About 80 per cent of us will experience back pain at some point in our lives, with lower back pain the biggest problem. What can we do to manage and prevent this pain?
Most important is remaining as active as possible during low back pain. This may seem counter-intuitive, and may be difficult, but extensive research has confirmed prolonged periods of bed rest worsens low back pain.
Your body is designed to move. This may be tough during debilitating bouts of pain — but if you are in pain the best mantra you can enact is “little and often”; move a little, as often as you can. Eventually you can gradually increase your range of movement.
Some other keys to managing lower back pain:
Remember “little and often” is the good mantra: move a little and as often as possible, within tolerable levels of pain.
If you’re over your back pain, remember these preventative measures:
Follow a regular regimen for exercise as a sedentary and inactive lifestyle contributes to low back pain substantially.
Back pain works very much like the red engine dashboard light in a car. When the engine is not functioning properly the light on the dashboard lights up. With back pain it is the same thing — the red dashboard light is the back.
To fix the light, we must fix the engine — the engine is the whole body. In the past many sufferers from back pain have thought their problem is in the lower back, and most treatment has occurred here. Yet in as many as 75 per cent of cases the problem occurs elsewhere, other than the back. In only 25 per cent of cases does the problem actually occur in the lower back, therefore causing pain here.
Your pain might be coming from somewhere else, and the only way to properly diagnose the problem is to seek treatment. But expect results: you should expect progress in three sessions or fewer — if there’s no progress then get a second opinion.