Home Remedies for Lower Back Pain Relief

… Continued …

Poor shoes

To give more support for your back, wear well-cushioned shoes! This is also helpful to reduce the impact on your joints when walking.

Shoes with heels are pretty and fashionable, and most women love them a lot. But if you love your back and feet, they are not recommended.

But if you need to use shoes with heels, use them occasionally! It is much better choose one with low heels (not higher than 1 inch)!

Additionally, if you are a woman with osteoarthritis (the most common arthritis form, a joint problem), here are some tips on how to choose the right shoes!

Both overweight and obesity are bad for your lower back!

The greater pounds of excessive weight you gain will put greater strain to the joints including your lower back (particularly true if most of your fat around the waist)!

Moreover, overweight and obesity are linked to lots of health conditions. So, it’s important to have ideal weight – even though if you don’t have any back pain. It is not only for looking great, but also so important for your overall health!

How about stairs

Taking stairs is often considered healthy choice to boost your fit status and keep your weight off. But be careful, this may be unsafe when you have lower back pain.

The use of stairwell is commonly not recommended if you have knee problems, too. See also home remedies to boost the strength of your knee in this section!

Smoking

Chewing tobacco such as in smoking can raise the risk of osteoporosis (a condition that can make the bones easier to break and fracture). It is linked to other bone problems, too.

Even according to some studies, smokers are more likely to have lower back pain. So if you are a smoker, consider quitting!

Again, it has been confirmed that lying down or staying in bed for long periods can be counterproductive for your lower back pain relief. People who are inactive (being sedentary) are more likely to recover slower. On the other hand, those who remain active tend to recover more quickly!

This may be not-easy first if you have painful back pain, but try to keep active as soon as you could and aim to slightly increase the intensity of your activity day-by-day! Try from the mild activity such as walking around and do some daily routines that don’t cause a lot of pain!

You don’t have to wait your 100% recovery to return to your daily activities. Even you can go back to work once you think that your body is ready. And once you get used back in your daily routines, minimize /avoid activities that trigger the problem to recur!

The muscles in the back and abs are so important to support your lower back. Unfortunately, they are not trained well in most people’s daily activities. The following simple movements can give a good workout to these muscles.

Knee rolls

Lie on the mattress. Keep both of your shoulders on the floor, and then roll both of your knees to the left side, followed by the pelvis. Hold it for one breath, and then do the same way for the opposite side.

Repeat the movement for about 8-10 times!

Back extension

Lie on the stomach, keep your neck long! Then push down both of your hands to arch the back up. You will slightly stretch in your stomach muscles – hold and breath for 5-10 seconds.

Repeat it about 8-10 times!

Heels to bottom stretch

Kneel on the floors, with both of your hands under the shoulders and knees under the hips! Avoid over-arching your lower back! Then, slowly move the bottom backwards, hold it for one breath.

Repeat this movement 8-10 times!

*Images credit to NHS

Bird dog

Start the position like in ‘heels to bottom stretch exercise’ above. Tighten the abdomen muscles – lift and extend the left hand, and then followed with the same way for the right leg. Repeat 8-10 times for each hand and leg.

*Image credit to the Active Times

Bridging

Lie on your back; allow both of your heels on the floor but with knees bent. Squeeze the buttock and at the same time push your heels. Lift your hips until you make the straight line from the knees, hips, and to the shoulders – then hold it for 10 seconds! Do the same way for 8-10 times.

*Image credit to Net Fit

What else you need to know?!

Along with these core-strengthening exercises, do also aerobic exercise such as walking and swimming! Aerobic exercises may not significantly train the muscles in your lower back, but they are great for your heart, lungs, and blood flow.

Another option for lower back pain relief may be with some movements in Pilates (the combination between strengthening, stretching, and core stomach exercises). With a professional trainer, this kind of exercise is also safe to help relieve back pain.

Lifting weights in appropriate way may be helpful, too! However to keep safe, ask your doctor first, because some people with acute back pain may not be able to take lifting weights.

In addition, while exercise can help strengthen the muscles of the back, there are also some bad movements you need to avoid when you have lower back pain, these include:

1. Lifting both of your legs while lying on your back is bad, because it could cause damage to your core especially if you have weak lower back.
2. Touching toe while standing!

Your body has its own natural pain medication called as endorphin. It is a natural hormone made in the body to help inhibit the pain signals sent to the brain. It is also essential to help naturally improve stress, depression, and anxiety.

There are several ways to boost the production of this hormone, these include:

1. Taking deep breathing.
2. Do aerobic exercise regularly, another reason why you need to take aerobic exercise along with your core-strengthening exercises.
3. Being social, smiling, laughing, or just listening to music you like can help boost your endorphin production.
4. Chewing dark chocolate is helpful, too – but be careful to the calories, eat anything moderately!
5. Acupuncture and message therapy.

There is no specific guideline of diet for lower back pain. But your diet can help control your weight, and this is essential since obesity can worsen any back pain problem, as noted before.

In general, eating healthy diet with more fiber (veggies & fruits), low in bad fats (saturated fats), more whole grain, and drinking adequate water throughout the day can help, too.

Supplements

The same goes for supplements! There is no specific supplement for the main treatment of low back pain. However some of the following supplements may help relieve inflammation and ease the pain.

1. Bromelain. It is a kind of enzyme derived from pineapples. It may be used together with turmeric to boost its effect in fighting the inflammation. But it could carry the risk of bleeding. People with peptic ulcers and who take blood thinners should not take it.
2. MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane). It may help relieve the pain associated with arthritis, according to some studies.
3. Chondroitin and glucosamine! They may help treat pain related to arthritis, too. But be careful, they may interact with blood-thinning medication and may also worsen asthma.
4. Omega-3 fatty acids to help ease inflammation!

Herbs

These may include capsaicin (main component of chili), willow bark (it can act similar to aspirin), devil’s claw (traditional herb for pain relief), and turmeric (together with bromelain may work effective to help reduce inflammation, as mentioned before).

Warning; before taking any supplement or herb, talk first with your doctor! Furthermore, in fact most of them are not scientifically proved yet for treating lower back pain.