Natural Remedies for Back Pain and Spasms
While back pain can be debilitating for many, it’s not uncommon. 8% of all adults experience chronic back pain, and 75% of all Americans experience at least some form of back pain. Here’s what you need to know about back pain and spasms and how you can treat them naturally from home.
The 3 Kinds of Back Pain
A range of issues causes back pain, and everyone reacts to back pain triggers differently.
Below are three of the most common causes of back pain:
1. Structural Injury
A structural injury involves a nerve, disc, ligament, tissue, and vertebral bone in your back. Structural injuries result from overexertion, twisting, or pulling. Your body naturally contracts muscles around the injury to prevent further damage. This is called a muscle spasm.
2. Arthritis
Osteoarthritis causes the space around the spinal cord to narrow, leading to both short-term and chronic lower back pain. Arthritis, which causes your joints to become inflamed and tender, makes your back stiff and painful to move.
3. Osteoporosis
Osteoporosis causes bones to weaken and become brittle. When the bones in your spine become more porous, the vertebrae can develop painful fractures that lead to chronic back pain. Osteoporosis is dangerous because even a small bump or fall can lead to a fracture.
17 Natural Remedies for Back Pain and Spasms
Here are 17 different natural remedies for upper and lower back pain and spasms that you can do at home.
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Apply Ice and Heat
Most back pain resides in tight and irritated muscles. Applying ice and heat can help reduce inflammation and relax your muscles, allowing your body to heal.
Start with a cold compress for 20 to 30 minutes, and then let your body rest for 10 minutes. If 20 minutes is painful, reduce the time to 10 minutes, take a break, and reapply. Do not apply ice for longer than this because it could damage tissue.
Heat can be applied for about the same amount of time. Apply heat to the affected area for 20 to 30 minutes and then rest for 10 minutes with no heat.
2. Stay Hydrated
Staying hydrated has many positive health benefits, and it can also fight pain. Dehydration can lead to chronic back pain because when your body is dehydrated, it reserves your water supply for your brain and major organs, taking needed water from the joints and muscles in your back. This can make movement painful.
By staying properly hydrated throughout the day, you can fight back pain by giving your body the water it needs to function.
3. Keep Moving
While you shouldn’t run a marathon if you have a back injury, you also shouldn’t stay bedridden. Walking and light exercise can ease pain because it improves blood flow and helps you maintain muscle flexibility and strength.
Remember not to overextend yourself. Your back hurts because it is injured, and excessive exercise or movement can compound that injury, making the pain worse.
Walking is one of the best forms of exercise to try when you have back pain. You should walk at a moderate pace for 10 to 15 minutes every day. If walking is uncomfortable, consider walking or swimming in a pool. Due to your body’s buoyancy in water, less stress and pressure are put on your spine, making it easier to move. Swimming also puts less pressure on your joints.
Even after your back pain has lessened, keep moving. Daily exercise can help you strengthen your back muscles and improve flexibility, which will help prevent further injuries.
4. Use an Exercise Ball and Stretch
A large exercise ball is a perfect way to gently stretch your back muscles while giving your back the support it needs. Stretching your lower back will mobilize your spine and decompress any pressure and stress you carry in your back.
5. Massage
Back pain is often the result of your back being unaligned and compressed. A gentle massage can help stretch your muscles and improve blood flow to your back.
Be gentle. If you apply too much pressure, you may aggravate the injury.
6. Rest
One of the best natural remedies to relieve back pain and spasms is to slow down and rest.
Sleep on a medium-firm mattress to help ease back pain while resting on your side with a pillow between your knees. If you prefer sleeping on your back, put the pillow under your knees. These sleep positions will help your spine stay supported but relaxed, giving it time to heal.
7. Improve Your Posture
While it may not be an immediate cause of your back pain, sitting and lying with poor posture can put an unwanted strain on your upper and lower back. Over time, the pressure leads to small changes in your spine and applies unbalanced pressure on your muscles, discs, and joints. In the worst cases, poor posture can lead to nerve damage, leading to further pain.
You can achieve good posture by keeping your head balanced above your spine. Walk from heel to toe, pushing off with the front of your feet as you step. Avoid slouching or sitting hunched over, and keep your back flush with the back of your chair, with your knees even and with your hips and feet flat on the floor.
8. Practice Yoga
Yoga can be a gentle way to remain active while gently stretching and moving your back. It can help your back maintain its strength and flexibility, which can help reduce your back pain and spasms.
9. Take a Hot Bath
A hot bath is more than just good self-care; It can also help reduce your lower back pain. The biggest benefit of a hot bath is that it can be a muscle relaxant. The heat relaxes your muscles, allowing for more blood flow. More blood flow means a faster reduction of lactic acid, which can help your muscles further unclench.
10. Upgrade Your Workstation
Sometimes a job can be a pain in the back—literally. If you spend much of your day sitting, your chair, the height of your desk, and even the layout of your keyboard and mouse can cause lower back pain.
To mitigate this, create an ergonomic workspace by positioning everything within arm's reach and keeping your monitor at eye level. Your chair should also keep your back supported and promote proper posture so your elbows can rest at a comfortable angle to your desk.
11. Quit Smoking
Smoking doesn’t just hurt your lungs and your cardiovascular health; it also leads to chronic lower back pain. Smoking can lead to damaged arteries in the discs and joints in your spine and increase your risk for osteoporosis, which can lead to back pain. If you are a smoker, consider quitting to reduce your back pain and improve your overall health.
12. Stretch Your Hips
Your hips directly impact your lower back and could be the reason for your lower back pain or spasms. Tight hip muscles can pull your pelvis out of alignment. Gentle stretches targeting your hips can help realign your back and treat your chronic lower back pain.
13. Apply Menthol and Methyl Salicylate
Menthol and methyl salicylate are the active ingredients in over-the-counter back pain and arthritis creams like Icy Hot, Bengay, and Tiger Balm. These compounds are considered a counterirritant, meaning that the compounds create minor inflammation or irritation in one area to help block pain signals coming from another area.
This idea is based on Gate Control Theory. Our brain has a gating mechanism that controls the stimuli from the rest of the body. Together, menthol and methyl salicylate provide additional sensory input that triggers the gate controls.
This means that Icy Hot, Bengay, and other topical creams, including menthol and methyl salicylate, don’t directly help resolve your back pain. However, they provide temporary relief from the pain, which can help you perform necessary daily tasks or get some needed rest.
The biggest benefit of these creams is that they can help divert attention from your back pain, as continually focusing on the pain can often make it feel worse. Applying a topical cream can help distract you and reset your pain levels.
14. Change Your Shoes
Your shoes can sometimes be the root of your pain. Shoes that provide poor support or keep you flat-footed, move your lower back slightly forward, which disrupts the natural curve of your spine. This causes additional stress to your vertebrae and can even add unwanted strain to your joints and ligaments. The right shoes will provide better support from the ground up for your entire body, helping your hips, lower back, spine, and shoulders align.
15. Meditate
You can have perfect posture and never strain, pull, or twist a single muscle, but still have back pain. For many people, a major contributor to back pain is daily stress.
While many back pain remedies help fight stress-related back pain, they don’t address its cause. That’s where mindfulness meditation can help.
Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) paired with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been known to help alleviate chronic lower back pain. Research shows that the patients who used MBSR and CBT had improved function.
16. Use an NMES Unit
A Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation (NMES) unit is a muscle stimulator that can help reduce and prevent back pain. It looks like a small patch that is put on your skin. Light electrical pulses are sent to the targeted area, which helps reduce muscle spasms and assists in the healing process.
For an NMES unit, the electrical signal mimics the same type of signal your brain sends to muscles while working out. By causing the muscles to contract in a controlled setting, an NMES unit can increase strength and range of motion without straining the muscles. When used properly, it can help maintain and build strength in your back muscles, which helps reduce and prevent future back pain.
When Should You See a Doctor?
A medical professional should always treat severe or chronic back pain. If your back pain does not reduce in intensity after a week or if it keeps you from participating in daily activities, seek medical advice.
If your back pain was caused by physical trauma to your head, neck, or spine, see your doctor immediately to prevent lasting damage to your spine. You should also consult your doctor if you have a fever or if the pain worsens, as these may be signs of further complications.
NeuroMD’s Back Pain Relief Device
With NeuroMD’s back pain technology, you can safely relieve your back pain and spasms at home.
NeuroMD’s NMES unit helps people achieve lasting relief from:
-Back pain
-SI joint pain
-Muscle spasms
-Chronic pain
-Sciatica
-Arthritis
-Lack of flexibility
-Muscle fatigue and weakness
It also comes with a preset treatment for convenience. One session with the NeuroMD Corrective Therapy Device is like a traditional exercise session for your back—all done without you ever needing to leave home.
In a typical 25-minute session, the device will help your muscles contract and relax over 100 times. By flexing and relaxing your muscles, you’ll experience lasting relief from back pain and muscle spasms.
Experience NeuroMD with a 60-day risk-free trial and 50% off. If you want to continue to learn more about NeuroMD and how it can safely help you reduce your back pain at home, contact us today.