9 Strategies for Lower Back Pain Relief
Back pain, including lower back pain, can have a wide variety of causes in adults, from strains and sprains while working in the house or garden to old sports injuries or chronic conditions. For the majority of people, symptoms usually improve within several days, with lower back pain treatments including rest, over the counter medications and at-home strategies – often in combination.
Sudden or severe back pain should be checked by a healthcare provider, as should pain that persists and becomes chronic. However, you may find lower back pain relief with these simple strategies.
Home Remedies
Healthcare providers may first recommend that you try at-home lower back pain treatments:
Heat or Ice
Ice is regularly used for recent or acute injuries, helping to minimize pain and inflammation. Try applying ice to your lower back three times a day. Heat is recommended for treating older injuries or chronic pain, helping to relax muscles and increase circulation. Moist heat in particular, such as baths, showers and heat packs are thought to work well.
Medication
There are two primary forms of over-the-counter medication used to provide lower back pain relief: nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and acetaminophen. Both may be effective at relieving back pain in minor instances, although NSAIDs will specifically target the inflammation that causes swelling. Other forms of medication may also be recommended, such as prescription pain relievers, muscle relaxants, narcotics/opioids or even antidepressants.
Medicated Creams
Skin creams, salves or patches may assist with lower back pain relief when your muscles are tense or sore. They typically include ingredients that cool, heat or numb the affected area, such as camphor, menthol or lidocaine. Super Patch’s Freedom Patch works differently, interacting with the nervous system to influence pain signals sent to the brain. You can learn more about how these patches work.
Treatments
If home remedies aren’t effectively providing lower back pain relief, you may try a number of medical lower back pain treatments:
Physical Therapy
Working with a physical therapist is advised if you have been unsuccessful at relieving back pain in over 4-6 weeks. Here are a number of techniques they may utilize to address your symptoms.
Massage
Studies have found that both relaxation as well as structural massages, which involve soft-tissue techniques for muscles and bones, may provide lower back pain relief within a number of weeks. This type of therapy requires multiple treatments.
Complementary Therapy
There are several types of complementary therapies that may help provide lower back pain relief. These may include acupuncture, where hair-thin sterilized needles are inserted into precise points in the body to release blocked energy, and movement therapies such as yoga and tai chi, to help stretch and strengthen back muscles. Complementary therapies are thought to work best when used in conjunction with other lower back pain relief strategies.
General Healthy Habits to Reduce Risk of Lower Back Pain
Staying Active & Stretching
While you may be tentative to keep moving after an injury, staying active is highly recommended for both supplying lower back pain relief and from stopping existing pain from getting worse. Low-impact exercise promotes healing and increases blood flow, while a lack of movement can cause the muscles around your spine to weaken or stiffen.
Practice gentle stretching too. Tight hamstrings are particularly notorious for contributing to lower back pain; try to carefully stretch your hamstrings at least twice a day, holding for 15-30 seconds at a time.
Stick to your normal activity levels where possible, aiming to get moving at least three times a week. This also helps you to maintain a healthy weight, which reduces the risk of back pain by lightening the load on your lower back. Stop activity that increases pain, but don’t avoid moving due to fear of pain.
Explore Supplements
If we don’t manage to get enough of the nutrients we need from our daily diet, supplements can help. Many individuals don’t meet their daily vitamin D requirements, which are important for bone health, particularly in women. A lack of magnesium can also lead to muscle cramps and weakness. Carefully adding important nutrients into your diet through supplementation can strengthen and protect your joints, bones and muscles. This in turn can assist with preventing and relieving lower back pain.
Maintain Good Posture
Practicing correct posture helps ease the pressure placed on the lower back. A few simple adjustments can help improve posture:
- Engage your abdominal muscles
- Try keep your head stacked over the pelvis, avoiding straining the neck forward
- Roll your shoulders down the back and away from your ears
- When sitting, keep your feet on the ground and avoid crossing your legs
- When standing, keep your feet shoulder-width apart, with your weight distributed evenly across both your feet
While the following are less likely, more serious strategies for lower back pain relief include cortisone injections to help decrease inflammation and temporary relieve pain, radiofrequency ablation, which interferes with pain signals sent to the brain, implanted nerve stimulators and surgery.
Understanding Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain is one of the most common reasons people visit healthcare providers. It can be caused by many different conditions, injuries or diseases, even underlying chronic conditions, but most often it is the result of injury to muscles or tendons in the back.
About the Lower Back
The spine is made up of 24 separate bones called vertebrae, which are stacked one on top of the other. The lumbar spine, located in the lower back, consists of a number of these vertebrae. It plays a crucial role in supporting the weight of the upper body. Everyday movements such as twisting, bending and managing the muscles in the pelvis, hips, legs and feet are also governed by the lumbar spine. The nerves, disks, cartilage between the disks, ligaments, muscles and bones in the lumbar spine are therefore susceptible to wear, tear and injury over time, sometimes resulting in lower back pain. At the bottom of the spine, below the vertebrae, are the sacrum and coccyx bones.
Lower Back Pain Symptoms
Lower back pain is sometimes referred to as lumbosacral pain or lumbago.
Symptoms of lower back pain may appear both suddenly or gradually. Pain may occur after a specific event, such as bending or twisting the spine, perhaps with an audible “pop” at the time of incidence, or the cause of pain may be unknown. Lower back pain may be sharp, presenting as muscle spasms or stiffness, or it may be felt as a dull ache, perhaps in the hips and/or pelvis. The pain may worsen with sitting, rapidly improve while walking, or be noticeably worse in the morning. Pain may also affect posture, making it hard to stand up straight. Pain may also radiate down the buttocks and back of the legs, which may indicate a condition known as sciatica.
Potential Causes of Lower Back Pain
Many different injuries, conditions or diseases may be the causes of lower back pain. These include:
Mechanical or functional injuries: Strains and sprains to muscles, tendons and ligaments are the most common causes of lower back pain, resulting in roughly 97% of all incidences.
Fractures: Breaks to the spine may occur in traumatic injury, or as the result of certain conditions such as spondylolysis or osteoporosis which increase the risk of fractures.
Disk issues: Complex disks made largely of cartilage and a gelatinous core are cushioned between the spinal vertebrae. Disks may bulge from their positions and press on nerves, flatten over time and offer less protection (degenerative disk disease), or tear (known as a herniated disk), resulting in lower back pain.
Arthritis: Osteoarthritis or “wear and tear” arthritis is a common cause of inflammation, stiffness and pain in the lower back.
More information on structural problems such as spinal stenosis, diseases that cause direct or referred pain such as kidney stones, and a condition called spondylolisthesis involving slipped vertebrae can be found in the following articles outlining back pain specific to men and women.
Non-Specific Lower Back Pain
It is not always possible to identify causes of lower back pain, and lumbago often remains undiagnosed as a result. Strains and sprains are usually responsible, but a number of symptoms may contribute and result in ongoing chronic back pain.
While it may be difficult to pinpoint the source of pain when looking for relief, certain risk factors may help with causation. Both manual jobs that include lifting and pulling movements, or twisting of the spine, and sedentary jobs that render workers desk bound, put individuals at risk of lower back pain. Smoking, being obese or inactive, having a demanding job or being overtly stressed, standing for a long time or suffering with depression may also contribute to lower back pain.
When to Seek Help
Lower back pain is regularly resolved on its own over time, but in some instances you may need to seek help for your lumbago. If pain lasts four weeks or longer, gets worse over time or is present alongside other symptoms such as fever, considerable weight gain or loss, bladder issues or loss of function in extremities, medical attention should be sought out.
Looking for Back Pain Relief? 9 Strategies That Could Help
Our back muscles and spine support most of the body’s weight, playing a part in everyday movements such as sitting, standing and walking. It is no surprise, then, that back pain is one of our most common complaints, particularly as we age, with back pain relief frequently being sought out. If you want to know more about your symptoms, here are a few common causes of back pain as well as advice on when to seek medical attention.
Improve Your Posture To Reduce Back Pain
Bad posture can aggravate back pain, especially if you are prone to sitting for long stretches of time. Stand with your chest lifted, tailbone tucked in and shoulders back. Try achieve the same when sitting, with your body supported against the back of your chair and feet flat on the floor. You could also secure a cushion or rolled towel between your lower back and chair for more support.
Use Ice and Heat
Both ice and heat are generally commended as ways to alleviate pain. Regular applications of ice may reduce pain and inflammation from recent or acute injuries, while heat is recommended to increase circulation and relax muscles in instances of older, chronic pain.
Don’t Over-Rest
If you are wondering how to relieve your back pain, don’t head straight for the bed. It may seem counter-intuitive, but bed rest may only aggravate your symptoms. In fact, lying still is considered to be one of the worst responses to back pain, with only one or two days of rest being recommended. Thereafter, it is advised that you begin moving slowly again. Exercise is considered to be one of the most effective ways to provide general and lower back pain relief, so trying walking, swimming or yoga if possible.
Prioritize Quality Sleep
Poor sleep and back pain go hand-in-hand. A sore back can keep you up at night, while poor sleep conditions can worsen your symptoms. Lying on your side with a pillow placed between the knees to neutralize your spine can help supply back pain relief, while securing a pillow behind the knees is ideal for sleeping on your back.
Get OTC or Prescription Medication
In addition to ibuprofen and paracetamol, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) drugs and acetaminophen may provide some back pain relief and are both available over the counter. If you are experiencing more than mild symptoms, NSAIDs, as well as muscle relaxants, are also offered in prescription strengths. For back pain relief from more severe conditions, medication can be administered through a spinal injection. However, studies show that medication alone is not enough to offer back pain relief, so you will likely need additional treatment to ease your symptoms.
Physical and Massage Therapy
In addition to identifying the source of your pain, physical therapists can address symptoms both by implementing treatment and prescribing back pain exercises for you to practice on your own.
Treatment could incorporate spinal manipulation, electrical stimulation, acupuncture as well as massage. More recently, therapists have been including transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) in their treatment plans, where incoming pain signals are blocked by delivering mild electric pulses to the nerves.
Back pain exercises could include specialized moves to strengthen core muscles that support the back, as well as general guidance for sitting, standing and moving in a way that protects the spine. Increasing your strength, endurance and flexibility is a great long-term strategy for providing back pain relief, although it takes time to produce results. Regularly administered sports, Swedish or destress massages may also improve pain and function if you receive them regularly.
Talk it Out
You may wonder why you would see a psychologist if you are exploring how to relieve back pain. But research has found cognitive behavioral therapy in particular to be very effective in providing back pain relief. Identifying and changing thought and behavioral patterns surrounding pain or disability may help you alleviate your symptoms.
Try Biofeedback
Another side-effect-free method of general or lower back pain relief is biofeedback. This process entails a practitioner using specialized equipment to measure functions in your body. Based on the feedback provided, your practitioner can suggest physiologic changes you can make to help provide back pain relief. These may be slight adjustments in your body, such as breathing differently or relaxing certain muscles. Practiced over time, these behaviors can be an effective method for reducing pain without equipment or medication.
Use a Freedom Patch
Pain is perceived in the brain, where it registers signals sent from around the body. Altering these signals can influence our perception of pain. This is how the Freedom Patch from Super Patch works to provide back pain relief. Each patch interacts with the nervous system through a unique formation of ridges that resemble a QR code. This interaction can influence messages sent to the brain and help reduce sensations of pain. The good news is that simple measures are usually effective at relieving most episodes of back pain, especially if you are under 60. Surgery is rarely needed. Home-care plus using the body correctly may be all that is needed to provide effective back pain relief within a few weeks.