How to Reduce Your Back Pain

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If you suffer from back pain, you will know how debilitating it is. It can leave you unable to work, force you to cancel plans, and prevent you from enjoying your life to the full.

Different Ways to Reduce Your Back Pain

The good news is, that there are some ways to reduce the pain and stop it from taking over your life.

Yoga

If you’re one of the 80% of the population who experiences back pain at some time during their lives, you might wonder, how good is yoga for back pain? Because yoga involves stretching, increasing body strength, and improving flexibility, some of the techniques can reduce pain.

The important thing to remember is to start off slowly. Gentle yoga for beginners will allow you to build up your strength and can reduce pain gradually. It may not be a cure, but it will make the pain more manageable.

Achieve or maintain a healthy weight

If you’re currently at a healthy weight, it’s important to maintain this. If you’re over the recommended weight, you could improve your back pain by losing weight. Although it may be difficult to be active when you’re in pain, you can start by changing your diet.

Avoid crash dieting, as you’re more likely to put the weight back on when you stop. Instead, create a more manageable long-term food plan which will keep the weight off. Extra weight can be a burden on your back, particularly if you’re already experiencing pain.

Try acupuncture

If you can afford to spend money on acupuncture, it can be worth the cost. There are several explanations for how acupuncture works on back pain. One is that it stimulates your nervous system.

This can result in your body releasing natural pain-relieving chemicals. Although it usually takes more than one session to have a bigger reduction in your pain, if you’re in doubt, you could book a session and see if it’s worth paying for more.

Work on your posture

It’s easy to forget about posture when you’re sitting at a desk all day or moving around in a physically demanding job. Over time, you can lose strength in your back and this can make it harder to achieve the correct posture, causing you more pain.

Yoga can help with this. So can kinetic tape, until you get used to sitting and standing correctly, and build up the body strength you need to improve your posture.

Buy a TENS machine

If you want to decrease pain while reducing the need for medication, which should only be used for a limited time, you could try a TENS machine. This involves connecting the electronic pads to the areas of your back where the pain is greatest.

It sends small electrical impulses to provide short-term pain relief. It can also reduce the tightness in your back muscles. Tight muscles often contribute to back pain.