Navigating low back pain
If you’ve ever experienced low back pain, you have that in common with about 80% of people in the United States. Low back pain is very common and can be annoying at best and debilitating at worst.
Thankfully, most of the time back pain does not require imaging or invasive procedures to improve or resolve. This blog post takes a high level look at back pain and gives you some tips on what to do if you encounter it.
What causes back pain?
Back pain can happen for a variety of reasons like prolonged sitting, after using sub-optimal body mechanics during activity or normal wear and tear as you get older. Lifestyle factors play a role, too such as stress, smoking, and inactivity.
Wear and tear is often referred to with terms like “disc degeneration”, “disc bulge”, and “degenerative joint disease”. While these terms can seem alarming, it does not mean that there is necessarily cause for alarm as these finding are often associated with normal, age-related changes to our bodies. In fact, those structures are may not even the direct source of a person’s back pain.
What is pain, anyway?
Pain is the body’s way of getting your attention to make a change. The network of nerves in your nervous system carry messages to and from the body and brain. They monitor different parts of the body and are an alarm system of potential threats. If the brain senses a threat, it produces pain to tell your body to take action. Pain isn’t something to be afraid of, think of it as a signal to make a positive change.
It is also important to consider how long a person has been in pain because that can change an approach to addressing it. Acute pain is what is felt suddenly because of injury and goes away once tissues have healed. Healing usually doesn’t take longer than 3 months.
Persistent pain is pain that lasts beyond the time needed for healing. When this occurs it can indicate that the nervous system has become extra sensitive and it can only takes a little bit of movement, activity, or change in emotion to set off your sensitive alarm system and cause pain.
If you’re experiencing back pain, you may be able to improve your symptoms within several weeks. Here are some simple ways that you can begin to address your back pain at home.
A healthy lifestyle
Being mindful of your overall health and wellness is important for reducing pain including habits like:
Staying active and moving as tolerated
Eating healthy food
Getting enough sleep
Managing chronic conditions like diabetes, blood pressure and mental health conditions
Staying up-to-date on preventive health screenings
Movement
Even if you have back pain, performing pain free movements or moving within a pain-free range reduces back pain because it promotes circulation and helps with healing.
With an acute injury, initial rest may be recommended depending on symptoms, but too much rest can make pain worse and delay recovery.
Research shows that pretty much any kind of movement helps reduce back pain. If you haven’t exercised or been active in a while, start with the movements that are the most tolerable and enjoyable to you.
Work up to 30 minutes of moderate exercise at least 5 days per week. These activities might include walking, biking, swimming, Tai Chi, or yoga.
In addition to general movement, these are a few moves that can also feel good to a stiff or painful lower back:
Diaphragmatic Breathing
Pelvic Tilts
Trunk Rotation (Check out this video to learn more)
Figuring out what moving within the ‘pain free’ zone means to you is best illustrated with a stoplight metaphor.
Green light: the exercises make you feel less pain and stiffness or sense a positive shift in your symptoms.
Yellow light: you experience mild discomfort with the exercises, proceed with caution.
Red light: You experience worsening pain with the exercises, stop the exercise and move on to the next, you can try reintroducing that movement again later if at all.
Other helpful strategies
Ensuring optimal postures during work tasks, household tasks, lifting objects, sleeping, and driving.
Ice and heat:
For long-standing pain or discomfort, try either ice or heat and use whichever one works best for you. For new onset of discomfort ice is typically best.
Use an ice pack wrapped in a towel to protect your skin for heat, use a heating pad on a low or medium setting. Use the ice pack or heating pad for 10-15 minutes every 2-3 hours as needed.
Seeking Physical Therapist help
If you are dealing with acute or persistent lower back pain, it can be highly beneficial to see a physical therapist. Physical therapists are musculoskeletal experts and can save you time and money by preventing the need for more expensive treatments, imaging, and medications. And are proven to improve the quality of life of their patients.
When it comes to reaping these benefits, they are most appreciated when used early on versus waiting for pain to become more debilitating before asking for help.
In fact, a recent analysis shows that seeking early physical therapist care for acute low back pain has an economic benefit to patients and the healthcare system of an average of $4,160 compared to usual care. See this report on the economic value of physical therapy for more information.
To see a physical therapist in the state of Michigan you are not required to have a referral to have a sessions with a PT (though you may need one for it to be covered by insurance- check your plan requirements) which can help you get started right away.
Seeking medical help
While the majority of back pain is not caused by a serious underlying condition, be sure to contact your healthcare provider immediately if you experience persistent and unusual symptoms such as if:
Your pain is the result of a fall or accident
You are 70 years or older with new onset back pain
The pain doesn’t go away, even at night or when lying down
You have weakness is one or both legs
You experience sudden changes in bowel, bladder, or sexual function
You have a history of cancer, weakened immune system, or osteoporosis
You are also experiencing sudden, unexpected weight loss
Preventing back pain
You may or may not be surprised to learn that being physically fit and active is one of the best ways to prevent back pain. It is a big part of leading a healthy pain-preventing lifestyle that also includes getting enough sleep, eating a healthy diet, quitting smoking, and managing chronic conditions. Additionally, using optimal body mechanics during activity and avoiding movements that are awkward, repetitive, or too heavy will prevent injury as well.
If you have questions about how to prevent or address pain and injury, get in touch with Northbound.