Back pain is the 3rd most common reason to visit your GP after coughs and colds. It is a chronic common problem or symptom experienced by most people at some point in their lives normally due to pregnancy, bad posture, exercise, overweight, nutritional deficiency, ageing or stress.
First of all, you must get assessed by a professional to find where the problem comes from and to eliminate the possibility of any other diagnoses such as arthritis, slipped disc or kidney stones.
Once other underlying possible issues have been eliminated and you are still left with your back pain, addressing what is the cause of the pain is fundamental to reduce or eliminate the pain. So for example, if the patient is overweight, finding a suitable health plan with a naturopath or nutritionist, to help reduce the weight, which is adding pressure into the area of pain, may be essential to help solve the back pain. Therefore, the nutritionist and/or naturopath would evaluate diet, lifestyle and even the patient’s emotional state to eliminate the cause of the back pain.
Depending on the reason for the back pain to be expressing itself in that specific area, there are a number of natural therapies that could help to alleviate, reduce or eliminate the pain. If the pain is a muscular pain (such as due to contractions, pressure from posture or exercise) manual therapies such as massage, chiropractor, craniosacral therapy or even reflexology could work wonders on it. If the back pain is also due to stress, so it contains some level of emotional strain, additional psychosomatic therapies such as flower essences, or adding essential oils to your massage can help working with the emotional conditioning of the underlying cause of the problem while still helping to ease the pain.
Sometimes a good stretch or toning of the body, such us with some specific yoga postures can help with the pain at the same time as helping to calm the mind. Other times, we may need the addition or increase of a mineral or vitamin in the body to help relax the muscles and the nerve system, such as Magnesium.
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