Natural back pain treatments can help relieve the discomfort that plagues many people. Apart from injury, most back pain is caused by poor posture from our modern lifestyle.  Our head/hips forward slouch posture causes our lumbar curve to flatten and our vertebrae not to align.  Sitting in chairs, using technology, and driving cars further eliminates our natural spinal curves.

  Harvard Medical School explains proper posture:

Posture is the way you hold your body while standing, sitting, or performing tasks like lifting, bending, pulling, or reaching. If your posture is good, the bones of the spine — the vertebrae — are correctly aligned.((https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/4-ways-to-turn-good-posture-into-less-back-pain))

 

Image:  Harvard Medical School

Understanding why you have developed back pain and then taking steps to improve your posture is the first step for back health longevity.  When there is chronic pain, the following 5 natural back pain treatments can help.

5 Natural Back Pain Treatments that Work

Image:  Back to Health Participant Guidebook

 1.  Natural Back Pain Treatments:  Yoga

Yoga is a well-known natural back pain treatment amongst practitioners.  Recently, a study conducted at Boston Medical Center and published in Annals of Internal Medicine supports the claims of the effectiveness of yoga therapy for back pain.  NPR reports on the study:

When the study began, about 70 percent of the patients were taking some form of pain medication. At the end of three months, when the yoga classes were wrapping up, the percentage of yoga and PT participants still taking pain medication had dropped to about 50 percent. By comparison, the use of pain medication did not decline among participants in the education group.

“It’s a significant reduction,” says study author Rob Saper, director of integrative medicine at Boston Medical Center.

“I’m not recommending that people just go to any yoga class,” Saper told us. He pointed out that their research has helped nail down poses and relaxation techniques that are helpful and safe.((http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2017/06/20/533505211/study-finds-yoga-can-help-back-pain-but-keep-it-gentle-with-these-poses?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social))

Researchers have made the yoga protocol used by participants available to the public.  The resource is simple to follow about which poses to do in what order and includes log sheets.  This guidebook is an excellent resource for anyone to start using a home practice to ease their back pain.  Remember, not every yoga class or asana (pose) is helpful as natural back pain treatments.  Back pain relief exercises are specific at targeting the areas you need to stretch and strengthen.

2.  Natural Back Pain Treatments:  Hot water bottle

Using a hot water bottle to relieve pain is an old technique.  They are cheap and safer to use than a heating pad.  

Research has found that heat actually can “shut down the normal pain response” in our bodies.  The Guardian reports:

“The heat doesn’t just provide comfort and have a placebo effect – it actually deactivates the pain at a molecular level in much the same way as pharmaceutical painkillers,” said Brian King, a senior lecturer in physiology at University College London, who led the research. 

Dr King found that if heat of more than 40C (104F) is applied to the skin near where internal pain is felt, it switches on heat receptors at the site of injury. These in turn block the body’s ability to detect pain.((https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/jul/05/health.society))

We were sent a hot water bottle to try by Warm Traditions. This is a great natural remedy for back pain.  It is BPA-free and Phthalate-Free.  They are made in Germany.

Eco Comfort is free of PVC, BPA, Plasticizer & Phtalates. Once the bottle is filled with hot water, the bottle becomes soft and pliable and molds to your body. Eco Comfort has so many benefits and uses – soothing aches & pains, easing sore back pain, melting away muscular tension, stress relief, menstrual pain comfort, bed warmer, keeping hands and feet warm, diminishing arthritis pain, soothing children, creating a restful night sleep, television companion, book buddy, easing ear aches, dog and cat’s warm friend, keeping warm during winter sports, traveling companion, baby colic soother, pregnancy and labor pain relief…the benefits are endless! All you need is access to hot water – no electricity, no microwave – all natural relief! Warm Tradition Hot Water Bottles are made in Germany under strict European safety guidelines. Each hot water bottle is odorless, safe and fully recyclable. It is designed to allow the heat to last for hours – an average of 6 hours, in fact. The bottles are integrally molded making them seamless, preventing leaks and cracks to occur. The mouth of the hot water bottle is extra large which allows for easy filling and prevention of spills. Eco Comfort’s unique ‘Screw On’ cap makes it simple to open and close the bottle securely with very little effort. Each hot water bottle has an approximate volume of 2 liters. All of Warm Tradition’s hot water bottles come with a 2 year guarantee against manufacturing defects. 

Unlike a heating pad, where the temperature fluctuates no matter the setting, a hot water bottle can stay warm for up to six hours. This is a great method for relieving lower back pain while sleeping safely, unlike a heating pad.  Warm Traditions makes a variety of cute hot water bottle covers.  

3.  Natural Back Pain Treatments:  Homeopathy and Essential Oils

Topical and oral natural remedies for back pain and inflammation can help you cure back pain fast at home.  My favorite homeopathic remedy to take orally is arnica montana (there are topical remedies that include arnica too).  

Arnica montana (or Mountain daisy) has been used for centuries as a natural pain reliever, and today, it’s one of the most popular homeopathic medicines in the world. Arnica is trusted by professional athletes to soothe sore muscles, by prominent cosmetic surgeons to relieve post-procedure pain, and by savvy moms to treat playground bumps and bruises. And anyone who bruises easily will appreciate Arnica’s ability to reduce bruise discoloration.

For arnica to be effective, you take the pellets at the first sign of discomfort.

My favorite essential oil treatment for back pain is doTERRA’s Deep Blue.  This lower back pain relief product provides immediate ease and comfort!

When all else fails, Deep Blue offers the greatest relief for my back issues.  Do not use in combination with heat though.  Deep Blue combines Wintergreen, Camphor, Peppermint, Blue Tansy, Blue Chamomile, Helichrysum and Osmanthus and creates an instant cooling effect.  

4.  Natural Back Pain Treatments:  Acupuncture

Acupuncture is a form of traditional Chinese medicine that involves inserting tiny needles into specific points in the body.((https://nccih.nih.gov/health/acupuncture/introduction))  Published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a meta-analysis conducted in 2012 found acupuncture does help with chronic pain. 

Researchers from the Acupuncture Trialists’ Collaboration, a group that was established to synthesize data from high-quality randomized trials on acupuncture for chronic pain, conducted an analysis of individual patient data from 29 high-quality randomized controlled trials, including a total of 17,922 people. These trials investigated the use of acupuncture for back and neck pain, osteoarthritis, shoulder pain, or chronic headache.

For all pain types studied, the researchers found modest but statistically significant differences between acupuncture versus simulated acupuncture approaches (i.e., specific effects), and larger differences between acupuncture versus a no-acupuncture controls (i.e., non-specific effects).((https://nccih.nih.gov/research/results/spotlight/091012))

Image credit: By Racoon90 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

5.  Natural Back Pain Treatments:  Rolfing

Rolfing changes your body. It is based on the work of Ida Pauline Rolf, PhD. It works with your fascia in a process called structural integration.  Fascia has become a popular buzzword surrounding chronic pain, yoga, and cellulite.  According to the International Association of Structural Integrators:

Structural Integration is a type of bodywork that focuses on the connective tissue, or fascia, of the body. Fascia surrounds muscles, groups of muscles, blood vessels, organs, and nerves, binding some structures together while permitting others to slide smoothly over each other.  Fascia is designed to be elastic and move freely with muscles and bones.  Injury, stress, work-related repetitive movements and the effects of aging can cause fascia to lose its elasticity and become shorter, tighter, and more dense. Tightened fascia pulls our muscles and skeleton out of proper alignment and posture, which can cause pain, discomfort, and fatigue. Structural Integration works to lengthen, stretch, and soften this tissue to restore postural balance, ease of movement, and a feeling of being more at home in your own body. It is practiced in an organized series of sessions or individual sessions within a framework that is designed to restore postural balance by aligning and integrating the body in gravity. Structural Integration is based on the work of Dr. Ida P. Rolf. ((http://www.theiasi.net/what-is-structural-integration-))

Chronic back pain can be overwhelming. There are natural back pain treatments and remedies that really work.  They take commitment but the results are life changing. 

Featured image:  WolfBlur / Pixabay