I’ve had some fairly serious lower back issues in recent years and I thought I would share with you some of the valuable remedies that I have discovered for lower back pain and problems.
In June last year I had a serious back injury with a herniated disc and an annular tear in another disc both in the lower back (lumbar) area. These were extremely painful and I ended up in the hospital for several days and then went through fairly intensive treatment for another month. It took several months to heal.
Soon after that I traveled more and we ended up staying in Canada for some months where my back progressively got worse. I think this was from a combination of a poor quality bed and poor ergonomics with our sofa and my work station/computer set up. After doing a tremendous amount of research on the Internet and having seen numerous doctors and specialists, I concluded that there are a lot of wrong ways to handle the problem and some right ways to repair and rehabilitate your back.
Some of the things to beware of: 1) There are Spine Doctors that seem to be way too quick to tell you that you cannot reverse disc degeneration and recommend surgery. 2) Chiropractic adjustments of my lower back almost always had catastrophic results that set back the healing process. Light, non-aggressive upper back adjustments were okay, but never the lower back. When the discs are that damaged, lower back adjustments made matters worse for me.
More importantly, here are some of the things that I’ve done that have worked well for lower back rehabilitation:
First of all I started taking a supplement each day and and am now taking it twice a day. I make a protein drink with protein powder that has no sugar in it (sweetened with Stevia) and I add to it multi-minerals (that include trace minerals) and a scoop of a Joint Repair powder that contains 10,000 mg of collagen as well as numerous other nutrients that are good for joint repair. I’ll put a link to some such products available on Amazon at the bottom of this post.
Secondly I found a chiropractor that uses ultrasound and also a traction table. I do not recommend getting your lower back adjusted by a Chiropractor. Twice a week I went there and simply got light traction and ultrasound in the area. The ultrasound increases circulation and the traction helps to decompress the spine. This is different than a decompression machine.
I also used an ice pack on my back about one time per hour for about 10 to 15 minutes. Particularly first thing in the morning icing my back was very important as inflammation normally increases during the night.
A good bed with a high quality, firm mattress that does not sag is vital and well worth the investment. Proper ergonomics at any work station is also very important. A good chair with lumbar support and a computer screen that is high enough to be at eye level when you are sitting up straight. Your butt should be all the way back and your spine straight all the way through your neck. Working for hours hunched over a computer puts a lot of strain on your back that you may not realize.
Good posture, good ergonomics and a good sleeping position are all vital to recovery and long term spinal health.
Once my back was less inflamed I began some light therapeutic exercises to help strengthen the muscles that support the lumbar area. Here are a couple of links that give some good exercise programs that you can follow. But I must say that it is very important to take it very easy and slow, starting light and very, very gradually building up.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3812831/ – this is a very long article, but toward the end there are descriptions and photos of various phases of strengthening exercises.
https://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-EXER.HTM#.VU4i2tNVikp
Joint powder supplements:
Hope this is helpful.