@Magnetron, interesting about Kegel type exercise. I have done it years ago after childbirth, no harm in giving it a try now.
I will not go to a chiropractor, period, maybe PT, which has helped me in the past for different injuries/pain.
@NJres, I will definitely try the books, nothing to lose. I was going to try meditation, though I still feel that certain treatments will help certain ailments, so PT, surgery, exercise, stretching etc. can still be relevant depending.
Just a little background which I shared with my primary doctor, I think my lower back has always been weak (even when I was much younger, I am close to 60 now) is because for the first 18 years of my life, I had no bed to sleep in, I slept in a folding canvas cot, very similar to the one in the picture below. We were too poor and we had no bedrooms anyway, limited space in our rental. So, after 18 years of sleeping in the same canvas cot with bad curvature, probably messed up my spine. It just seemed like I was sleeping in a hammock for years as the canvas stretched out when it got old…
Hopeful820, I am sorry about your pain. I have a few things to suggest.
I agree with other posters that yoga is a very bad idea for you at this point, but I highly recommend a yoga back pain video. Although it is supposed to be yoga, and all the exercises have yoga names, it is not at all yoga-like, and you can't possibly hurt yourself doing it. Most of the exercises will be familiar to you, but the way they are sequenced makes them more effective, and he gives a lot of instruction on how to do them. I think that the man who did the videos is a genius. Doing a low-back/hip practice (there are 3 on the DVD, 20-30 mins each, as well as some educational content and detailed instructions on how to do the exercises) takes care of any pain or stiffness I might have, and this video has helped several people I know:
There is also an upper back video, which I have, but while I do the lower back video regularly I hardly ever feel the need to do the upper back video.
This is a great book on back pain. It makes a case for strengthening the small muscles on either side of the spine (mentioned by another poster on this thread):
Magnetron linked to an article about Esther Gokhale. I have her book and she makes an an excellent case for bad posture as a source of pain. I have her book, and I now regularly do "stretchlying." Basically, you put your back into traction as you're sleeping. I sleep this way every night. Here are instructions:
I agree with the suggestion to do Pilates, but be sure you have a good teacher who was trained by someone who can trace his/her training back to Joseph Pilates. I did mat classes for several years with a teacher like this, and she was wonderful. She could make a small correction that profoundly changed the way the exercise worked. I have taken mat Pilates classes at my gym, thinking that even if the teacher wasn't good, I knew what I was doing. The teachers there are so bad that even knowing how to do the exercises doesn't help.
I think that swimming is great for the lower back, and it would probably accelerate healing of your shoulder, too. You should only do the crawl or backstroke.
I have a lot of respect for PT; a great one helped me through a frozen shoulder to complete recovery.
I have had a back pain for years and once ended up in ER on the stretcher because I simply could not get up from the floor.
I stopped feeling any pain in my back after I started swimming every day. Another benefit of swimming - lowers BP by about 20 points. So at my check ups, nurse is always exclaim that I have a low BP, but I do not, if I did not swim, it would be 20 points higher.
I heard from 2 other people that doc. actually told them to swim to get rid of back pain. They also swim every day.
No injections, no pills. And the question is why I did not start earlier. I even missed some work days!
I’m not recommending a chiropractor for disease or any of the scientific nonsense about how spinal misalignments cause disease but rather for specific physical manipulations. That can work.
Can you go to an orthopedist without a referral from your PCP? I went to one and had injections. That was two years ago and it really helped. I also had PT.
I have all kinds of back pain, but the injections stopped the specific lower back pain. Do you ever do “legs up the wall”? I am quite swaybacked, and legs up the wall is the only time that my lower back is flat.
I have a wonderful teacher for pilates and yoga. After my car accident, I gave up,yoga. I didn’t have the shoulde strength to,do a down dog. I did pilates, a at first with tears, but built up strength. 3 years later, I do both. My elbow surgery has good, but no 100%. My shoulder will never be perfect. I still have 2 herniated discs in neck. Little by little, I could see improvement. I go to the gym 7x a week. Be patient with yourself…
I do yoga and it’s been very helpful to me to prevent lower back pain. I know that my pain is due to muscle strain, tight hamstrings and weak core. No major disc problems or other more serious conditions.
So if it’s mostly muscle problems I would consider yoga. Not just any kind though. Look for hatha or stability or yin. NOT flow or vinyasa or power etc. You want slow, mindful movements where you gently stretch and hold poses. You don’t want to be whipping thru forward folds, chaturanga, and other fast movements.
I used to have back pain due to hip arthritis. I don’t know what I did but I’m able to sleep on a firm mattress without having to take medicine or my husband rubbing something before I go to bed. I think lots of stretching probably helped. Some massage therapy too, but it took a long time to get better. I have not been doing yoga for a while. Interesting just being a couch potato.
Doing a gentle rocking motion on all fours like a baby would do just before he crawls has really helped me. This motion brings a healing blood flow to the area and gives your back little bit of a stretch. Knees directly below your hips and hip width apart. Palms on the floor about one hand length forward of your shoulders. Gently rock back and forth while going as far back toward your heels as feels comfortable.
I agree with others, if you have had back pain for years, that isn’t just a pulled back or the like. I have thrown out my back, and my primary care doctor is a DO (Osteopath), and he has often been able to manipulate my back and get me back to being normal. I would highly recommend seeing the doctor and having them do xrays or an MRI on your back, to rule out any serious issues, like disks degeneration or spinal arthritis, or non spine issues.
In terms of pain relief, have you thought of a tens unit? They now even sell them in drugstores with the heat pads and such, but I would recommend getting a better quality unit from Amazon or from a medical supply house. The tens unit uses pulsed dc, you put the electrical pads around the area where you have the pain, and it can really help reduce the pain. The units used to be very expensive, but these days you can get one easily online.
When my back pain got to bad, I had X-rays and was told arthritis and degerstive disc disease in my neck. I took Celebrex, went to PT, etc. it helped but never gone. I finally tried an acupuncturist, not really believing it would work. Well guess what? It did. After 7 sessions, the pain was totally gone, plus all the muscle knots. I went for 2 sessions every 3 months for a tune up. After 6 years of this, we purchased a memory foam bed which totally stopped all back pain.
When the memory foam started breaking down after a year, the pain started creeping back up. So for me, I think the support of a good bed helps considerably. I’m will try a sleep number next time. But I highly recommend acupuncture. I asked her if I could do Yoga, and she said be careful…because holding certain poses or holding others too long could make matters worse…just be mindful of what your body can do…
This is an excellent video discussing when you should or should not worry about back pain. A large majority of the people who get imaging don’t need it. If you imaged everyone, you would find most of us over the age of 35 have degenerative disk disease, 75% of us have bulging disks, and about 30% have herniated discs. But, that doesn’t mean it’s the cause of your pain. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOjTegn9RuY
I had pulled my lower back about 15 years ago from opening the stupid garage door, I barely could get out of bed the next day, very painful, doctor sent for x-ray then PT, then I got better.
As for this time, it is dull achy pain, and not from injury. I thought more of arthritis, and weak muscle around spine due to early years of poor sleeping condition. Also, I may just have been overcompensating my sitting posture for months due to severe pain with frozen shoulder, and “slouching” badly on couch watching TV or working with laptop. That probably either caused or worsen the lower back problem. I have moved my laptop to a desk 2 weeks ago so I can sit up straight when on computer.
I have to try everything for improvement before going back to the doctor, and get an x-ray to rule out serious issues. She is very reluctant to give referrals. My current health insurance plan doesn’t cover acupuncture, I do plan to switch to another insurance come open enrollment period in October, a plan that does not require referrals to see specialists and allows acupuncture.
I have gone back to 20-30 minutes walking, at a slower speed than before. I have watched a Esther Gokhale video: Sitting, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly yesterday, that gives me ideas of proper sitting posture. I do a few gentle yoga poses that helps with lower back pain, besides stretching and basic exercise.
My H mentioned about the TENS unit a while back, for some reasons I ignored him, because he is the kind who LOVES to buy everything!!! I will look into it and maybe get one.
My chronic lower back pain was due to Pelvic Floor Dysfunction. It is very under diagnosed. I had to go for PT who specializes in it. They used biofeedback along with internal electrical stimulation to relax the muscles. Kegels were a part of it. I also have specific stretching exercises I have to do.
My rescue drugs are Soma and Meloxicam together. If my back goes into spasm no amount of stretching/massage/heat will help. I rarely have to take it but when I do it works wonders.
BTW, if you do use heat it must be moist heat, so make sure you get the right kind of heating pad. Dry heat will tighten the muscles.
My lower back pain was like that…dull and achy, sometimes it left me nauseated. But the injections really helped.
For those of you with myriad back aches and pains, and pelvic floor issues,. google “joint hypermobility.” It’s diagnosed by an easy 5 point test. I have never been flexible, but I do have joint hypermobility.
That’s interesting, missypie. I took the test and, while I can put my palms on the floor with my legs straight, I can’t even imagine passing the other tests.
Scientists are now investigating connective tissue, which until recently had been considered dead matter, as an important organ. This article on the subject discusses the effect of acupuncture on the connective tissue:
“Scientists are now investigating connective tissue, which until recently had been considered dead matter, as an important organ.”
Ask the docs at the sports medicine clinic where I had my knee issues treated, and they will tell you “duh” - connective tissue has always been important. When you do a PT-preacribed stretch and feel immediate pain relief, it is not because your muscles immediately gained strength or elasticity - you loosened up the connective tissue.
“Also, walking really, really helps.” - That is if you could walk. When I had my back pains, there is no way under the sky that I could walk. Also, be very careful with yoga - it caused vertigo for me.
Anyway, one lesson from my chiropractor - try cautiously and discontinue if something causes your condition to worsen.
Actually I do believe that chiropractor can deal with diseases. When my kid was 10 y o and got cyclical headache that she could not get rid of for 5 weeks straight (horrible life changing experience), we took her to many docs, including neurologist. Nobody helped, none at all, not even the acupuncturist. A great chiropractor helped right away after the first session when we had no hopes any more. We went thru CT scan, MRI, eye doc., several others, D. could not go to her sport practice, could not play normal piano, had to turn down the sound on electrical keyboard, my H. had to carry a 10 y o upstairs to her bedroom, could not participate in gym. Chiropractor can do a lot. He also stopped my vertigo that I got from yoga and lasted for several weeks.
I have one of these WiTouch units: http://www.amazon.com/Hollywog-Witouch-Back-Massager-Green/dp/B009PB76PW It’s a little wireless TENS and has been very helpful with my chronic back pain. I can’t take NSAIDs or get steroid injections and don’t want to take heavy duty Rx pain meds unless the pain prevents me from sleeping for successive nights. I use the WiTouch while at my desk and run two or three cycles each time. Initially I needed dh to position it on my back because of my shoulder problems but now I can use it without help.