If you are motivated enough to look up lower back pain information on the web, you may be somone looking for pain relief or a remedy for your condition.

It is important to distinguish between a relief and a remedy. Relief is often a short-term solution such as an aspirin or painkiller. A remedy is usually a solution (or THE solution) that gets rid of your pain long-term or permanently.

Excercise is often prescribed as a back pain solution and it certainly can help. Although, when you are in the middle of a pain episode it can certainly be difficult to exercise!

In addition, if your back pain has a physical cause such as a kidney infection or trauma due to an accident - exercise can actually hurt. So it is necessary to see a doctor or other healthcare provider and make sure that your symptoms will not be increased by exercise.

If your symptoms are due to the stresses and strains of a "normal" western lifestyle - sitting on a hard chair for dozens of hours, and getting little exercise, a change in lifestyle can be helpful.

In fact, most "non-habitual" or new movement patterns that give your body a natural more relaxed way of movement can help to alleviate or get rid of your symptoms. To give yourself a hands-on examply of this, take a moment to listen to, or download, a 20-minute movement session, based on the Feldenkrais Method, that can help you relax and move easier right now: Sitting and Relaxing.

Simply adding to your back's ability to be soft and flexible can make a world of difference.

What about supplements and painkillers for back pain?

There are a number of people selling supplements to help get rid of back pain. Many of the supplements contain herbs and other natural ingredients to help get rid of the pain. Although we do urge caution when buying and using such supplements, there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that they can work. We are currently doing a review of the research literature on back pain elimination to see if there is any scientific evidence that such supplements can work.

Of course, for short-term relief, or for symptoms that tend to fade away quickly, there is some relief for lower back pain in over-the-counter-medications such as asprin or ibuprofrin. Medical doctors often recommend them for short-term relief. But what about stronger medicine like prescribed pain-killers?

Pain Killers for Low Back Pain

Prescription drugs (i.e pain killers) have been shown by many studies to be effective in the short-term, but they can have unintended side-effects, such as abdominal pain, headaches, nasea, dizziness, diarrhea and even addiction.

Keeping with the idea of using the least invasive treatment for your low back, it is best to start with over-the-counter medications such as aspirin or ibuprofin. There is a great deal of research supporting the use of asprin and ibuprofin to alleviate low back pain symptoms. In fact, your doctor or nurse may have already recommend it to you.

Bed Rest for Your Low Back Pain

Sorry, but no. Research studies have shown repeatedly that bed rest is counterproductive and will not help your lower back pain. To make this as clear as possible, I will give you a quote from a recent low back pain research study:

Bed rest has been shown to be an ineffective treatment for non-specific low back pain (LBP)…Despite this, during a new episode of pain some patients still rely on bed rest…Patients with prolonged bed rest in an early phase of pain were more disabled after one year…Based on these results we conclude that prolonged bed rest in the early phase of pain is associated with a higher long term disability level.

From: Eur J Pain. 2007 Sep 14;
A new episode of low back pain: Who relies on bed rest?
Verbunt JA, Sieben J, Vlaeyen JW, Portegijs P, André Knottnerus J.

The study that cited above is one of about 9 that I read that made similar conclusions. There are probably many more studies that say the same thing. This does bring up a question:

What if you get lower back pain and are getting depressed, anxious or fearful and spend too much time in bed?

Please talk to someone. It's natural to feel bad or anxious, but you don't have to put up with it. Take action. Consider doing a session with a counseler, psychotherapist, coach or someone else who can help move you through the symptoms. It's nothing to be ashamed of, your human just like everyone else.

An "Alternative" Cure For Your Low Back Pain

It used to be that the main (if not only) treatment options for lower back pain were offered by a medical doctor. In the past, Doctors often recommended bed rest, traction and some type of painkiller. However, research in the 1980's and 1990's showed that bed rest and traction made back pain worse and last longer. Prescription drugs were often effective in the short term, but could have unintended side effects.

The treament options have certainly changed. More and more people have begun to seek treatment for low back pain outside the medical establishment. Recent surveys by the American Medical Association and the National Institutes of Health have shown that as many as 70% of people will see an alternative and complementary practitioner to help treat issues such as lower back pain.

To help you decide whether an alternative treatment is an option for you, I have compiled a short article: Alternative Health Treatments for Low Back Pain.