When your back hurts, it’s difficult to think of anything other than instant pain relief. So maybe you freeze it, take an ibuprofen tablet or two, and rest it, and that will do the trick… For the time being.
If you have persistent back pain, you want quick and long-term relief, requiring a multifaceted strategy. If you want to learn how to treat back pain at home, you’ll need a strategy that blends home remedies like those listed above with targeted therapy directed at the underlying causes of persistent back pain.
Here are a few of the key strategies we frequently recommend for controlling chronic back pain in the near term and assisting in its long-term healing.
Relieving Chronic Back Pain
Back pain treatments are classified into two types: short-term and long-term. What’s the distinction? Short-term treatments are like a band-aid, but long-term treatments aim to provide long-term relief.
Options for short-term back pain alleviation and symptom control
Short-term pain treatment aids in the relief of acute back pain. These types of therapies help you regulate your pain so you can keep active while you look for a long-term solution. Both at-home remedies and therapeutic therapies are common short-term therapy options.
Both heat and cold therapy are used.
Heat and cold treatment can help reduce pain and improve healing in some instances.
Cold therapy can be a fantastic approach to reduce swelling, inflammation, and dull pain in new or acute pain, such as pain caused by a fall or other discomfort that should not last more than six weeks.
Heat is usually the severe temperature of choice for easing pain and accelerating the healing process in chronic pain – pain that is likely to last or has lasted for more than six weeks.
Both hot and cold therapy is beneficial to many people. Immediate cold therapy, for example, helps minimize muscular discomfort after exercise. Switching to heat therapy after 24 hours can help your muscles recuperate faster.
Anti-inflammatory drugs
In the short term, over-the-counter pain medications can give total relief for most types of back pain. In addition, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicines (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen (e.g., Advil) or naproxen sodium (e.g., Aleve) are routinely prescribed but see your doctor first.
Therapeutic massage
A therapeutic rubdown from a back specialist can help relieve muscle tension and pain. Although temporary, the greater flexibility obtained might keep you moving pain-free, making it simpler to go through your day.
Manual treatment or physical therapy
Physical therapy can help you relieve and manage pain and improve your mobility and function so you can do daily tasks. Physical therapists have extensive experience treating both acute and chronic back pain.
Manual therapy, like massage treatment, is a subset of physical therapy. Its goal is to alter your muscles and joints to be more structurally healthy and move more freely. Consider it a more targeted and deliberate massage.
Chiropractic treatment
A chiropractor’s spinal manipulations might also bring rapid relief. This allows you to work on exercises or movements that will benefit your joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments in the long run.