Back pain comes in many different forms. Maybe you overdid it planting the garden or you tweaked something while you were jogging and now you’re dealing with some spinal discomfort. These types of mild spine pain are typically short-lived when treated with simple conservative options like rest, anti-inflammatory medications and controlled exercise. However, for a good deal of Americans, their back pain is anything but short-lived. They’ve been dealing with back pain for weeks, months or even years, and they wonder if they’ll ever find relief. In today’s blog, we share some tips for treating these instances of long-lasting back pain.
4 Treatments For Long-Lasting Back Pain
We can’t say that the following treatments will always work for your chronic back problem because spine pain is so specific to the individual. With that said, if you seriously want to do what you can to put an end to your long-lasting back pain, consider a combination of these tips.
- Connect With A Local Specialist – A lot of people either hope that their back pain will eventually just go away on its own, or they search the internet for quick fixes for their back pain. Unfortunately, for chronic back pain, there is rarely a quick and passive solution. Instead, do yourself a favor and get an official diagnosis from a professional in your area who can provide an individualized assessment. They’ll be able to give you treatment advice tailored to your exact condition, which will increase your likelihood of success. Let an expert help combat your long-lasting back pain.
- Dive Into Active Treatments – While this point depends on your specific diagnosis, oftentimes active treatment options prove more successful than passive interventions. Anti-inflammatories, painkillers and rest all can play a role in your recovery, but they shouldn’t be the only techniques you pursue. You’ll likely have much more success finding back pain relief if you pursue treatments like physical therapy, strength training exercises or weight management to help take stress off the spine. Treatment isn’t always going to be easy, but it will be worth it, so consider some active treatment options.
- Spinal Injections – Spinal injections aren’t exactly an active treatment option, but for patients who are dealing with chronic back pain because they ignored an issue for too long, a pain-relieving injection can provide short-term and long-term benefits. Concentrated steroid injections can provide almost instant pain relief, and while that relief will fade over time, oftentimes it can make other treatments more bearable. Exercise and weight loss that was once difficult due to your constant spine pain can now be controlled in the short-term, allowing you to have more success when diving into those treatment techniques. Again, you shouldn’t expect spinal injections to completely solve your pain because the effects of the injection will fade over time, but it can absolutely help spur long-term pain relief by helping control discomfort while you pursue more effective methods.
- Posture Self Assessment – Our posture oftentimes plays a role in our expression of back pain. That’s why it’s so important to conduct regular self evaluations of your spinal positioning throughout the day. Are you slouching in your office chair? Hunched forward when driving? Contorted while you’re watching television on the couch? It’s tough to break bad posture habits that are contributing to spine pain, but that process begins by acknowledging when we’re putting our back in a bad position. Strive to keep your head positioned above your shoulders and invest in supportive seats that help protect your spine instead of contributing to bad habits.
If you can do a combination of the above, we’re confident that you’ll be able to help control or relieve back pain that has been plaguing you for some time. And if you want a professional to help guide you on your journey, look no further than Dr. Sinicropi and his talented team. For more information, contact his office today.
