New Recommendations for Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain affects millions of Americans, and it’s rare that anyone escapes it altogether. In fact, low back pain is one of the most common motivators behind doctor’s visits. Recently, the American College of Physicians (ACP) came out with updated guidelines regarding low back pain, which indicate that medical intervention is not the preferred path to recovery. In a shift from earlier guidelines, the ACP finds that non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical treatments such as chiropractic are actually preferential for acute, subacute, and chronic low back pain.

A Multidisciplinary Approach to Back Pain Relief

The ACA suggests that initial therapy should be based on non-invasive chiropractic spinal manipulations along with several other considerations aimed at back health that you can build into your lifestyle:

• Allow your body to create its own pain medication through endorphin-releasing aerobic exercise, chiropractic manipulation, massage, and meditative exercises. These not only boost endorphins but also help decrease anxiety, stress, and depression, which are all known to exacerbate pain.
• Strive to achieve adequate restorative sleep. Lack of sleep can intensify pain, and increased pain can sabotage your sleep – it’s a vicious cycle that warrants attention.
• Focus on core strength by engaging in regular core-building exercises – there are plenty of beginner’s options, including yoga and pilates, available.
• Employ heat and cold therapies to the affected areas. Cold can diminish inflammation while it works as a local anesthetic, and heat can stimulate increased blood flow to comfort the area and can inhibit pain messages to your brain. Experiment with different approaches to find what works best for you.
• Gently stretch your hamstrings twice each day; tight hamstrings are often overlooked as a significant contributor to lower back pain.
• Exercise your brain; the brain-pain connection is extremely complicated, but there are skills that you can develop in an effort to gain greater mastery over your pain.
• Do things that make you happy; happiness is a known antidote to pain.

An experienced chiropractor can help you find your way past the pain. If you suffer from low back pain, expert chiropractic care will help you find sweet, long lasting relief.

Contact a Tampa Bay Chiropractor Today for Help with Your Lower Back Pain

If you are ready to overcome your low back pain, contact Tampa Bay Spine & Injury for an appointment today. Our multidisciplinary team provides truly integrated physical medicine, and we will work with you to provide the least invasive and most beneficial low back pain treatment. We have two offices that are conveniently located in Brandon (813-381-3852) and St. Petersburg (727-898-3852), so please give us a call – or email us through our online contact form – to get back to feeling your best.

1 https://www.acponline.org/