It's happened to all of us at some point in our lives or you have seen someone that its happened to. I am talking about the dreaded “my back just went out” scenario. Now if we can get one thing straight right off the bat….. your back did not “go out”. Acute low back pain can be extreme and it can be scary but most of the time all that has happened is a severe spasming of the back muscles or the mobility of the back meaning the joints have not been able to move for some time and now that prolonged dysfunction has lead to you in pain feeling like you can't move. 

Doing the normal of things is now an adventure at best. Putting on your shoes, getting dressed even sitting or standing is now done with every extreme cautionary measure. The good news is that are steps that you can take to immediately help relieve the pain before you see your Chiropractor.  The bad news is many people take the wrong steps to get better or just do nothing at all which can make the back pain worse. 

So here are the Do’s and Don’ts of low back pain:

The Do’s: 

  • Do apply ice for 15-20 min at a time every couple of hours.

This will reduce inflammation and help protect the soft tissue it also helps reduces the pain. 

  • Do avoid movements that hurt. But move as much as you can.

Mobility is key! However increasing pain do to the movement is bad and you could be making the injury worse.

  • Do apply Cream such as biofreeze or cryoderm

These creams help with the pain and also aid in the healing process, unlike NSAIDS which actually limit the healing process (read more about that here). 

  • Do Call your Chiropractor and schedule an appointment

The sooner you can get it in and be seen by your Doctor of Chiropractic the sooner your will be back to 100% sometimes even same day depending on the severity of the injury.

‍

The Don’ts 

  • Don’t apply heat for the first 48 hours

This can increase the inflammation and can have adverse effects on the joint and surrounding soft tissue.

  • Don’t stay in bed or completely avoid all activity

Just like heat staying completely inactive can be worse for you than moving around. Movement allows fluid to move in and out of a joint as well as in and out of the soft tissue.

  • Don’t put off calling your Chiropractor

Again the sooner you can get adjusted the quicker you are goingto be able to get back to 100%.

‍

So the next time you find yourself in a situation where you have thrown your back out be sure to follow these Do’s and Don’ts, you’ll be glad you did and so will your back. 

 Click here to make an appointment with our office!

Dr. Alex Paulk is a Chiropractor at North Atlanta Spine located in Alpharetta Ga.

www.northatlantaspine.com