Chronic neck and back pain are common issues that people of all demographics face. In fact, research has shown that one in ten visits to a primary care physician involve complaints of lower back or spinal pain. While some discomfort in your neck and back may be unavoidable depending on your age and level of fitness, there are definite steps that you can take to prevent and mitigate the effects of this pain.
First, try to change up certain aspects of your daily routine. If you spend most of your day at an office sitting at a desk, make sure to take brief breaks to stand or walk around every hour or so. Take the opportunity to stretch during these breaks, gently moving your lower back in all directions and stretching your neck to the sides and front. When you get back to your desk, try to maintain good posture, with your neck aligned with and directly above your hips, and make sure that your monitor is at eye level, which will minimize the amount of strain you put on your neck.
Another great way to reduce daily back and neck pain is to begin a regular fitness routine. As always, you should consult a physician before beginning a new exercise program, and take care to perform every exercise with proper form. In fact, proper technique, while necessary in any strength conditioning exercise, is particularly critical for lower back exercises. Learning to do back extensions, deadlifts, and other lower back exercises properly at moderate amounts of weight and high repetitions can dramatically strengthen your lumbar region, while doing them incorrectly can worsen your pain or lead to serious injury. Over time, repeated back exercises completed with proper form may even help you to eliminate your pain entirely.
Once you get home, there are another series of simple precautions that you can take to prevent neck or back aggravation. Avoid performing chores that involve lifting or moving heavy objects, especially if your back and neck are already in pain. Also, sleeping in the right position can also help to alleviate back pain. Sleeping on your stomach or sides causes your spine to curve and can put added pressure on your spine. In order to get proper relaxation and let your lower back unwind, sleep on your back with a small pillow tucked under your knees. This will help to straighten your spine, allowing the muscles in your back to deactivate and get the rest they need.
If your current levels of pain are too severe and you need treatment, see a licensed medical professional as soon as you can. While most muscular pains can be treated with non-prescription painkillers like aspirin or ibuprofen, if the level of pain becomes too extreme then more advanced treatments may be necessary. However, unless your back pain is caused by a serious injury like a slipped disk in your spine, many new studies advocate that patients should avoid more extreme treatments like narcotic painkillers and surgery. Instead, visits to registered physical therapist are often of great benefit, and these experienced medical practitioners can help put you on the right track to permanent recovery. Another suggested solution to severe back and neck pain is acupuncture, which has been shown to be highly effective at eliminating short-term pain. Either or both of these options combined with a light and properly executed exercise routine are often the best solutions to permanently resolving your back and neck pain.
