Medical professionals acknowledge the most effective solutions for alleviating lower back discomfort.
Tossing Aside Traditional Approaches: A Fresh Perspective on Lower Back Pain
America's emergency rooms are jammed with folks grappling with lower back pain, making it a leading reason for doctors' visits across the nation. The twist? Medical professionals are finally acknowledging they've been tackling it all wrong...
By relying on drugs, historically their go-to treatment, they've merely exacerbated the problem. That's the main takeaway from new directives drafted by The American College of Physicians (ACP). They concur with health gurus like me who've long been advocating for a more natural, holistic approach.
So, what's the game plan? Reliable, time-tested methods for easing lower back pain that practitioners like myself have been using for years.
Stripping Away the Backache
In 2013, researchers dished the lowdown on major health ailments across the globe in a report titled, "The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010". The extensive study revealed that low back pain (LBP) is the top cause of disability worldwide, ranking sixth in overall disability burden. The conclusion?
"LBP is more detrimental to the global populace than any other condition. With the aging population, there is a pressing need for further research to better understand LBP in various settings."
With the overuse of over-the-counter non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and addictive prescription painkillers pushed aside, we can finally spotlight effective, natural therapeutic remedies for lower back pain relief. This is a significant stride... because treatments once dismissed by the medical community will now be recommended as the first choice in self-care and clinical settings.
The ACP arrived at these new recommendations after reviewing randomized, controlled trials and systematic reviews published up to April 2015 on noninvasive drug therapies and nondrug treatments for lower back pain. The emphasis was on reduction, elimination, or improvement of low back pain and function, leading to less disability and increased ability to work and engage in daily activities.
The ACP now offers these three recommendations:
1st Recommendation points to the best results for acute and sub-acute lower back pain with heat, massage, and acupuncture.
2nd Recommendation suggests chronic low back pain patients initially pursue a multifaceted natural approach, incorporating exercise, acupuncture, meditation, yoga, tai chi, progressive relaxation, biofeedback, and other similar therapy modalities.
3rd Recommendation proposes that for those struggling with persistent low back pain who have failed the aforementioned treatments, "clinicians and patients should consider pharmacologic treatment with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs as a primary solution, or tramadol or duloxetine as second-line therapy. Clinicians should only consider opioids as an option in patients who have exhausted the previous treatments and only if the potential benefits outweigh the risks for individual patients and after a discussion of known risks and realistic benefits with patients." The ACP has softened this third recommendation as a "weak recommendation."
Encouraging a Holistic Mindset
Regular readers will recognize my enthusiasm for holistic wellness, especially in the realm of pain relief. That embrace encompasses self-care solutions and therapies that involve practitioners from various natural healing modalities. Let's glance at several areas that can help reduce, resolve, and prevent low back pain.
Mind-Body Connection: The mind takes center stage in how the body reacts to external stressors and tensions related to work, relationships, finances, family, and beyond. These concerns create muscle tension, trigger points, limited range of motion, reduced oxygen and nutrients moving through the tissue, and, consequently, pain. Many people are unaware that emotional stress, emotional upheaval, repressed anger, and rage are stored in the body and restrict its normal biological and physiological functions, often resulting in chronic pain issues that can devastate lives. You can read more about this in my 3-step plan for enduring pain relief.
Embracing Mindfulness: One of the leading causes of lower back pain is stress. One of the best approaches to reducing stress is by meditating. Recent studies from Harvard show that meditating regularly for as little as eight weeks can trigger physiological changes in the brain's grey matter. Given grey matter houses the bulk of the brain's neural cell bodies, these changes impact virtually every aspect of your wellbeing, from vision and hearing to muscle control, memory, emotions, auditory functions, decision-making, and self-control. You can find more on meditation and how to do it here.
Fueling the Body: Exercise is a terrific way to reduce lower back pain in several ways. First, it enhances respiration and bolsters the flow of oxygen and "feel-good" hormones throughout the body. It also helps eliminate unwanted toxins while loosening and strengthening muscles.
Stretching and Yoga: If you experience tight or painful low back and neck every morning or have poor work-related posture leading to discomfort during the day, stretching and, particularly, yoga can help alleviate these symptoms.
Incorporating a more mindful approach to lower back pain by bringing it into the realm of self-care and natural solutions offers options with minimal risk and, like the ACP study demonstrates, nondrug treatments should be your first choice in treating lower back pain.
- The top cause of disability worldwide, according to the extensive 2013 study titled "The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010", is low back pain (LBP), even more detrimental than any other condition, with the aging population necessitating further research.
- In a shift from traditional methods, the American College of Physicians (ACP) now advises heat, massage, acupuncture, exercise, meditation, yoga, tai chi, and other similar therapeutic methods for relieving lower back pain.
- In its recommendations, the ACP suggests chronic low back pain patients first try a multifaceted natural approach, including various mind-body connection techniques, meditation, and holistic practices like yoga and tai chi.
- For those struggling with persistent lower back pain who have failed previous treatments, the ACP proposes nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, tramadol, duloxetine, or opioids as options, but only after discussing the potential risks and benefits with patients.
- In the realm of pain relief, a holistic wellness approach emphasizes self-care solutions and therapies from various natural healing modalities, like mindfulness, meditation, and exercise, to reduce, resolve, and prevent low back pain.
- A mindful approach to lower back pain, by bringing it into the realm of self-care and natural solutions, offers options with minimal risk and nondrug treatments should be your first choice in treating lower back pain, similar to the ACP's new recommendations.
