Non-surgical Back Pain Remedies

Eighty percent of North Americans have some back pain, usually lower back pain at some time in their lives. And about 45% of those folks have repeated back pain attacks.

If you can recover from back pain without surgery, you're much better off. You may have unforseen complications, anything from infection to nerve damage. Back surgery can go wrong leaving you with more pain than you started with. Plus most surgeries are not really necessary.

Most people who suffer back pain have a problem with the short rigid back muscles and it can be relieved by improving your posture while sitting, standing, and working regular aerobic excercise; streching and exercises to strengthen your back muscles.

At least 20% of the people with back pain have spinal injuries involving the rupture of one or more disks, a gel filled shock absorber between the vertebrae, or bones of the spinal stack. Before thinking about surgery, you should wait at least 3 months after being diagnosed by a doctor and use alternative remedies during that time unless there is an emergency for such surgery. Many times the disks will get better with the same type of nonmedical treatments that repair the back muscles.

SITTING:

The proper position for sitting is just in front of your ischium bones of the pelvis. Those are the big bones that you can feel pressing against the chair right where your thighs end and your buttocks begin. At least you can feel them when you are sitting correctly. Lean slightly forward from the hips, then keeping your pelvis in place, move your upper back slightly back. That means don't slouch forward, don't round or hunch your back and shoulders and keep your feet flat on the floor. You should become conscious of the curve in the small of the back.

The key to this back pain relieving, pain preventing sitting posture is to lift your breastbone as you are sitted. Pretend that a string is attached to the middle of your chest and is tugging your breastbone upwards. You want to lengthen the space between your belly button and your breastbone. This corrected sitting posture will feel awkward for a few days, however, because sitting incorrectly for so long can change the configuration and tone of your muscles.

Do this breastbone lifting exercise whenever you notice that you are leaning back or slumping over. The resulting posture not only will position your body correctly on your sit bones, but will also position the head correctly on the spine, putting the spine in a natural alignment that supports your musculature and gives the overworked muscles of the lower back some needed relief. Plus relieve some of that back pain.

DRIVING:

A lot of people who drive for a living have bad back pain. This is because car seats seem to be designed to hurt the back. Your knees are higher than your hips, throwing the weight of your body onto the sciatic nerve. Plus your leaning back with the head forward and the arms extended, which stresses your lower back and neck.

To minimize the damage, your car seat should be as flat as possible so that your knees and hips are at the same level, you want to drive the same way you sit.

If your car seat doesn't adjust automatically, you can build up the dip by sitting on a folded towel, a foam wedge, or a small pillow. Put a small pillow behind your lower back also.

Next, position the seat so that you aren't reaching for the steering wheel or leaning forward to grasp the wheel. The wheel should be close enough that your arms can hang naturally from the shoulders and your shoulders feel relaxed.

Just be sure your breastbone is about 10 inches from the center of the steering wheel. That way, you'll lessen the possibility of injury from your seatbelt or airbag if your in an accident.

STANDING:

For back pain free posture when standing, do the breastbone lifting exercise, then have a friend look at you from the side. If you're standing correctly that is, in a posture that can prevent or relieve back pain a vertical line could pass through your ear, the middle of your shoulder, the middle of your hip bone, and the outside of your ankle bone.

Correcting posture induced back pain is very logical and very simple, but people make it so difficult. The body is a perfect mechanism. All we have to do is remove whatever imbalances are in the way of the body performing the way it is supposed to and this exercise does that.

LIFTING:

You probably know how not to lift; never bend over at the waist. And maybe you've also learned the commonly prescribed method of correct lifting to prevent back pain. Squat with your knees apart, with the object between your knees and as close as possible to your body. Using your legs, stand up and lift, bringing the object closer to you body as you stand. Be sure to keep your back straight also.

For those people who can't manage a squat, however, there's another way. Put one knee on the floor. Then using your arms move the object onto the oposite thigh and with a firm grip on the object stand up.