Low back pain is among the most common health complaints in the country. If you experience continuous back pain for three months or more, your pain is considered chronic. Chronic back pain can affect your productivity at work while also curtaining your daily activities. It’s also a major cause of disability.
Chronic back pain can devastate your life by forcing you to cancel activities that you previously enjoyed. Worse, it affects your mental state, as you must first consider how your back feels and the level of pain you can tolerate before you do anything. To manage your pain, make an appointment with a spine physician at the Southeastern Spine Institute, a spine-first medical practice near Charleston, SC.
Chronic Back Pain Management
Living with persistent pain affects the quality of your life, as you can’t complete ordinary activities comfortably. But advanced spine treatment techniques and pain management advances now offer safe techniques to get you back on your feet and on to your normal everyday activities.
Your spine physician carries out diagnostic tests before recommending the best way to treat or manage your pain. There are many non-invasive and minimally invasive options. In most cases, your doctor pinpoints the cause of the pain and starts treatment. But if no discernable cause can be identified or if you opt against major surgery, back pain management becomes an option.
Non-Surgical Pain Management Techniques
Surgery at the Southeastern Spine Institute is always the last resort. Other modalities from mitigating your chronic back pain include:
- Physical therapy. This approach uses exercise as the foundation for managing back pain. Your physical therapist tailors exercises to suit your back problem. A safe, effective routines includes stretching and flexibility exercises, core strengthening exercises and posture retraining.
- Yoga. Yoga is a popular form of self-care that helps patients suffering from nagging back pain. A daily practice stretches and strengthens your back and supporting muscles. It also improves your posture and relaxes tense muscles.
- Massage. A body massage is another technique for treating and managing continuous pain in your back. The spine doctors at the Southeastern Spine Institute recommend it. Back massages are not only relaxing, but they also relieve muscle tension. The increase in blood flow to the affected area promotes healing, too. Massage is most effective when the cause of pain is due to physical activity or soft tissue injury.
- Mindfulness and meditation. Psychological effects of pain can debilitate your life. Meditation and mind relaxation techniques come handy when dealing with these problems. Cognitive and relaxation strategies such as yoga and tai chi keep your mind from focusing on the pain.
- Checking your diet. Some food and drinks can aggravate your spinal pain. Avoid foods high in refined sugars and trans fats. Most processed foods increase your discomfort.
- Pain alleviation treatment. Living with persistent pain in your back is difficult, but spine doctors recommend some treatments to alleviate your pain. Such techniques include injection-based treatments, electrical nerve stimulation, acupuncture and laser therapy.
Working with a Spine Doctor
There’s no need to load up on over-the-counter pain medications when a specialty medical practice for your back is so close in Charleston, SC. Besides, those painkillers aren’t meant to be a long-term solution to chronic back pain. They can cause unintended side effects over time.
The spine physicians at the Southeastern Spine Institute carry out diagnostic tests to determine which pain management technique will work best for your back condition. Using the latest spine treatment technology, your specialist finds the best solution for you. Call us today for an appointment.