Tips To Reduce Back Pain
It's a natural inclination that if something hurts, we try to avoid it. However, staying active is better for your back pain than lying down, even though when your back hurts the most, laying down might be the only thing you want to do! What ends up happening is that people with chronic back pain often stop doing their normal activities because they are afraid they will damage their backs. Then, little by little, they no longer can do their normal activities.
At the Spine Team Pain Center, we like to see our patients return to their normal activities as soon as they can, whether they're overcoming pain on their own, recovering from surgery, or recovering from injection treatments. You may need to scale back a bit so that you're not doing the activities as much or as often until the pain gets better, but you still should try to return to your daily activities. For example, if you are a regular jogger or walker, then you should get back to those activities as soon as possible. Maybe you might do a little less or for a shorter duration.
Getting back to normal activities is very important not only for pain management and function but also for your general well-being and mental health. When you feel like you can't do something you want to do; that becomes very frustrating and depressing.
A lot of studies on bed rest and back pain have been done. It turns out that any amount of bed rest leads to a longer duration of back pain. Bed rest does not help your back pain; it simply prolongs how long it will take for your back pain to go away. That is why we don't encourage bed rest at all. Rather, we encourage people to stay active.
Again, it's important to reiterate that we don't expect you to go out and run a marathon when your back is hurting, but you should continue to do your normal activities as much as possible. At least get to work if you can and make modifications as need, but bed rest should be avoided by all means.
Fortunately, you can take care of your back by yourself the vast majority of the time, but sometimes, you might need a Spokane back pain doctor. We tell our patients that the pain may feel severe, but it's usually not a harmful process. If you can keep moving, you're probably going to feel better a lot sooner than you will if you lay in bed.
Tips for a Better Back
Your Spokane pain doctor can also provide a number of non-surgical treatments, as our clinic is dedicated to helping people solve their back pain problems without surgery. We offer:
- Epidural Steroid Injection
- Medial Branch Block
- Radiofrequency Neuroablation
- Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy
- Trigger Point Injection
At the Spine Team Pain Center, we have the technology and the specialists to find, diagnose, and treat back pain effectively, usually with injections.
Our goal is to help you feel better and move better. We provide both short-term and long-term relief for patients suffering from debilitating back pain.
