5 Tips to Manage Your Back Pain
Back pain can often be a distressing and debilitating experience for most individuals. Whether it is an acute episode of back pain or you have dealt with chronic pain for years, there are strategies that will help you manage your back symptoms. Before we get there, it will be useful to understand that a painful experience may become more painful because your central nervous system (your brain and spinal cord) can choose to amplify your pain. It can sometimes trick you into making a stimulus that is generally not painful, a painful one. If this happens, you could feel more pain or in some cases once your body has healed from the original injury, you may still present with continued pain. Here are some strategies to help combat this:
Manage stress
Increases in stress or the inability to cope with stress can amplify the activity in your nervous system. Try to limit your stress as best as you can. When it does occur, find strategies to manage it more specifically. Breathing or mindfulness training can be helpful. Check out www.mindful.org for simple tips to begin training.
Sleep
Sleep is the body’s natural recovery mechanism. All individual’s need it. Sleep helps desensitize your nervous system and can improve your pain threshold or in other works require more stimulus to create a pain response. The recommended amount of sleep for an adult is between 7-9 hours. Strategies to improve your sleep include eliminating caffeine after lunchtime, avoiding screen time before or in bed, and practice relaxation strategies. For more information on sleep, visit the National Sleep Foundation.
Participate in Aerobic Exercise or Physical Activity
Physical activity is nature best pharmaceutical. Exercise has a number of positive factors on your body. It improves blood flow to your organs and muscles. Blood flow promotes healing. The chemical changes that occur with exercise can also desensitize your nervous system. It can reduce your pain! If you do not exercise, start by taking the stairs. Add small bouts of walking to your routine. Build up slowly over time.
Keep a positive mindset
Your brain is a powerful organ. Having negative thoughts, fear of moving, feeling depressed or feeling angry can increase the sensitivity of your nervous system. Focus on the positives. At the end of your day, try reflecting on the good things that happened. You may feel increased fulfillment on all you have accomplished.
Engage in activities you enjoy!
Avoiding activities because of pain can result in actually increasing your pain. Return to the activities you love. If you are concerned with pain during the activities. Try starting with either smaller bouts of the activities or a lower level of the activity.
These strategies can help you alleviate or manage chronic pain. For more information, talk to a healthcare provider who specializes in managing pain. Visit Somma PT & Performance and we will help you to feel well, move well and live well.