Lower back pain is the most common type of pain from which people can suffer from during their middle and young age, between the ages of 25 and 55. So, it is very important to understand the activities, which may prolong or exacerbate an episode of lower back pain, and also what to expect when you seek physical therapy. The pain that you feel is actually a symptom caused by some type of injury or disease but in some cases, this pain is a symptom created by having too much stress in your life. For many of us back pain is caused by simple mechanics of our spine such as a muscle or a joint. While it might be quiet painful, most back problems are not serious and very easily treatable. Sometimes our pain occurs in all age groups, but as we grow older we become less active and pain becomes more evident.
To understand how stress affects pain, you need to understand why and how it happens. People are subjected to stress at a very early age. Stress is created by everything from becoming angry over something to grief over the loss of a loved one. After going through a stressful time, it becomes a bad memory that's stored in your unconscious mind. Over the years, these memories begin to build and eventually they start to surface to the conscious mind. As a way for your brain to prevent this from happening, it decreases the blood flow to a certain part of the body such as the lower back.
Physical Therapy for Low Back Pain
Physical therapy is one of the techniques that treat the pain causing conditions by means of the physical maneuvers. This will be useful in many situations and it is a very good choice, because it does not require any surgical or medical intervention and the patients can find much relief from their pain.
In general, the aim of this therapy is to decrease the level of back pain, improve the functionality, and also provide education on the maintenance program to stop further recurrences.
Passive Therapy:
There are several forms of Physical therapy. The therapist focuses on reducing the pain with passive therapy. These types of therapies are considered as the passive therapy because these are done to patient.
• Ice or heat packs
• Iontophoresis
• TENS units
• Ultrasound
Active Therapy:
In addition to the passive therapies, the active therapy is also required to rehabilitate spine. Usually, back exercise program of a patient should encompass the following combinations:
• Stretching
• Strengthening
• Low-impact aerobic exercises
There are many advantages of lower back pain physiotherapy. This will increase the healing speed and also provides relief from pain. To acquire best result, it is necessary to continue the treatment for some days.
Lower back physical therapy is the best way to handle the back pain without taking the risk of hazard of chemicals, which can happen due to the usage of medications, and without having surgical procedures and interventions.
Before getting the physiotherapy for lower back pain, it is better to consult the physician, who examines and determines the actual nature of the existed problem. He may give you some useful suggestion for getting relief from the pain. Usually the advice of physiotherapy is given by the health care provider or a doctor.
Physical therapy for the low back pain is also used to treat the people who are practically disabled due to the pain, i.e. they are unable to function normally. For these people, a combined program of exercise and physical therapy treats them at two levels. The exercise program can stretch the muscles and restore their normal functionality. To prevent the recurrence of further pain, you can continue this exercise even after you get relief from the pain.
Natural Therapy for Low Back Pain
Another alternative, natural therapy for low back pain is soft tissue manipulation or mobilization. This type of therapy is generally performed by a physical therapist, but can also be done by a properly trained massage therapist who you can usually get a referral for through your chiropractor, if they feel it may be beneficial to your particular cause of low back pain. This method involves using the hands to move the soft tissues in such a way that the affected muscle becomes loosened and the natural and proper muscle balance is restored, eliminating stress and overuse in the wrong areas. The physical therapist will also give you a variety of exercises you can do at home to enhance the therapy you receive from them.
While there are still many other alternative, natural therapy methods to help alleviate low back pain, the last one we'll discuss here is acupuncture. While, like most types of therapies, acupuncture does not work for everyone, but because it can be beneficial on a number of levels it doesn't hurt to try it out. Acupuncture is the process in which a professional inserts needles into specific areas of the back in order to unblock the natural pathways in which energy flows through the body. When it works, acupuncture reduces the pain and helps increase your ability to be more active.