A common problem that most people will eventually experience is back pain. Back pain can be a one time condition or a chronic condition that affects those who have it for days, weeks, months, or even years. There are different factors that can cause back pain. Use the advice in the following article to isolate and eliminate these factors.
To properly treat back pain and swelling with ice while avoiding damaging sensitive skin, be sure to use care when applying the ice. Avoid applying ice directly to the skin. To create your own ice pack, use ice cubes or chips wrapped in a soft, dampened towel. Apply the ice pack to the injured area for no longer than 15 minutes.
Quit smoking. Among all of its other health risks, smoking can reduce the blood supply to the vertebrae that make up your spine. This loss of blood flow results in degeneration of the disks, making them more susceptible to injury and damage. This sort of disk damage doesn’t cause passing back pain but permanent injury.
If you are suffering from back pain, try to do what you can to reduce your tension. Feeling stressed or anxious will only cause your muscles to tense up more, worsening any muscle spasms you are already having. You may find you feel a lot less tense if you make sure you are getting enough rest, avoid caffeine, listen to soothing music and pray or meditate.
Many people do not think about back pain until it is too late. Most everyone is not active enough in their daily life. It is imperative that one stays active and physically fit. Also, when one gets a cold or a fever, it is often thought that rest is the key. Well, true to an extent, but getting active plays a vital role to optimized health including in your back.
Try sleeping on your side and place a pillow between your knees to help relieve and prevent back pain. The pillow between your knees will help keep you spine straight while you are sleeping so you can wake up feeling refreshed instead of sore. Consider buying a body-sized pillow for this purpose.
Sitting down for prolonged periods can be a bad idea for back pain sufferers. Even if you have to sit down all day at work, try to get up and walk around every half hour or so. It doesn’t have to be a long walk, but getting up and moving around a bit will do well for your back.
Sometimes, no matter what precautions you take, you can end up with that annoying back pain. What do you do? You should get off your feet and lay flat on your back. Also, drink plenty of fluids, preferably water. The water helps release toxins that hinder the pain in your muscles.
Proper stretching is probably one of the best ways you can work to eliminate frequent back pain. When you stretch, whether you’re doing toe touches, sit-ups or side bends, you are loosening the muscles and relieving some of the tension there. A failure to stretch properly could lead to a pulled muscle or spasms.
If you are suffering from back pain, you should always rest until the pain completely subsides. Some people will pop a few pills and attempt to muscle through the pain, but this actually causes a lot more damage and can turn sporadic back pain into chronic back pain. Be sure that you’re resting.
As stated before in the introduction above, eventually, most people will experience back pain. The pain can last a short time, or become a chronic condition that lasts for years. It is caused by different factors, some of which can be eliminated. Remember the advice from this article to help you isolate factors in your life that may be causing you back pain.