Types of treatment for back pain
When you begin to feel pain in your back when you are sitting, standing or exercising it can really affect your lifestyle. New pain is a sign that something may be wrong, but sometimes it's hard to know what treatment is right for you. Do you see your GP, have a massage, or book an assessment with a physiotherapist? It can be difficult to know which one is best.
If you can identify the root cause of your symptoms you’ll not only be able to treat the pain you currently feel but learn what you can do to manage it going forwards and to prevent further episodes. Your GP may give you medication to temporarily improve the pain, but this may not resolve the problem and does not necessarily tackle the root cause.
Massage therapy is a treatment which is growing in popularity to increase circulation, relieve tension, reduce stress, relieve anxiety, improve sleep, and promote relaxation. In many cases, however, massage therapy alone may provide only temporary relief because the actual source of the pain has not been identified and addressed.
That back pain is still there, so how can a physiotherapist help?
Physiotherapists use all their clinical skill and experience to identify the likely cause of your pain. They are trained to assess and differentiate between the various causes of back pain. They are able to identify when other interventions such as X-rays, MRI scans or other medical opinions may be necessary and can facilitate these. In most cases, physiotherapists can identify, treat and help manage the causes of back pain without other interventions being necessary. As well as helping to ensure that injuries heal optimally, physiotherapists will look at the possible causes of pain and educate you on how best to prevent recurrence. They can help improve pain by improving joint mobility, helping settle inflammation and muscle spasm and by improving muscle imbalances. They can explain to you why the pain occurs and show you how best to treat and prevent it as well as giving you treatment to relieve it. When you ask a physiotherapist to help treat your back pain, rather than simply identifying the problem area and treating the symptoms, they will attempt to identify why the problem manifested in the first place, and work with you to show you how to prevent it from recurring in the future.
Effective treatment for back pain with physiotherapy
Back pain treatment with physiotherapy involves identifying which structures in and around the spine may be involved and causing pain. These can then be treated by managing inflammation, reducing muscle spasm, improving joint movement, improving muscle imbalances and advising on rehabilitation plus how to best deal with the pain with modifying activities and postures at home or at work to get you feeling better as quickly as possible.
Following a full clinical assessment, your physiotherapist will understand the history of your injury or condition, the nature of the pain and how your pain and symptoms respond to certain activities. Your physiotherapist will look carefully at your spine and pelvis and how your body is moving. This detailed assessment helps determine the source of the pain and its relationship with your body mechanics.
An effective plan of rehabilitation can then be formulated to give you an individually tailored management plan and help you end your cycle of injury. Medical evidence shows that exercise and strengthening has the best long-term results for patients with ongoing back pain. In most cases, a short course of physiotherapy sessions at the clinic with the physiotherapist, combined with a programme of tailored exercises to strengthen and rebalance the spinal support muscles will help control ongoing episodes of back pain.
If you are struggling with recurring back pain, or have started to experience pain which is affecting your lifestyle, don't do nothing. Resting is not the answer to long term recovery. Contact Cotswold Physiotherapy about your back pain, and get a clear diagnosis of the root cause and an effective plan of rehabilitation. Call 01993 201485 or send your enquiry here