Posts Tagged ‘Medical Community’
Pain Relief From Lower Back Pain Requires Some Discipline
At some time in your life you will probably experience lower Back Pain. It is classified in the medical community as either acute (i.e. temporary flare-ups) or chronic (i.e. long lasting). Under any circumstances, it can be quite disabling, and is a condition that accounts for more sick leave than anything else.
Acute lower Back pain is usually brought about by some kind of trauma such as heavy lifting, a fall or car accident. The cause is usually no mystery. The damage occurs and symptoms are felt in muscle tissue, ligaments or tendons. Occasionally, of course, there may be a vertebrae fracture.
The causes of chronic lower back pain are less obvious. Onset occurs over a long period of time. Frequently the underlying cause is osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, disc degeneration or disc herniation. Diagnosis of these conditions is often quite complex.
Treatment of lower back pain is most often dictated by the underlying cause. Fortunately, almost all back pain sufferers can be treated non-surgically.
Opinions regarding the best treatments vary widely. The most obvious are pain medications, NSAIDs such as Ibuprofen, muscle relaxants and analgesics such as aspirin or acetaminophen. Beyond that, however, there are some very concrete steps that can be taken that are effective beyond any doubt for most people.
Exercise: For both acute and chronic lower back pain there is no more beneficial course of treatment than staying active and exercising. And, there is probably no better exercise for back pain than back stretching, an excellent method of achieving natural pain relief.
Back stretching exercise can help relieve lower back pain, often without medication. However, there are a few things you have to consider before you do any back stretching exercises in order to make sure that you don’t cause more harm in the process. This is where it is important for you to know the cause of your back pain since, if the injury is anything other than soft tissue injury, muscles, etc., stretching might actually do more harm. Beyond that, before undertaking any back stretching exercise it is crucial that you know how to do the exercises.
One of the best ways to learn how to do back stretching exercises is to purchase DVDs that demonstrate and guide you step by step through each of the routines. It is also very important to keep in mind your present state of health, body weight and ability to perform such exercises in order to ensure that you receive benefit and prevent inflicting any harm in the process.
If you back muscles are prone to strains and sprains, you should make simple back stretching exercises part of your daily routine. Stretching your back muscles as soon as you wake up will prepare your back and the entire body for the day ahead, and you are much less likely to suffer any sprains or strains throughout the day. Also, if you take a few minutes and stretch your back muscles at night before you go to bed, you will again have relaxed your back muscles from the day’s stresses and tensions.
Again, while there are a whole host of opinions about controlling lower back pain, simple, regular back stretching exercise offers the best long term pain relief.
Robert G. Knechtel
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/pain-relief-from-lower-back-pain-requires-some-discipline-110841.html
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Back Pain Medications for Back Injury Relief
Anyone who has ever suffered some form of Back injury has sought relief through the use of back pain Medications at some point in their life. In fact back issues are one of the most common conditions that doctors see every year. If you do go to the doctor there are a number of Medications he or she may prescribe to help keep the pain under control.
There is a general understanding within the medical community that pain relief is an important part of the healing process. For this reason the chances of being prescribed a drug for back pain when you visit the doctor are rather good. Part of healing from an injury of any sort involves being able to move around, even it it’s to only get out of bed for a few minutes several times a day. A degree of mobility is important to the general well being of anyone with back problems.
There are several classes of back pain medications that are in use today and these include anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID’s), acetaminophen, muscle relaxants, and opioids. These can be used by themselves or in combinations depending on the severity of the pain experienced and the cause of the injury.
NSAID’s are a group of anti-inflammatory drugs that include ibuprofen, aspirin, Ketoprofen, and Naproxen. These drugs have anti-inflammatory and anti swelling properties as well as being able to relieve pain and most can be gotten over the counter. Another OTC pain reliever is acetaminophen which most people know as Tylenol. Anacin-3 and Phenaphen are two other acetaminophen analgesics that can be used to reduce back pain.
Codeine and Morphine are to high powered pain killers commonly known as opioids. Doctors will prescribe these for those in severe pain when the pain killer mentioned above do not work. Because opioids do present an addiction hazard they need to be used cautiously and as prescribed.
Muscle relaxants work to control muscle spasms that happen when you injure your back. The reason most people have muscle spasms when they hurt their back is because the muscles around the injured area are trying to compensate for the loss of strength at the injured spot. These spasms can be painful and by relaxing the muscles we get relief from that pain.
Reducing pain is an integral part of healing a bad back and back pain medication should be used to help achieve that goal. Pain relief comes with a caveat; just because the pain is gone does not mean the injury is healed. Far to many people further aggravate their painful back by doing to much when their pain is being controlled by their medication.
Andrew Bicknell
http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/back-pain-medications-for-back-injury-relief-734399.html
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