Posts Tagged ‘Back Pain Treatments’

Is Yoga an Effective Treatment for Back Pain

The word yoga means ‘unity’ or ‘harmony’. Yoga is a way of healing the body through exercises that combine postures, movements and breathing techniques.

To the extent that stretching and strengthening your body is helpful – and I believe this beyond a doubt – yoga instruction can be an excellent treatment for back pains. To the extent that stress contributes to back pain yoga instruction can bring significant relief.

The yoga philosophy of never forcing or straining, and of moving in a fluid, meditative manner, makes excellent sense for people with back problems. But yoga philosophy also encompasses the harmony of mind, body and spirit – a concept that is difficult for some back pain sufferers to grasp, or to take seriously. Although yoga traces its history back to the Hindu culture of India, it is not a religion.

A few of the US survey participants learned yoga entirely on their own, from books and articles. But those who were helped the most got started with professional and personalized instruction. Not all yoga teachers have the experience or the desire to work effectively with people who report a history of back problems. Some of them, however, possess advanced degrees in exercise physiology and may be especially qualified to prescribe exercise. An important determinant of success is the instructor’s willingness to modify the therapy to suit your needs.

If yoga instruction is available where you live, drop by the school or studio and speak to an instructor. You may get a chance to see the instructor in action, and determine whether you feel you’ll get the kind of intelligent, individual attention that you were hoping to find.

Before I extol yoga any further, however, I must interject a note of caution: Many formal yoga positions are dangerous to attempt during any episode of pain. This is especially true for just-recovering back sufferers.

At least two regular yoga positions could actually cause considerable injury to your back if you tried to perform them while you were in pain, or before you had developed the necessary flexibility. One is the Cobra, which calls for you to lie on your stomach and arch your back by raising your head and chest. The other is the Plough, in which you lie on your back, then raise your straightened legs (ouch!) up and over your head, until you can touch your toes behind your head.

Here’s one yoga exercise that you can perform anywhere, as it involves nothing more than deep breathing to help you relax and tone your abdominal muscles:

Start by taking a deep breath from your abdomen. (Put your fingers on your belly to convince yourself that it – and not just your chest – is expanding.)

Keep inhaling through your nose for 6 seconds.

Hold the air inside your lungs for 3 seconds.

Exhale through your mouth for 7 seconds. As you do so, let yourself go limp.

Repeat this series of steps a few times, alternating the deep breaths with normal breaths (in order to avoid the risk of hyperventilating).

Back Pain: the Epidemic

Back pain is a major problem these days for people all over the western world. It has been estimated that at any one time 20% of the population suffer from lower back pain and that doesn’t take into account all the other forms like sciatica, upper back pain, mid back pain and neck pain. It is a huge interruption in a sufferers day to day life and costs the world billions of dollars in productivity.

Back pain is caused by numerous reasons, primarily muscle imbalances from injury, diet, obesity, posture, exercise and more.

Back pain treatments vary depending on the diagnosis of your pain and can vary from a passive mobilization, to drugs all the way to surgery .

There are various back pain relief measures both natural and pharmaceutical available. Chronic and severe back pain may require temporary medication to allow the acute back pain to settle. However if you take a natural healing approach along with the medication, you should get a better longer lasting result.

Sciatica is one type of back pain affecting a large number of people these days. It is characterized by pain in the hip and buttock region and sometime includes referred pain down the leg. This can go down one or both legs into the thigh, calf, ankle and foot. Stretching is often prescribed for back pain and sciatica but rarely provides any lasting relief .

Some natural steps for back pain relief are:

Lose Weight – Try to stay slim. If you have excess weight on your upper body, it will overload on your back. Practicing yoga or tai chi are natural ways of back pain treatment that can also assist with weight loss.

Eat Healthy – Vitamins and minerals are important for your overall health. So, try to eat as much healthy food as possible to help get rid of stress in your body and get relief from back pain.

Massage – Massage a common choice for people trying to get relief from back pain. It also acts as great stress reliever. But if you have acute back pain, do consult a skilled back pain therapist before going for a massage.

There are certain other techniques like yoga, exercise, massage acupuncture and chiropractic that prove to be effective back pain treatments for some sufferers. Others prefer to take medication prescribed by their doctor to lessen the irritation of back pain but they are not good for health. Adopting the natural approach to get back pain relief is therefore considered to be the most sensible approach to take if you can find someone skilled enough to do the job.