Finally Painless

When you experience back pain your back is simply telling you that something is wrong with you physically and you need to repair the damage. Exactly the same as the pain we feel if cut with a sharp knife while cooking, resulting in us needing to repair the wound, feeling a back pain means something is wrong and needs to be healed. When we suddenly feel a pain anywhere in our bodies it is referred to as an acute pain. Back pains are invariably acute ones, which means that they will most often arise as soon as the back has been damaged.

Chronic back pains.

You will have read in detail elsewhere about how back pains can be caused, and generally speaking back pain can often result from an awkward movement or moving a heavy load. Not only can such actions cause back pains, but also they can cause pains elsewhere in our bodies, such as our arms and legs. Quite often a pain in the leg or arm can quite quickly heal itself by being rested. However, being a part of our bodies that we cannot refrain from using unless we keep ourselves totally immobile, unlike those other parts of the body it is very difficult to allow the back to rest and heal itself quickly. Consequently over a period of time although the back pain hasn’t gone away it can seem less intense. This effect is simply because over time, sub-consciously our bodies can become accustomed to a certain level of pain, so start to treat having the pain as almost a ‘new normality’. If a back pain persists for any period of time, even though it may seem less intense, then the back pain is said to be a chronic one.

Persistent back pain.

Whether your back pain is acute having suddenly come on or a chronic one, that you’ve had for some time, the one thing that can be guaranteed is that it will be persistent. The persistence of back pains is simply a way for your body to constantly remind you that you have a physiological problem with your back that needs healing. Even though the back pain signals remain persistent, in effect telling you to rest your back, you mustn’t stop using your back. If at all bearable it is vital that you keep your back gently exercised through the persistent pain. Indeed it is almost ironical that the very fact that you have a back pain means that in all likelihood the damage to your back isn’t too serious. Please note here, when mentioning exercising your back when you have a back pain – the emphasis is on gentle exercise to keep it mobile, nothing strenuous. Finally, whilst pain is a sensory response to something being wrong with our bodies, the experience of pain also has an emotional response within us. In other words, some people are better at coping with back pains than others. Whilst in some respects being able to cope with back pain is good, in that you can keep yourself more mobile, in the instance of persistent back pain – having a high back pain tolerance could mean that the back takes far longer to heal as you could be tempted to overburden it to soon.

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What to do when back pain strikes.

Whilst not wishing to labor the point, when back pain strikes you must keep your back mobile without causing it any further strain. If your back pain is a non-specific one, that is to say not caused by some underlying medical condition, it can strike in the upper back around the shoulders and neck, the middle of your back which will often give rise to lumbago back pains or they could be in your lower back, especially if caused by a trapped sciatic nerve. Simply by keeping the back mobile with gentle exercises, most people will find that within a few days or weeks at most, a lot the back pain will have dissipated and they are able to return to a normal life. If the back pain is persistent and intense then using an ‘over the counter’ painkiller from your pharmacy, or a preparatory back pain analgesic, will help you to manage the pain. Of course, you must never exceed the recommended dosage for any medications you decide to take. There are plenty of recommended back pain exercises to find on the internet; and for some people that have recurring back pains over long periods of time they can find things like acupuncture a benefit to them, in relieving their back pain. If you do find your back pain is a recurrent one that you can associate with a certain activity, it might pay you to re-consider how you do certain things; such as sitting at a computer desk or moving heavy loads, not to mention your general posture.

• http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Back_Pain/default.asp
• http://familydoctor.org/online/famdocen/home/common/pain/treatment/117.html
• http://www.hsc.virginia.edu/uvahealth/adult_orthopaedics/lowback.cfm
• http://www.csmc.edu/5261.html