Five Strategies To Heal And Avoid Back Pain – The Checklist From The Chiropractor

Five Strategies To Heal And Avoid Back Pain – The Checklist From The Chiropractor.

Avoiding back pain, pinched nerves, disc herniations, sciatica and other back problems is more likely if you have a consistent back health daily plan. It should be short, and easy to execute. A little bit of prevention has been shown to go a long way. The secret to healing your back and avoiding back pain in the future is consistency and repetition of the right activities. These solutions to back pain will work for most people. If you haven’t done all of these at the same time, consistently for a period of time, you should try. For the specifics, you may need help, but it’s fairly simple.

Back Health Check List

One: Stretch

Stretching your low back, stretching your mid back and stretching your neck will help a lot. Increased blood flow, greater flexibility, pain relief and improved future function will all result by stretching gently for 60-90 seconds a stretch. Regular stretching may reduce your headaches, migraines, shoulder pain, sciatica, low back pain, neck pain, stiff neck, leg pain and a host of other issues. Stretching daily for 5-10 minutes can change your life. Stretching before bed may help you sleep better and wake up feeling less pain. If you don’t know which stretches to do, our contact information will be a the end of this blog.

Two: Drink

Drink more water. According to WebMD “In February 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued new recommendations.The new guidelines remove the eight-glasses-a-day recommendation, and say healthy adults may use thirst to determine their fluid needs. Exceptions to this rule include anyone with a medical condition requiring fluid control; athletes; and people taking part in prolonged physical activities or whose living conditions are extreme.”

Hydration is key to proper muscle function, proper spinal disc herniation, and whole body function. You must be well hydrated if you expect to have a consistently healthy spine, nervous system, and back.

Three: Core

Strengthen your core. Your core muscles are the muscles of your abdominals, glutes, hips, pelvic floor, external obliques, latissimus dorsi, trapezius and erector spinal muscles. Your core muscles help stabilize your back. They also help the muscles of the back out by doing some of the work to keep us upright. As a general rule, the stronger the core, the less strain on the back. Less strain on the back, less risk of injury. Greater stabilization leads to easier healing of back issues as well. Crunches, planks, dead bug exercises, side planks and a number of other exercises will strengthen your core.

Four: Shoes

Your feet are your foundation. Supportive shoes support your feet. Flat feet, pronating feet, feet that lead to your ankles rolling inward lead to structural imbalances throughout your body that may lead to back pain or perpetuate back pain. If you have foot pain you have a problem. If you don’t have foot pain, you may still have a problem. Your feet should be evaluated for pronation, or flattening feet that roll inward. Everyone should support their feet with orthotics or shoes with excellent support. I recommend all Birkenstock products as well as Superfeet orthotics. If you are looking for these brands in Maine, visit Lamey Wellehan Shoes. They carry these products and more.

Five: Sleep

No more stomach sleeping or sleeping on your side in the crime scene position. Any position that twists your neck or back is a bad sleep position. Stiff neck? Back pain? Sciatica? Low back pain? Headaches? Shoulder pain? Pinched nerve? Could be your sleep position! The best sleep position is back sleeping.

I know what you are thinking, I’m asleep, how can I control my sleep position? You do it by programming your subconscious mind. After all, your subconscious mind is working while you are asleep, it’s awake and it’s what is telling you to roll over onto your stomach, it’s what’s telling you that the bad sleep position is good and most comfortable. It’s lying to you!

For my tried and true method of reprogramming your subconscious mind to get you to sleep on your back, CLICK HERE.

This list is a checklist. If you have all five of these things on your list and you “do” them every day and check them off, your neck and back will be much healthier. Your pain may go away. Your pain may stay away. You may have a much more active, pain-free future as well.

**If you are experiencing any of the issues discussed above and you want more information, visit the YOUTUBE channel of Dr. Lou Jacobs by clicking HERE. You may also schedule an initial examination in Portland, Maine with Dr. Jacobs by calling (207) 774-6251.