Most people I meet with chronic back pain only fight the pain with drugs. I’ve discovered some other techniques to try. Overall, what I’ve learned is my back is trying to communicate with me and all pills do is tell it to shut up.
I am not a medical expert of any kind. I’m only recounting my personal experience with living with back pain. I’ve greatly benefited from going to physical therapy (PT) and the training the PT doctors gave me to do daily exercises on my own. Although you can find all kinds of PT exercises for back pain online, I highly recommend talking to a doctor before doing any exercise if you are suffering from chronic back pain. The point I want to make is I’ve discovered some ways to avoid back pain without depending on powerful drugs.
Years ago when my degenerative back disease began and I was in a lot of pain I took prescription pain pills and muscle relaxers, but when I learned my condition was chronic I stopped taking those pills
I have three kinds of symptoms:
- inflammation/tension/tightness (lower back)
- numbness/nerve sensations (foot and leg)
- muscle pain (lower back, hip, leg)
The inflammation/tension/tightness is almost always present in my lower back but in varying degrees of discomfort. If things get worse, my foot goes numb and the numbness works up my right leg. When things get even worse, my left leg goes numb too. When things get really bad I have increasing constant dull pain and infrequent sharp shooting pains in my lower back, hip and leg.
I can keep the sharp and shooting pains away if I do my PT exercises daily, do regularly rowing exercises on the Bowflex, and if I don’t walk or stand for longer than 10 minutes.
I can keep the numbness to a minimum if I take B vitamins and exercise regularly, and don’t stand straight or lie flat for any length of time.
I used to keep the inflammation/tension/tightness to a low level with anti-inflammation pills, over-the-counter pain pills and regular PT exercises. However in recent months the anti-inflammation pills have messed up my stomach and intestines and I’ve had to stop them.*[See update below] I’m learning how to keep this kind of pain at a minimum without those drugs by carefully babying my back and not inflaming it. No lifting, lots of rest, more exercising.
I now ask younger people to lift stuff for me, and I even take the elevator sometimes. I’m getting old and creaky.
The exercises I learned from my PT classes are very simple, like these:
I’m writing this because I’ve had to stop taking any anti-inflammation medicine because it’s tore up my stomach and intestines, and I’ve learned that I can get about the same relief without those drugs if I’m careful. Although my doctors have prescribed some powerful pain pills I’ve avoided taking them. I have lived off of various anti-inflammation drugs over the last few years, but I can’t take them anymore. Doctors keep prescribing drugs that are easier on the stomach, but evidently my stomach is on the wimpy side, or years of taking pills have beaten it up badly.
I’ve always liked the anti-inflammation drugs because they reduce the feeling of inflammation and tension in my lower back, but when I had to quit these drugs I realized that those drugs were the cause of some of that inflammation. Taking a pill would reduce the tension, and the wearing off the pill hours later would make it spring back. After several days of not taking the anti-inflammation pills, I had much less inflammation and tension. I’ve started and quit several different kinds of anti-inflammation pills and I’ve noticed this affect twice now.
Lower back tightness and inflammation builds up during the workday, especially when I do a lot of walking and standing, and time and again I’ve discovered I can quiet my back by just exercising and/or resting. That made me think some of the stuff I was feeling as inflammation was drug withdrawal or drug craving.
I’ve been dealing with my back problem for years and it’s a degenerative disease. Walking, standing, or lying flat makes my back worse, so I’ve learned to live with limitations by altering my lifestyle. For instance I no longer sleep in a bed. Sleeping in a recliner significantly reduced my daily pain. Not walking for exercise reduced my pain. Getting a better office chair at work and home help too.
I also bought Z-Coil shoes and they have been a huge help. Before I got Z-Coil shoes when my back was stressed I’d get weird sensations when walking. I’d feel like I was stepping into a hole or sliding on ice with some steps. I assumed I was compressing a nerve. The Z-Coil shoes act like a shock absorber so I don’t compress the nerve and feel those weird sensations. I also tried Gravity Defyers but their springs weren’t powerful enough to help me. Z-Coil springs are very large and visible so they are very ugly shoes, but I wear them because they let me keep working, and they let me walk further than I can without them.
I’ve tried all kinds of drugs over the years, various pain pills, muscle relaxers, and anti-inflammation meds. For my particular problem I’ve learned that physical therapy is the most effective treatment. I do take an occasional Tylenol or aspirin, but daily PT is best. If I don’t do my PT my back will slowly tense up, and over days I’ll get hip pain, pain down the leg, and numbness in my foot, and then a lot of lower back pain. When the pain is very bad I have a hard time getting up or down. Doing daily physical therapy keeps the worst pain away.
I seldom skip my daily PT, and when I do, I regret it.
I still have a certain amount of discomfort, but not the major pain. I’ve learned I need to do Bowflex exercises once a day to reduce a lot of tension in my lower back and fight off leg numbness. I do a rowing exercise daily, just 130 strokes. I’ve also learned from trial and error that taking a B-complex vitamin reduces the numbness in my foot and leg.
The last technique I’m working on to help myself is losing weight. I’ve been overweight for decades, and at 235 pounds, just existing is like carry two sacks of cement with me at all time. However, feeling bad makes me eat, so I’m always gaining weight. When I get up to 240 my back gets much worse and that pain makes me diet for awhile. As I drop back to 230 it gets better, I treat myself to junk food, and then I yo-yo back up to 240. I’m hoping in the next year to get down to 200.
My back doctor has told me time and again to avoid surgery at all costs. And before I consider surgery to try nerve block shots. I’ve never liked the idea of nerve block shots and now they are in the news because of contamination, I doubt I’ll ever try them. I did hear about a new surgical technique that’s just finished clinical trials and could come online in 2014. The new technique involves regenerating the discs in the back, and I like that idea. So I’m hoping exercise and losing weight will keep me going until this new technique is FDA approved and my insurance covers it.
JWH – 12/2/12
*Update 1/16/14
Last year I learned I had problems with gluten and gave it up. I did it because of stomach and chest pains, which went away immediately. But over the weeks of going without gluten I realized my inflammation was much improved and much of my joint pain had disappeared. My knees seem twenty years younger. I still have problems with the spinal stenosis, but much of my other pain has disappeared. Over time going without gluten has made me feel much better.
I’ve told some of my friends about pain reduction through avoiding gluten, and one lady who had regular joint and arthritis pain gave up gluten and she reported she was eventually able to go without her pain pills. If you have chronic pain of any sort, you might experiment with going gluten free and see if it helps.
Auxiliary Memory 
I would prefer exercise for back pain which acts on pain from the time of performance of exercise. Sometime back pain is so terrible that it’s really hard to perform exercise. In those cases it is advised to visit a doctor first. I have searched some information about hospitals for back pain and got some good hospitals. You can click here, I hope my reply was useful.
Jim, about 20 years ago, I started getting muscle spasms in my upper back. Doctors gave me prescriptions for muscle relaxants, which put me to sleep, and told me to learn to live with it. (They didn’t seem to care about it, one way or another. I was livid!)
Eventually, I learned I could eliminate the problem entirely by just regularly touching my toes while in the shower – holding that position for a bit, while warm water sprayed on my back. (Note that this is mostly a preventative which has to be done regularly.)
For me, that works to relieve lower back pain, too, but note that I only get lower back pain when I’ve overdone something. In this case, it’s just muscle pain, nothing else, so this might not work for you.
And you’d have to be careful when straightening up afterwards, because you don’t want to stress the muscles you’ve just stretched. I bend my knees and, with my hands, push myself upright again.
I wouldn’t suggest this without checking with your doctor first. But it works great for me, not least because I don’t have to remember to stretch or exercise. It’s just part of my normal routine when taking a shower, so I do it every day just automatically.
Before I get into the shower, I always do some stretching by toe touching type exercises. I also do some twisting exercises. And, I have a series of exercises to help my neck and shoulder musles I do every day.
When I was young everything just work, now that I’m older, everything takes a lot of maintenance. I feel like the Tin Woodsman from Oz and if I don’t keep myself well oiled with exercise, I’ll freeze up.
My brother has back pain. I am worried about him and I am finding a best treatment to cure. I think physical therapy is best for his pain and I hope he will recover soon through this treatment.
I have a similar story. After decades of lower back pain, sometimes quite intense, a doctor gave me a set of stretches. He then leaned forward and as if he was confiding, he whispered: “These are not magic exercises. They can’t do it on their own. But, if you actually do these exercises 3-5 times per day, for a month, you will feel better.”
I did them. I’ve felt better ever since, Except when I stop doing my silly back stretches. PS. I do sometimes take muscle relaxants, usually related to travel.
I agree, this tips are quiet effective compared to medications. Although I been doing yoga for my back pain, I’ll definitely try these exercises> Thanks for this post.
What products are you referring to when you say “anti-inflammatory drugs”? Do you mean Aleve? Or what? I don’t have a definitive diagnosis for what ails my joints, etc. but certainly have the beginnings of osteo-arthritis and perhaps rheumatoid arthritis, too. My 81 year old mother suffers from spinal stenosis, as did her father. I fear it’s in the cards for me as well. (Have so far refused to take methotrexate, a drug recommended by my rheumatologist which quells one’s immune system in the hopes of forestalling destructive inflammation. Methotrexate’s purported side-effects scare me and it’s got chemo-like aspects that I am not yet willing to endure, either.) However, my nurse-practitioner recommended Zyflamend Whole Body (formulated for Whole-Body Healthy Inflammation Response. Promotes Normal Cardiovascular and Joint Function) It’s a supplement available at vitamin & health food stores. I started Zyflamend 7 months ago and my joints are much less stiff and ache less. Check it out. Apparently it’s used in all sorts of ways and has a great up-side and little or no known down-side.
I am not overweight. But nor do I exercise much, except for walking. After seeing your PT exercises, I vow to start them asap. Much as I love it, I try to avoid bread and gluten type foods whenever possible. I eat McCann’s oatmeal with no sugar instead of boxed cereal; rarely eat pasta, have cut down on sugary foods, tho’ not eliminated them. I may do so for a month and see what difference that makes.
Good luck with your back.
My doctor tried several anti-inflammatory drugs over the years trying to find ones that didn’t bother me. But I’ve forgotten their names, and I just checked and my Walgreens records don’t go that far back. If I can find out I’ll post them. I even had trouble with Aleve.
Be sure and ask your doctor about PT exercises. You don’t want to hurt yourself.
I like the exercise to get relief from back pain. thanks.
chiropractic care