With nearly 65 million Americans suffering from back pain on a daily basis, back pain has become an epidemic in our country. There are many reasons why back pain occurs, and things you can avoid to prevent making the back pain worse. There are also back pain treatment options that you can do at home to help with the pain! If the at-home remedies are not doing much for you, you can also see a Lexington chiropractor to help you reposition your spine and alleviate some of that pain.
Read on for some tips about how to reduce your back pain!
1. Exercise Regularly
Leading a sedentary lifestyle can be detrimental not just to your health, but to your spine health as well.
To keep your joints healthy and young, you have to stay fit and work out regularly. Doing strength training exercises can help you ensure you are building muscles around your joints as well.
It is recommended that you get 150 exercise minutes each week, and it is best to break this up throughout the different days. You could do 5 days of 30 minutes of exercise to get the optimal minutes each week.
2. Check Your Posture
Having a good posture is not always easy. It can also be pretty easy to forget to check your posture when you are sitting at your desk working, driving tour car, or even watching TV.
However, poor posture can be detrimental to your spine health. Not only will it cause lower back pain and upper back pain, it will also cause an unnecessary curvature of your spine that can lead to other problems.
To combat this, you can set a few reminders throughout the day on your phone to pop up so you can see that you have to check your posture. Eventually, this will start to be more of a habit.
3. Apply Ice and Heat
If you are experiencing pain, you can definitely try to combat that with ice and heat on a daily basis, sometimes several times per day.
This will be especially helpful to do in the first 48 hours if you injured your back. Switching between ice and heat can help to reduce swelling where the injury occurred.
Even if you have not had an injury, applying ice and heat to the affected area is a great back pain treatment option to do at home.
4. Lose Some Weight
If you notice that you have gained some weight lately, or have been overweight for quite some time, then it is time to lose that weight to help your back pain.
Why does weight matter?
Because when you gain weight, your center of balance shifts. This is especially true when your weight gain is mostly in your stomach.
Since back problems and weight gain are so closely related, it is vital to keep an eye on your weight to keep your back pain in check.
5. Change the Shoes You Wear
Many women who wear high-heeled shoes a lot of the time may suffer from back pain. The shoes push your weight forward, which causes you to walk differently than you normally would. It also affects your pelvis positioning and overall posture, which can affect how your back is positioned when walking, too.
If you can change the shoes you wear from high heels to more flat shoes, this could help with your posture and back.
Not only do high heels cause issues, but shoes that do not have the proper support can create issues as well. Knowing what type of foot you have and the gait you have can help you find shoes that will help provide maximum support and comfort.
6. See a Chiropractor Regularly
Seeing a chiropractor regularly will help your back issues over time, rather than just one-time fixes.
They are able to reposition your spine to be in the right position to cause you less pain. The best part of chiropractic treatment is that it is non-invasive and not painful, but at the same time, it still helps to restore the structure of your back to how it should be.
Not only will a chiropractor focus on your back and repositioning your spine, but they will also look at your neck and hips because they are all connected and affect one another.
Depending on the types of back pain that you are experiencing, a chiropractor would be able to give you more advice on how to deal with the pain.
7. Minimize Twisting
Sudden twisting can affect the natural curvature of the spine. Make sure you minimize twisting (especially if you are into fitness or do manual labor often).
If you are doing some type of twisting and your spine gives you any signs of pain, you need to stop right away.
If there is pain after twisting, you can try to reduce that pain through different exercises and stretches. Yoga is always a great option to stretch out your back if it is tight or twisted slightly in the wrong way.
See a Lexington Chiropractor
If you are suffering from back pain, there could be a lot of reasons for this, but you don’t need to live with the pain forever. Instead, you may need to see a Lexington chiropractor to help alleviate some of the back pain.
In addition to going to the chiropractor, you should also focus on exercising, losing weight if that is an issue, and always checking your posture.
Contact us at our Lexington chiropractic office so we can help you get back to your normal self again!