Managing Chronic Back Pain

Chronic back pain can be debilitating for many individuals. Having chronic back pain can put a halt on many activities you enjoy doing every day. Managing your pain in your daily life is a constant struggle, but there are a number of ways in which you can alleviate your pain and try to live with it over time. This article will highlight common ways in which people can seek treatment for their chronic back pain and get back to living full lives. 

Pain is diagnosed as chronic pain when the sensation lasts for more than three months. During that three month period and after, the pain can come and go sometimes being very acute and other times being almost nonexistent. If you are experiencing pain in a certain area for three months or more, your doctor will consider it chronic pain. 

Assessment

With chronic back pain, there are a few ways in which it can be assessed and diagnosed by your doctor. Bone scans, MRIs, blood tests, and X-rays are all methods to help your doctor identify your chronic back pain. Once the pain is diagnosed as chronic pain, you and your doctor can start considering ways in which to begin treatment of your pain. 

Treatment

There are many different ways you can go about treating chronic back pain. Physical therapy is a great option to start with when managing your chronic back pain. Keeping up with a regular exercise routine that is outlined by your doctor is part of the physical therapy treatment. Other aspects of physical therapy for chronic back pain include stretching and flexibility exercises, core strengthening, fixing your posture, and testing the pain tolerance of the affected area. These forms of physical therapy can help you cope with your chronic pain and even alleviate symptoms when they start to flare up. 

Massage therapy is also recommended for people who suffer from chronic back pain. Think about taking up yoga or changing up your diet to decrease foods that cause inflammation. Talk to your doctor about the benefits of meeting with a chiropractor or undergoing other forms of alternative treatment for your chronic back pain. 

Accountability

Consider tracking your pain symptoms daily. Keep a journal in order to track what kind of activities you did that day that may have caused your chronic back pain to flare up and also to track activities you did to alleviate your pain. Keeping a journal can help both you and your doctor understand what methods work for you and how often you should be doing them to treat your chronic back pain.