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In the USA alone, an estimated 31 million people currently suffer from back pain, and better than 50% of Americans report some back pain each and every year. And, within the last five years, statistics indicate that around one third of Americans over the age of 18 have visited the doctor with back pain complaints.

These statistics beg the question, “why do our backs hurt all the time”? The answer proves to be multifaceted. We suffer from chronic back and neck pain for a plethora of reasons; not the least of which is the fact that we spend way too much time sitting on our rear ends!

When you lead a sedentary lifestyle, your muscles and surrounding tissues begin to disintegrate and can actually atrophy. When this occurs, any kind of activity can create strain that causes chronic back pain. Your body depends on activity to remain healthy, but not just any activity, the right activity. You see, exercise helps to keep all the systems of your body working smoothly. That fact holds true for, not only your joints and muscles, but for your neurological and lymphatic systems as well. Let’s take a look at some other contributing factors to your chronic back and neck pain.

Secondary to injury comes nutritional forces that affect back pain. That’s right, the foods you eat (and don’t eat) have a direct effect on your pain.

Many people try to eliminate all fats from their diet, but your body actually needs some fat to work properly. Too little fat in your diet can be a major catalyst for your chronic pain, including your back and neck.

Many people do their best to pack as much protein into their diet as possible. You may be surprised to learn that consuming too much protein can contribute to the development of ketoacidosis – a harmful physiological process that breaks down tissue, contributes to arthritis and, chronic back and neck pain!

Emotional strain can wreak havoc on your spine as well. Many people carry tension in their neck and back. If you’re among this group, you’re well aware that stress can manifest itself into serious chronic back pain.

The problems mentioned here are just drops in the bucket compared to the compiled list of factors that may be contributing to your pain.

Summing it up, your chronic back pain, your neck pain, your upper, lower, and middle back tension, your sciatica, and your aches in general can be directly contributed to a sedentary lifestyle, emotional strain, injury, and nutritional voids.

In short, everything you do can potentially contribute to your pain – on the flipside, everything you do can also contribute to your healing!

The good news is that there is hope for finding relief and help to get rid of your chronic back pain. A little time and effort geared towards learning more about the causes of your chronic back pain (and the best ways to eliminate that pain) can produce some awesome results.

After all, what could be more important than feeling great and living your life to the fullest as a result?

As technology advances at an ever-accelerating rate, we learn more and more about the way chronic pain works each day. The recently discovered adaptations in ion channels are one of the most important pieces of the pain puzzle.

Ion channels are essentially some proteins that are embedded in neurons (neurons are the cells that are the functional components of the brain, nerves, and spinal cord) that allow neurons to communicate with one another.

To keep it simple, when an ion channel opens (they are normally closed), the neuron conducts an electrical signal which ultimately leads to communication between neurons. These interactions between neurons are what allow us to think, breathe, remember things and experience sensory events (including pain).

The amount of ion channels and their activity levels varies on a day to day basis. What does this have to do with chronic pain? If there are more ion channels or the activity of channels increases, pain increases! In response to an injury, the body creates more ion channels which allow the brain to be more sensitive to painful stimuli.

This helps explain why neuropathies (such as nerve damage caused by an accident or by diabetes) can be so painful and difficult to treat. Normally peripheral nerves (nerves outside the spinal cord and brain) resist creating extra ion channels. However, nerve damage can cause nerves to lose their protection and sprout extra ion channels. This causes the body areas serviced by these damaged nerves to become painful and extraordinarily sensitive.

The interesting thing though is that these extra channels develop not just in the affected areas, but also in the brain areas associated with fear, threat, and memory. These extra receptors take some time to build and then last for a few days before dying off.

As a result, recalling a traumatic injury or experiencing high levels of stress can cause pain to become more severe. This also explains why flare-ups sometimes come on with no warning and last for a few days before pain returns to baseline levels.

Since conscious thought and pain are so interrelated, it can be useful (particularly when dealing with chronic back pain or neuropathies) to perform this mental exercise:

Whenever you experience pain that comes on or worsens at an unusual time (such as when sitting down, driving, or doing something not related to your injury), simply say to yourself “I am not feeling pain in response to an injury; the pain I am feeling is just the result of faulty neural wiring.”

Extra signaling channels in response to negative thoughts or injury can intensify pain significantly even if the site of injury remains unchanged. By reminding yourself of this each time you experience chronic pain, over time you can reduce your pain levels significantly.

What Is A Chronic Back Pain?

Back pain is becoming more common day by day, with a continuous rise in the aging Baby Boomer population. In fact, backache accounts for about 20% of all injuries and illnesses in the US. It is highly essential to treat backache as soon as possible through various over-the-counter-drugs and other remedies available to alleviate the pain. If a backache is ignored for long, it becomes chronic and continues to torture at all times of day and night. A pain can be termed as chronic if it is recurring, is stimulated by even a small movement, and lasts for over three months. Chronic back pain cause extreme discomfort and hinders you from performing your day-to-day activities.

Chronic Back Pain Cause And Precautions

Several causes can result in a chronic backache and leave you suffering and writhing in pain:

1. Wrong sitting posture – If you slouch while sitting, it increases muscle tension in the back and puts great pressure on your shoulders and upper back. You must always sit with back straight.

2. Wrong standing posture – If you are putting your body weight on one foot while standing, your balance is incorrect and this exerts pressure on the back. Our back can support weight most easily when body curvature is less. Slouching while standing is extremely harmful. It is best to put equal weight on both feet and keep your hands lightly clasped behind your lower back. This improves posture of shoulders, neck, and back.

3. Sitting in a same position for long – This puts extreme pressure on the back and reduces blood supply, resulting in a backache. You must take a short walk at regular intervals or lightly stretch your body to relieve tension and restore blood circulation.

4. Lifting heavy objects – If you lift objects that are too heavy for you, it puts excess strain on the back and may result in muscle pull or ligament rapture. If you have no help for lifting a heavy object, then before lifting, pull in your stomach muscles, keep your back straight, bend on your knees, grab hold of the object properly and lift your body up. While getting up, keep the object close to the body and do not twist while getting up. This will help you lift objects without putting undue strain on your back.

5. Sudden start of a strenuous exercise or activity – It causes muscles to strain suddenly and result in a pull or strain on the back muscles. To avoid this, it is recommended to do some warm-up and stretch-up exercises. In addition, one must not start exercising suddenly after a prolonged period of inactivity.

6. Excessive weight – Excessive weight (especially around the waist) causes high stress on the back, as the spinal cord has to bear more weight than required. Eat healthy and nutritious food and exercise regularly to keep your body weight in check.

7. Pregnancy – It is inevitable for a pregnant woman to suffer from chronic back pain at some point of the pregnancy. To avoid this pain from becoming a complication during the labor time, it is advisable to get proper advice and treatment for keeping the backache in control.

8. Smoking – Smoking reduces blood flow to the lower spine and results in degeneration of spinal disks.

Whatever be the back pain cause, you must take care to treat the backache through remedies and do regular exercises to keep your back healthy enough to avoid further acute backache.

Every now and again everybody acquires some kind of back pain. You do a bit to much lifting the day earlier or got a bit to ambitious at the gym the the day before and your back will in all likelihood hurt a little. For people with the casual sore pain there are ointments, pills, and gels that will work to assist in getting rid of the pain. You can even put on a hot pad for a couple of minutes and your pain will likely go away. But if you suffer from chronic back pain then you are in all probability already very aware of the lack of an good chronic back pain treatment.

Once you have chronic back pain for any reason you shortly come to realize that you’ll more than likely be living with it the rest of your life. There is exercises you will be able to do to help strengthen parts of your back and fight

Chronic back pain is a problem than many people suffer from every day. This can be particularly true if you work in a position where you are required to do hard labor, specifically lifting. However, this is not always the case. You can experience back pain from sitting long periods of time at a desk or computer. It can be very painful and even cause problems getting around throughout the day. Poor posture can also be a cause. Often the pain cannot be alleviated no matter how you position your body. You sit or lay or stand and no matter what, the pain is there. Luckily there are several ways to deal with this pain safely and effectively.

One of the first ways to deal with back pain is to see a massage therapist. These people are able to work the muscles in the back in such a way that the tension that is built up in them is released and the pain is alleviated. Massage therapists have specialized training and understand how the body’s muscles work. They are often able to isolate specific muscle groups where the pain is located and target their massage there.

Another thing to consider is your sleeping arrangement. Many times problems with ones back can be associated with such things as a mattress that is too hard or soft. Consider changing your mattress if this is the case. There are several mattresses available that can be adjusted to the level of firmness needed as well. Consider the pillow you are using and try different sleeping positions and see how they affect you the next day.

There is also the option of visiting a chiropractor. They can perform x-rays and see if there is a more serious problem at work. They practice a very specialized form of medicine and are adept at dealing with back pain.

If none of these options work, then you should consider seeing your primary care physician. He or she can prescribe drugs that can help numb the pain. There is also the option of surgery if a more serious problem exists. This should only be used in extreme measures. Often surgery is unavoidable but consider carefully because it can have long term effects on the body. Be sure to inform your doctor of all steps you may have taken to relieve your back pain so that he can make an accurate diagnosis.

Chronic back pain, most commonly lower back pain, is one of the most common complaints among adults and as the popularity grows throughout the world for alternative treatments and therapies, Back Massage Therapy has emerged as a favourite treatment of choice in trying to attain chronic back pain relief.

Back massage therapy offers numerous benefits. While general massage is well known to stimulate blood flow to the muscles and provide relaxation and a pleasurable experience, it does not necessarily provide the therapeutic value required to provide chronic back pain relief sought by sufferers of the condition. Back massage therapy by a specialist however can bring about significant relief within weeks, when therapeutic back massage techniques are applied to combat both lower and upper back pain.

The positive results from back massage therapy can be multiplied when combined with complimentary treatments such as Chiropractic, Physical Therapy or even Acupuncture. A multi discipline approach will work best when the therapists communicate with each other and ‘design’ a program of complimentary treatments to achieve chronic back pain relief through a synergistic approach.

Results can again be significantly improved with the patient taking personal responsibility and being proactive in achieving chronic back pain relief. This can be done with simple measures such as an improved diet, gentle exercise and stretching.

Benefits of Back Massage Therapy

o Massaging causes the muscles to become more relaxed which in turn increases their range of motion. This is an enormous benefit when tension of the muscles causes a restriction in movement. Relaxed muscles also help to reduce insomnia.

o Improved blood supply to the muscles assists with the recovery of muscular soreness from physical activity.

o Massage increases endorphin levels in the body. This is highly beneficial as endorphins are the ‘feel good’ chemicals produced naturally by our bodies. Heightened endorphin levels assist in dealing with chronic back pain.

Precautions

Take note that when receiving massage therapy for the back, the pressure applied during the massage should evoke a response of relaxation in the muscles. If this does not occur the muscles may be inflamed possibly due to an acute injury of the muscle. In this case massage therapy should be put off until the inflammation subsides and it may be advised to consult a doctor.

For best results, muscle spasms generally require four massage treatments, commonly spread over six weeks. Should the muscle spasms not respond to therapy after two massages, it may be advisable to seek an alternative therapy.

Back massage techniques are highly effective in the treatment of chronic back pain, however if the pain is severe it is recommended to first undergo a complete medical check-up prior to beginning a program of back massage therapy.

Conclusion

For those seeking chronic back pain relief there is a wide variety of treatment options available both in conventional medicine and alternative therapies. Whatever your preference of treatment, back massage therapy can be a highly beneficial partner in your quest for relief.