Back pain does not arrive alone, does it? Nor does any other pain for that matter, but there is something more serious about back pain. Toothache is depressing and it keeps you awake, but you know that the dentist can sort it out very quickly.
Migraine or any headache is depressing too, but they come and go and tablets can help, but back pain brings with it the depressing, ominous suspicion that that is you now – hamstrung for life.
Backache is different for most people, but it is usually a chronic, grinding, 24/7 pain that just seems to go away for short periods when you are engrossed in something else and reappears as soon as you become distracted.
Most individuals with backache are resolutely convinced that their lives will be blighted from now on and for lots of people, it is. However, is this a self-fulfilling prophecy? Does the very fact that someone believes that their active life is over make it true?
There is some evidence that you are what you think. A positive attitude will help you become healthier more quickly that a negative one. Most people would agree with that.
So, can you think your way out of back pain? Probably not, but maybe it depends on how hard you can think as well. The power of thought, meditation or prayer – whatever you would like to call it – is harnessed by healers all over the globe.
My masseuse here in Thailand says a prayer before she starts kneading and prodding me. My father was a healer in Wales and he also used to say a prayer before working on a patient.
I have a friend that has had backache for thirty years – half his life – and he has merely accepted it as his fate in life. He has been to the physician and to hospital, but they told him that neither massage nor acupuncture can help, so he has never tried them.
He lost his career through immobility and his wife because he was such a misery. Massage has helped me and i have met individuals who say that acupuncture has worked for them.
It appears to me that because we are all different and because there are different variations of and reasons for backache, some medications will work for some and not for others.
RICE is one general treatment that appears to deliver some degree of relief to everybody. RICE stands for: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation..
Rest does not help me. I find that a couple of minutes walk is better and I attempt to walk a little further every day. Last week, I was managing 300 yards with a stop halfway, now I do not require the rest.
Ice: my friend swears by ice packs and melts one or two a day on his back. I have not tried it.
Compression: some people find that a tight belt assists, but it is not for me
Elevation: this has helped me a lot. I lie on my back with my calfs on a chair parallel to the ground, but I know be effective who cannot manage this pose.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a range of subjects, but is now involved with sciatica pain management. If you would like to know more, please go to our web site at Sore Back Remedies