The majority of us will suffer from sort of back pain during our lifetime and there are plenty of people who unfortunately have to endure serious back pain on a daily basis.
There are several ways of alleviating your suffering to a certain extent, from medication, to therapies and taking other steps to improve your comfort, such as trying to find the best mattress for your back pain, in order to get as restful a sleep as possible.
You are not alone
Your spine is a real feat of human engineering. It holds you upright whilst at the same time providing you with an incredible amount of flexibility, so you can bend and twist, but there is likely to be a time when you overdo a particular action or movement, resulting in back pain.
Up to 90% of us are expected to suffer from some form of back pain at some point, and if you are fortunate enough, this pain will often pass within the first twelve weeks of sustaining your injury.
If you are unfortunate though, there is the possibility that you could end up suffering from chronic pain, which doesn’t go away after a few months and can leave you with a headache too, from the huge medical bills you face trying to put things right.
If you are suffering from some level of discomfort and your daily life is disrupted to some extent by back pain, you are definitely not alone.
Establishing the root cause
Your back pain may well be caused by a variety other issues and may not be directly attributed to disc herniation.
It is common to experience back pain as a result of arthritis, muscular or ligament strain, or due to some sort of infection or even cancer. A visit to your physician can help to evaluate and interpret exactly what is happening to your spine and what the physical cause might be,
It may sometimes be necessary to use scans and imaging to help determine the cause of your pain and work on a plan of action to try and relieve the pain you are experiencing.
Getting to the root cause of your back pain problems is important and can get you started on finding a way to contain and reduce the level of pain you are experiencing.
Looking at the bigger picture
It is often the case that if you concentrate on improving your overall health profile, this can help to improve a medical condition like chronic pain.
An issue like chronic back pain can impact on other aspects of your health profile, such as creating stress, suffering from a lack of sleep and other relevant problems, so it helps to look at the bigger picture and consider your back pain as part of your current medical condition.
A good diet, physical exercise where possible and plenty of restful sleep can all help to improve your level of suffering through an improvement in other aspects of your lifestyle and health.
Regular exercise
If you do suffer from lower back pain, even though it may not seem like the best idea on the face of it, it is quite important to try and practice some regular exercises to strengthen your back.
The advice given by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons is that you should attempt to complete between ten and thirty minutes of appropriate exercises every day, during the early stages of your back pain.
Take good professional advice on what level and type of exercise is suitable to your particular condition.
Your aim is to maintain lower back flexibility and some movements to help with this can be suggested when you see a specialist about your back problem.
Restful sleep
Getting a good night’s sleep is critical to being able to function properly the following day, but that is not always seemingly achievable when you can’t get comfortable when you get into your bed.
There is no universal mattress style or type that addresses every person’s back pain problems, so you may need to experiment in order to find a mattress that provides you with the sort of comfort and support that allows you to sleep and reduce pain and stiffness.
The firmness of the mattress can make a difference, but don’t automatically consider that a really firm mattress is the default option, as you might get more comfort from a medium-firm option.
Back pain is something that many of us have to contend with on a daily basis, so it makes sense to deploy a number of different strategies in your efforts to find a solution, or at least a better level of comfort.
Ted Wilson started working in the orthopedic industry in 1982 in Portland, OR and was involved in several health-related initiatives nationwide until 1998, when after a car accident, Ted started to suffer from chronic back pain and focused his attention on people suffering from the same conditions. Among other things, Ted and his team run a successful website, www.mattress-guides.net, independently reviewing beds and mattresses for the public.