Low back pain is a part of the everyday life of many people in Western industrialised countries. According to research, it can affect as much as 80% of all adults in their lifetime –Nachemson & Jonson 2000.
Acute low back pain normally settles within 4-6 weeks, but in a small percentage of cases, persistent pain occurs and significantly impacts healthy living and can lead to high health care costs.
A sensible and natural approach to the pain tends to focus on physical activity and exercises, rather than painkillers (including NSAIDs).
Does Bed Rest Help?
For an acute phase of pain that usually lasts less than 7 days, bed rest is contraindicated for patients who have low back pain with no radiation and for those whose back pain radiates no further than the knee.
Patients with low back pain radiating to the entire leg, bed rest should only be recommended if the pain indicates it. If bed rest is recommended, it should be intermittent rather than continuous. After three days of bed rest, patients should be strongly encouraged to resume their activities.
In sub-acute phases in which the pain lasts between 4 and 12 weeks, and in chronic pain phases bed rest is not only contraindicated but should be stopped in patients still resting in bed at this stage.
Back exercises or functional restoration are not recommended for acute phases of the pain in the first 7 days, but for sub-acute or chronic phases, it is recommended that patients follow an active exercise program. However, the recommendations to the kind of exercises and movement have been kept in general terms, such as strength training, stretching and fitness, in which no movement concept was found to be more superior to another.
Furthermore, no distinctions are made if the acute pain is of a recurrent nature or occur for the first time. Recurrences of acute pain and disability need to be prevented and the doctor should evaluate in which circumstances recurrences develop, in order to be able to define an adequate therapy programme. It is usually suggested that low back pain should be treated carefully with the focus on a concept of reduced activity, rather than taking complete rest.
How to Deal with Lower Back Pain?
It can be regular stretching, yoga and other muscle strengthening activities patients can do to reduce and prevent back problems. They’re also advised to engage in decompression therapy for the spine, as spinal compression is often overlooked as a cause of low back problems. You can decompress your spine with the help of a device called the Backrack. It provides you with an opportunity to relieve back pain without doing any hard exercises that can trigger pain signals and make the pain worse.
Non-Invasive Spine Treatment
The Backrack has a unique concept and easy application so anyone can use it at home without any supervision. Its special shape resembles the natural curvature of the spine that helps you treat not just symptoms but also the causes of pain.
However, Backrack is a comprehensive device designed to treat all forms of back pain. The upper area of this device treats all cervical related problems i.e. neck pain, headaches, migraines, stenosis and others, whereas the middle part of the Backrack provides chest and rib pain relief. And the lower part covers the lumbar region of your body, so you are able to take full control of your back pain.
With so many advantages of this device, it has no side effects at all. To use the device, patients just have to lie on the rack in the central position with their knees bent.
As the rack mirrors the natural curvature of the human spine, it provides full support to the upper, middle, and lower back. The wooden nodules push up on the either side of the spine which lifts the vertebrae and cause them to pivot about the joints of the back. This ultimately reduces stiffness and back pain as a result.
Backrack Spinal Decompression Device
Role of your Physiotherapist
If the patients, in whom specific treatments have been ruled out, do not improve and remain off work even after 3 to 6 weeks, they are referred to rehabilitation services in which the physiotherapist has a key role to play.
However, rehabilitation is often only considered after medical treatment is completed or has failed. The restoration of movements in the patients usually considered an automatic process, in which patients are expected to resume their normal activities and assume their roles in the society on their own. After all it is the person that needs treatment not just the pain.
Author: Spinal Backrack
