, ankylosing spondylitis, muscoskeletal disorders, and more — but many of the treatments overlap.
Leave a comment and let us know how you treat back pain!
Be Well,
Ashley Boynes-Shuck
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Excellent article Ashley! Very proud of you!
Thanks so much, doc!
– A
Another great article! Love reading all that you post, Thank you for all you do!
Ashley thank you for sharing this. It really helps people like myself with severe back pain. Some of these tips I had no idea about!
Travis.
Hi Ashley, thanks for sharing these awesome tips. Yoga is very helpful as I am learning. Also, for the longest time (since I site at the computer all day) I actually slouched and didn’t pay attention to my posture while sitting at the computer. I think that has caused a lot of issues with my back. So now I take specific preventative measures to protect myself. Also got a new chair which helps! Thanks for the tips! Very useful…
Yoou made some reall ggood points there. I looked onn the inmternet tto find oout
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Hi Ashley,
Nearly everyone experiences some form of back pain or another at some point throughout their lifetime. The tips you had given for solution are very much Informative. Thanks for Great article and great advice
I recently suffered a slipped disc and sciatica which turned out to be the most painful experience of my life, no exaggeration!. I was in quite a bad place and had to take 3 months off work which was very depressing.
I tried just about everything possible to try and ease the pain I was in, this included Chiro’s Physio’s, Pain killers, Injections etc etc.
None of the above did anything to ease the pain, it seemed to be going on forever and I really thought that I would never be the same again.
In my desperation I did a Google search for another solution and I came across a treatment called Inversion Therapy. I had never heard of this before but was open to anything at that stage. The treatment involves using an inversion machine to effectively hang upside down for several minutes at a time.
The purpose being to take the pressure off each of the vertebrae in the spine which then creates a small space between the disc and the nerve. It seemed a bit off the wall but I am very glad I tried it. After just a week of using the machine I am now suffering significantly less pain which is absolute bliss.
I now plan to strengthen my core and start doing Pilates, I have quite a bit of damage reversal to do after years of cycling and not stretching, be warned!
I got the information about inversion therapy on The British Back Institute’s Website, their definitely worth checking out.
Sam
Great post! Been looking for ways to deal with my back pain a lot recently. Thanks for the info!
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