Natural Therapies for Low Back Pain

spinal stenosis

Low back pain is something that plagues hundreds and thousands of people, in the United States alone. Low back pain can make it difficult to walk, stand or sit for long periods of time, cause pain and complications in other parts of the body and make it difficult to get everyday or work related tasks completed. Luckily, there are a lot of natural therapies to help reduce low back pain when the alternatives like surgery or prescription pain pills are not the desired form of treatment. Take the next few minutes to learn about these various nature therapies for the treatment of low back pain, or at least the reduction in the pain.

Seeing a chiropractor is a great natural remedy or therapy to deal with low back pain as they are experts in the spine and how it can cause pain disorders in the low back or worsen back pain caused by problems other than spine issues. A chiropractor can uses various techniques to help loosen the various joints in the back that are causing pain due to repetitive stress, improper back support or traumatic event. These causes often result in a tissue injury that restricts the joints from being able to move properly. This inability to have a full range of motion puts stress on other parts of the body, like the lower back for example, which causes pain. When the chiropractor manipulates those joints they are helping to restore the mobility of the joints.

Aside from just manipulating or adjusting the spine and joints affected, they generally also make recommendations to your diet and the vitamins and minerals you are taking in. They might also recommend various exercises you can do at home to prevent further pain and injury.

Another alternative, natural therapy for low back pain is soft tissue manipulation or mobilization. This type of therapy is generally performed by a physical therapist, but can also be done by a properly trained massage therapist who you can usually get a referral for through your chiropractor, if they feel it may be beneficial to your particular cause of low back pain. This method involves using the hands to move the soft tissues in such a way that the affected muscle becomes loosened and the natural and proper muscle balance is restored, eliminating stress and overuse in the wrong areas. The physical therapist will also give you a variety of exercises you can do at home to enhance the therapy you receive from them.

While there are still many other alternative, natural therapy methods to help alleviate low back pain, the last one we'll discuss here is acupuncture. While, like most types of therapies, acupuncture does not work for everyone, but because it can be beneficial on a number of levels it doesn't hurt to try it out. Acupuncture is the process in which a professional inserts needles into specific areas of the back in order to unblock the natural pathways in which energy flows through the body. When it works, acupuncture reduces the pain and helps increase your ability to be more active.