Back Pain Treatment and Relief

Acute Back Pain Treatment

Acute back pain stands a good chance of improvement within a few days to weeks. The following will help:

• Continuing with your day-to-day activities, wherever possible.

• Treatment with over-the-counter (OTC) painkillers and anti-inflammatory medicines in consultation with your GP. These provide relief to patients with mild to moderate pain.

• Short-term treatment with a muscle relaxant.

• Limiting bed rest to the minimum, since complete rest does not aid recovery.

• Muscle strengthening exercises and improving the posture through activities such as stretching exercises, swimming, and walking. Yoga, too, can gently stretch muscles and facilitate pain relief. The mild discomfort that you will experience when you begin these exercises usually disappears as muscle strength improves.

• Applying cold compresses (for example, a bag of frozen peas wrapped in a tea towel) to reduce the initial inflammation. This should be followed by local heat application (you can use a heat pad, a hot water bottle, or take a hot shower) after a few days to help ease muscular pain and rpovide relief.

Chronic Back Pain Treatments 

Self-help treatments: Staying active is one of the best ways to keep your back mobile and help you get better. It can also reduce your chances of getting back pain again.

Anti-Inflammatory medicines: You doctor may prescribe an anti-inflammatory or stronger pain killer depending on the amount of pain and how it is affecting your daily life.

Muscle relaxants: Muscle relaxants may help with muscle spasms. These are usually only used for short periods of time as they can be addictive.

Physiotherapy and Manipulation: Consider seeing a qualified physiotherapist, osteopath or chiropractor as some of the treatments they provide, like physiotherapy or back or spinal manipulation, may provide short term comfort in some people with acute back pain or nerve root pain.

Complimentary Therapy and treatments: For example the Alexander Technique which helps make you aware of your posture, balance and co-ordination. Counselling may also be helpful in dealing with how back pain affects daily life. Acupuncture can also be useful to stimulate the bodies natural pain killers.

Interventional Therapy: Pain pathways can be blocked or numbed in several ways to achieve pain relief. This is achieved by means of epidural steroids, nerve blocks, and analgesic pump devices.

Treatment at a pain clinic: If you have chronic pain, your doctor may refer you to a pain clinic. Pain clinics work with you to help relieve your pain by treating your symptoms and also by giving you counselling to help you deal with the pain.

Surgery: In rare cases you may require surgery to repair a slipped or ruptured disc.

Nutritional Therapy and Supplements for back pain

Vitamin C: Collagen is largely responsible for the strength and resilience of the discs of cartilage located between the vertebrae of the spine. One study has shown that a daily dose of 1500 to 2500g of vitamin C (which is important in the formation of collagen) can help alleviate back pain.

Glucosamine Sulphate: is a constituent of intervertable discs. Clinical experience suggests that taking 500mg of glucosamine sulphate 2 -3 times per dat may stimulate healing and repair. Glucosamine hydrochloride may also be used.

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