Healing Back Pain: Solutions

Most people experience back pain at some point in their lives. This pain can seem to occur randomly or be sparked by certain events. The holidays are a common trigger, since travel and stress work together to facilitate an environment ripe for pain.

Travel Tips

One of the biggest culprits of lower back pain is improper lifting and carrying of weight. Having the proper luggage is crucial for avoiding back pain during your travels. These three tips will help you to travel safely:

Spread the Load: Everyone wants to travel light. Cramming all of your belongings into one bag, however, creates excess strain on your muscles. Look into purchasing multiple smaller bags for your items so that you can spread the load and allow your muscles to help each other out.

Use Adjustable Luggage: Ergonomic luggage allows you to change the way you carry it. For example, luggage with a shoulder strap, a handle and rollers will allow you to shift positions and avoid straining one set of muscles. Ergonomic luggage should also have a layout that allows you to spread the weight of your belongings evenly throughout; this would involve pockets and compartments positioned throughout the length of the bag.

Lift Straight Up and Down: This goes hand-in-hand with the old saying, “lift with your legs, not with your back.” It is important to avoid twisting your back as you lift your luggage.

Stress and Pain

For many people, the holidays are a joyous but stressful time. Family matters like divorce or having a family member overseas can create tension during the holidays. The need to travel can also cause stress. Some stress is good; this is called eustress. Other types of stress are harmful to the mind and body. This latter type of stress is often experienced during the holiday season.

Negative emotions like anger, fear and worry can manifest physically as back pain. The connection between emotional and physical pain is well known, and scientists are trying to understand the exact mechanisms of that relationship. It is known that the same area of the brain, the “pain matrix,” processes both mental and physical pain. This matrix consists of the cingulate cortex, thalamus and amygdala. This establishes a physical link between the two.

Other theories exist that strive to make sense of the connection. One fascinating perspective comes from John Sarno, author of “The Mindbody Prescription.” He believes that the brain attempts to avoid dangerous expressions of rage by limiting the amount of oxygen that is sent to muscles, tendons and nerves of the back. From a physiological perspective, this oxygen deprivation prevents the body from being capable of certain actions, such as those that might result from expressed rage.

For more on Sarno’s theory and the connection of emotions and physical pain, see Empowher.com. This site offers a host of other resources specifically geared toward women and lower back pain.

It is possible that simply being aware of your emotional causes of pain can be the cure itself. Understanding your body’s responses and shifting awareness to more positive thoughts, like how you would like to feel and the good things you want, can alleviate your pain.

Make a Resolution

To keep back pain at bay, during the holidays and throughout the year, you must make a decision to learn about your body. Take the ever-popular New Year’s Resolution as an opportunity to commit to understanding the back and the pain it is susceptible to. Get started at CameronMedical.com. Here you will learn about the basics of the construction of your spine as well as some of the things that can go wrong in the lower back.

By understanding your body – the bones and muscles and how they work together – you will not only help to prevent or resolve pain but to avoid medical expenses ranging from pain medications to surgery.

The most important thing to remember is that back pain is curable by conservative methods if it does not persist untreated. Back pain can be intermittent; this does not mean that the problem is gone when the pain has stopped for a time. Chiropractic care, physical therapy or massage therapy may be enough to solve your back problem early.

A study conducted in Australia and published in BMJ found that 42% of the 973 participants who sought care for new lower back pain had recovered fully within a year. 259 of the participants had chronic back pain, which means it lasted more than three months. 47% of these participants recovered fully within a year. More on this study can be found at Medicinenet.com.

Don’t let back pain interfere with your holiday season or your life in general. Get to know your body and understand that pain can be dealt with.

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