How to Take Care of Yourself with Back Pain Episodes

One of the most common questions I get in practice is "I just hurt my back. What should I do?"

Of course, ideally, I suggest making an emergency appointment with your local chiropractor. But not all situations are ideal. So here's what you should do in case of you have low back pain episodes.

Now, there are many causes of back pain. It ranges from bone cancer to visceral (organ) problems. This is the reason why you need to see the doctor first. However, in this article I'll focus back pain arising out of musculoskeletal issues.

In musculoskeletal low back pain can be largely divided into two groups.

• Sprain/Strain: Muscle and/or ligament rupture due to overuse or trauma

• Spasm: Contracture of muscle due to irritation(trauma, chemical) or overuse (fatigue)

Crytherapy: In either case, inflammatory substances are present initially. So first thing that needs to be done is cryotherapy; or better known as ice compression. Although one's first impression might be to use hot pack with muscle spasm, this isn't the case in first 24hours of injury.

Plenty of people use ice without success. However, this is only due to the fact that they are not aggressive enough with the modality. Minimum I suggest is 30 minutes of ice with compression every 2 hours.

Rest: There is plenty of misunderstanding when it comes to rest. Initially, back pain was treated with long term bed rest. Then clinicians found out that this seemed to make the back pain worse in the long run. So they started recommending against rest. However, this only holds up with long term care.

In initial phase of an injury, rest is necessary. We are talking about structural failure in traumatic cases. Your body needs some time to catch up with regeneration.

So now that you've taken care of acute phase of the injury for yourself or loved ones, what should you do next? Well, if pain goes away, just be careful not to aggravate the condition. If symptoms persist without improvement for more than a few days, it's time to call your chiropractor.

There are several modalities of treating non-complicated low back pain. Chiropractic spinal manipulation has by far the highest satisfaction rate by the patients in many peer reviewed double blind studies.

Most importantly, follow your doctor's advice. Patient compliance is the biggest determinant when it comes to treatment outcome. As stated earlier, there are some serious conditions that may cause back pain. If you have any fever, numbness, tingling, loss of bowel control, or other accompanying symptoms, professional help is needed urgently.