Tips to Keep Easter Back Pain at Bay.

Well, Easter is here (although you wouldn't think it here where I live with the snow coming down), and should be a time of joy and goodwill. Unfortunately it is also a time of back pain for many. Caused by the additional strains and stresses involved in many festive activities.

William J. Sonstein, neurosurgeon and spine specialist, has
developed tips to help keep readers' backs safe and healthy during this season. You can find his do’s and don’ts here.

Smell your armpit to save your neck.

For some reason I have been having a lot of neck pain this week. Mostly on the right side, and worse later in the day.

So, whilst looking at various neck problem related articles I chanced upon this one by David Higgins on the London evening Standard site.

He is a Pilates expert and reckons much neck pain these days is caused by mobile phone use leading to bad posture.

A couple of exercises he recommends involve sniffing and listening to your armpit.

As he concludes his article “To make sure you avoid looking like you have a problem with either your personal hygiene or your sanity, you may want to find somewhere private to do them”.

Sounds a bit daft but I’ve tried it and they definitely have eased my neck. With the advantage they are very simple and quick.

Read the full article.

Back Pain Stopped by Micro Spine Implant.

This article by Chris Burns on the slashgear.com website caught my eye. I think it will be of great interest to chronic back pain sufferers.

It seems that a team of Australian researchers are well on the way to completing development of a micro implant that will block pain signals to the brain.

We have heard of similar things before, but the difference with this  one is that it really is tiny. The implant itself being not much bigger that the head of a match, and the external box the size of a matchbox.

It is also selective in the pain it blocks. It only blocks constant pain so the useful warning pains such as being poked in the back with something sharp will still get through.

When fully developed the researchers say it could help with leg pain, pain from nerve damage, migraines, Parkinson’s disease tremors, and epileptic seizures!

Sounds very promising. Read more.

Zen Meditation can Control Your Back Pain.

As many of you will know I am a great believer in the power of the mind, and this article on the worldwidehealth.com website confirms the power of one method of harnessing this power to control pain.

This is a serious piece of research by Pierre Rainville, a researcher at the University of Montreal, who together with his colleagues report their findings in the journal Pain.

The findings do appear to show that people practising Zen meditation have lower pain sensitivity.

As meditation is something that can be learnt quite easily, this line of research could prove very promising. Effective pain relief without drugs being a worthwhile goal.

Get the full story here.

Chronic back pain? Sleep more!

Finally here is a link to an article on wsocth.com which links the amount of sleep we get to the amount and degree of pain we feel.

In short, more sleep, less pain. Find out more.

Winter Back Pain Due to Lack of Vitamin D?

This is quite an interesting, and quite topical given the time of year, with winter just about over, article on the Medical News Today website.

I suppose it’s no secret to most of us with back problems that they do seem to be worse in the winter. Now research has shown that a lack of vitamin D is the possible cause for much winter back pain.

Vitamin D is produced in the body by reaction to sunlight,  the main source of which is obviously less in wintertime. Vitamin D in turn is responsible for the absorbtion of calcium, and it is the resultant lack of calcium that causes problems.

This story goes on to list sources of vitamin D apart from sunlight. Most of us probably get sufficient vitamin D in our diets anyway, but it does make interesting reading. Read the story here.

Back to Basics for Back Pain Relief.

Yes that was a jolly clever title wasn’t it? Oh allright then, suit yourselves.

This article I found on the  scotsman.com website by Gina Davidson relates the story of a lady called Katherine Ross.

Three months ago she was on 24-hour pain medication, barely able to walk, and contemplating invasive back surgery. This was due to extreme sciatica which started shortly after the birth of her son six years ago.

Unable to work, in much pain and waiting for her operation, a friend recommended her physiotherapist, Kirsten Lord of the Edinburgh Physiotherapy Centre. "She told me she'd made a huge difference to her, and I had nothing to lose so I went," says Katharine.

To cut a long story short, she is now pain free for the first time in years, not having to take any medication, and working again, running her own business. The operation has been cancelled, and she is looking forward to happy times.

This all really boils down to as the headline says, getting back to basics, in this case the right sort of physiotherapy.

If you want to read the full story go here.

Chronic Back Pain Gene Identified

University of Cambridge researchers have identified a gene (HCN2 gene) which is responsible for us feeling chronic back pain, as well as other chronic pain conditions such as arthritis and headaches.

Removal of the gene in mice still enabled the subjects to feel acute pain, the equivalent of say us biting our tongue, or touching a hot object. But apparently stopped any chronic pain.

The difference is important as we need to feel acute pain to protect ourselves, and avoid accidental damage, so this is exciting stuff.

Chronic lifelong pain is very common, and increasingly difficult to treat effectively, with a lack of effective medicines that don't cause their own problems.

According to Professor Peter McNaughton, head of pharmacology at Cambridge University, there is now a real hope for people suffering from lower back pain and other chronic painful conditions.

How long we shall have to wait for treatment based on this research is not mentioned, but hopefully will be available in the not too distant future for us back pain sufferers, and others.

If you want to read the whole story on the bbc.co.uk website then click here.

Topical Ibuprofen as Effective as Oral for Knee Pain, and Maybe Back Pain.

Some of us are just not good at taking pills. My wife Carol is one of these, she finds that even trying to take a small pill triggers a gag reflex, and it has always been a problem for her, and there are many others with this problem.

So in this short article by Jaimie Oh on the beckersasc.com website it was interesting to learn that using Ibuprofen topically, i.e rubbed into the affected part as a gel, is just as effective as taking the drug orally.

This was in a study involving people with chronic knee pain. So could be worth a try if you are on Ibuprofen for back pain and don’t like taking pills.

You can find the article here.

Herbal Remedies to Relieve Back Pain in Women.

“A decline in calcium levels and weakness are main reasons for back pain in women. Back pain is especially common in women working with heavy weights, homemakers, with improper diet pattern and in their menopausal phase.”

So starts this story on the medical daily.com website. Now I know there is a pretty even mix of the sexes among my readers, but I make no apologies for including this story which is primarily for the ladies. I’m sure in the future something will turn up more for the gents.

In any case I would think that most of these remedies would be very effective for the men also. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to give them a try.

So to find 8 herbal remedy recipes for a painful back just use this link.