Does acute or chronic back pain have you down?

Does acute or chronic back pain have you down?  Looking for alternatives to what your current back pain management plan is?   Read on! 

Practicing chiropractic in San Diego has exposed me to a patient base that is more interested in their health then in other areas of the country.  In addition to traditional chiropractic treatment for neck pain and back pain our office offers our patients a host of recommendations for self care of their pain that can become part of a healthy lifestyle. 

In order to help control episodes of back or neck pain, immediately drink several glasses of water.  In some cases, dehydration will cause muscular aches and back pain.  The rule of thumb of drinking eight, eight ounce glasses of water per day is healthy in general.  Incidentally, headaches can be caused by dehydration as well.  If you have headaches on a regular basis, increasing your water consumption may give you relief.

Ice applications to the area of pain can also be beneficial.  Ice helps reduce inflammation which not only causes pain but can trigger local muscle spasms that lead to functional losses.  There used to be an old rule concerning icing that suggested ice for the first 48 hours and then apply heat after that.  Modern clinical studies indicate that as long as you have pain, you have inflammation.  Inflammation always responds better to ice than it does to heat.  We recommend that our patients ice their back pain or neck pain 20 minutes at a time at least two times per day with at least a 20 minute break in between sessions.  Ice with a soft gel pack through a thin piece of clothing.  Lastly, watch for frostbite – if the skin over the area that you are icing turns red or brown and scabs over you did too much.

Try to not sleep on your stomach.  Stomach sleeping puts your back into extension which compresses the joints that run down the back of your spine.  You should either sleep on your back with your knees supported with a pillow or sleep on your side in the fetal position.  Either of these two positions may be comfortable for you and allow for a better nights sleep.

Do not try to exercise out of the pain.  Exercise is vital to strengthening your back and providing stability but it needs to begin when your original pain has subsided and or is no longer aggravated by physical activity.  The joints in our spines are supported by the ligaments and muscles.  Once injured, ligaments heal slowly and may never provide the support that they did before the injury.  We can improve our muscle tone, however, through exercise to regain pre-injury stability.

One last bit of advice that I will mention in this article is nutritional supplementation.  Nutritional supplements can not only help you heal faster but can help control pain and inflammation as well.  Among the common supplements that we recommend are essential fatty acids, Glucosamine, Chondroitin, SAMe and vitamin C.

Writers Bio

Dr. Steven R. Jones is a licensed Chiropractor in the state of California. He received his doctorate from Palmer College of Chiropractic-West in Sunnyvale, California. Dr. Jones has treated his patients for over 15 years at his own San Diego Chiropractic practice.

Dr. Jones is accepting new patients and would be happy to consult with you regarding your chiropractic needs.

Call Steve Jones at
(619) 280 0554
San Diego Chiropractic

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