Types of Back Pain

Today let's talk about the causes of back pain. Back pain can come from a number of reasons, the following list is not all inclusive.

• Overwork
• Stress
• Genetics
• Injury
• Obesity
• Lack of exercise
• Age

We can overwork our back causing muscle soreness. This is the easiest to “cure” our backs will normally go back to a non-pain condition if we rest long enough. And the plus to this type of pain is that the overwork may help strengthen our back muscles which can keep future pain away.

 

Stress can also cause pain. When we are stressed our muscles will tighten. It happens in our head, the stress headache, and it can happen in other parts of our body as well. This type of pain can usually be controlled with a mild analgesic and can lessen as we control the stress. However, keep in mind a continual stressful condition can harm much more than our back. If you find yourself in continuous stress, seek help to eliminate it from your life.

 

Genetics can play a role as well. Genetics would determine structure of the vertebra in the back, and imperfections can lead to pain. In this situation there is generally only a few ways to deal with it. Constant pain medication or surgery. If the pain is bearable, consider other homeopathic ways of dealing with the pain. It has been our experience that there is a high level of failure in back surgery.

Injuries, whether on the job, in a car or other transportation vehicles, or any other way in this world can cause pain as well. Some injuries are mild and with some aspirin and time will heal nicely. Others are more serious, and as with genetics, the very worse injuries need to be deal with medically.

In the United States, we tend to have a problem with obesity. Obesity will foul the mechanics in the vertebra and cause injury to the spinal column due to extra stress on the joints. Sometimes just losing the extra pounds will help. While doing that, find ways to support good posture. Back support is available, along with our favorite, a great bed! Posture will allow your body to rest between stress periods.

Lack of proper exercise is another cause of back pain. The reason for this is our muscles work integrally with our vertebra to maintain a minimal stress position. When you ignore the muscles in the back, they will atrophy, or weaken, preventing them from doing the job. Add exercises designed to work the back muscles to strengthen them.



Advertisement

And of course as we age, parts wear out. Things like osteoporosis or other degenerative diseases can weaken the bone, or wear down the discs that cushion them. Some medications can hasten this, like steroids. Talk with your doctor to determine the cause. This is probably the worse pain to deal with, and often the saddest for those who love you. There are some things you can do, from taking supplements, or changing diet, to surgery. Unfortunately, sometimes there is nothing that can correct the problem, then you will have to manage the pain. Again, talk to your doctor about proper pain management.

While doctors were mentioned a few times above, there are other providers to consider. Acupuncturists, and Chiropractors come to mind. And if you have read here before, we generally like to recommend the least invasive treatments first. Saving the most invasive treatments like surgery for if nothing else works. There are also some machines that gently stretch and align your back. Less invasive treatments also are less expensive, and have a quicker recover time. However you handle the scourge of back pain...

Sleep Well!

Fibromyalgia and Sleep

Fibromyalgia is a disease that can impact sleep.  It can mimic arthritis, but is generally more related to muscles, a deep pain, and it generally is more widespread than arthritis.  Because of the pain, this disease will impact sleep, both quantity and quality.  So what should we do?

There are many who say they sleep enough at night, but feel fatigued when they wake.  The pain from Fibro is probably impacting the sleep cycles, preventing them from staying in the sleep cycles long enough to be productive.  Lack of sleep over a long term can affect other parts of your health.  So the trick would seem to be how to get enough sleep.  Getting enough sleep and the right kind can help your body to handle the pain better.

Sleep can be elusive, but is necessary, so it is important to learn to sleep better.  Sufferers from fibro need to be sleep experts.  And of course (here come the shameless self promotion), your bed can make a major impact.  If the bed conforms to you, it will spread the pressure out over more of your body, lessening it at any given point.  Less pressure means you can sleep better.  Our store sells beds that, if purchased correctly can mitigate pressure.  Whether it is our great Comfortaire air chambered beds, or our amazing Sleep Harmony foam products, good sleep can go a long way to helping you manage this issue.

Of course there are medical treatments to help with the pain, and since pain is the primary culprit, these would be a good thing, especially in more aggressive cases.  One thing not to rule out is other more natural ways to help your body sleep better.  For instance, low impact and aerobic exercise.  Exercise can do two things:  Help keep the stiffness in check, and help your body sleep better.  Just remember, you do not want to exercise close to bed time because it will bring up your body temperature, and increase your blood flow and tendency to be awake by decreasing certain hormones.



advertisement

If exercise is good for people in general, then it is crucial for the sufferers of fibro.  Diet can also impact your sleep, and with all health related issues, a good balanced diet is a very good thing.  The pain and lethargy of fibro will sometimes cause sufferers to not want to cook or exercise.  It is our spirit that can help keep us going.  And, if it helps that is even more encouraging.  A good body weight would also mean that the muscles have less work when at rest, which may help.  Strong muscles may also help over ride some pain, perhaps not all, but is it worth a try?

Most of fibro treatment is managing the disease.  We have not heard of a cure.  And that can be frustrating.  So a positive mental attitude is also important.  That may be the hardest part of this regimen, after all, chronic pain never goes completely away.  If you live with a person suffering, first understand it is real pain, then help support a healthy lifestyle, and perhaps get a book of jokes to try to keep your partner's attitude up.

The last thing for this post is to control stress.  Stress seems to be part of the equation, and many of us do not handle stress well.  Stress also increases our propensity to eat bad, and to save energy by not using any unnecessary movements, IE exercise.  So study stress management, and exercise to increase endorphins, the body's natural pain killers.  Find ways to control stress levels in your life, again different people react differently, but there is a method that will work, don't give up trying!

There is much we are learning on this disease.  It is important to keep watching the news on this, especially if you or a loved one suffer from it.  We hope that in the near future there will be strides towards eliminating this, and help those inflicted with it.  But until then...  try to...

Sleep Well!

More About Back Pain

So when we wrote about back pain, we didn't expect it to be so popular.  To date, that particular entry has been viewed by four times as many people as any other blog we have written.  We did a search for back pain and blogs and what follows is a screen shot of just the blog results.



 

There seems to be an infinite number of results for that search, and with good reason.  According to ABC News, 6 of 10 people report back pain.  And that's a lot of people!  Back pain is even worse when we realize that almost everything we do involves using our backs.  Even sitting still requires our back muscles to hold us in place.

And if we have a chronic condition, it really impacts our lives.  Why do so many experience back pain?  Depends on who you listen to, however, most people really don't care, they want it to go away.

The causes of back pain are many.  It may be because of our jobs, or because of our body mass, or even the posture that we keep ourselves in.  It could be related to injury, or even genetics.  And the big one, in our view, aging.  The problem is, that unless we can repair the damage, the pain will continue, and in some cases intensify.

advertisement

How can we repair it?  Again, depending on the source, many different things.  We do propose a consistent and quasi scientific approach.  Remember the old joke:  Doctor my back hurts when I do this.  And the Doctor replies Don't do that!  We actually feel that is relevant advise.  We also believe that the human body is an amazing machine.  For minor to some extreme problems, your body will strive to fix itself.  Tissue regeneration, and other things can help, as long as you do not continue doing what caused it in the first place.

We like to suggest to start with the most natural approach to back pain.  Keep in mind that you should at least mention it to a medical professional, they will have insights that you will not.  Pain in general is a warning sign that something is wrong, back pain is no different.  The first thing to do is determine what is causing the pain.  Once you have isolated the cause, then you can consider what to do.  Obviously, if the cause is an accident, medical attention is critical. 

The natural approach is our primary choice simply because for thousands of years it was the only choice, and our bodies have a significant arsenal to deal with it.  The biggest weapon in that arsenal is sleep.  During sleep our brains are regenerated, information is committed to certain memory centers, and our physical body is addressed.

Muscles freeze during sleep, at one point you are paralyzed.  This mechanism helps the body find and deal with minor injuries of the previous day, but also more severe injuries.  Doctors even induce coma to help with certain injuries.  A coma is very similar to sleep.  Here's the hitch, though, if sleep is causing the pain, it won't fix it until you figure out why.

Doctors, Osteopaths, and Chiropractors all would probably recommend to sleep on your back.  They would probably go farther to tell you to use a pillow under your knees.  But why?  What they are trying to do is to get your body in a good posture position.  Taking the stress off the joints, allows the body to start repairs.  We go one step farther, we suggest you look at your sleep space.

Since the late 1800s, Innerspring mattresses have provided us with our sleep surface, and today 70% sleep on springs.  That is not bad, as long as all those decades of experience doesn't influence your decision when you buy a mattress.  There are many myths about mattresses that we all take as fact.  Spring beds can be a great surface.  Too many of us buy them wrong.  Hard is not firm, there is a minute difference.  Firm indicates that the surface helps your body maintain posture.  Hard just indicates the feel. 

Today, there are alternatives to springs, and many have been developed since the 1960s.  If you have pain in your back, especially in the morning when you rise, do research on what each technology can do for you.  Please do not exclude any technology until you have experienced it.  For 25 years, I traveled for a living.  Driving town to town all over the Midwest.  Staying in a different motel most nights (by the way, I am glad those days are over).  As a result, I slept on many different beds.  Springs were the most, but water beds, memory foam beds and air beds were also in the mix.

I found, as an example, I did not do well on memory foam, water beds made me cold, if I forgot to turn on the heater, and some motels had really bad spring beds.  That was my experience, yours may be different, after all we are individuals.  So what style of bed would work best for you?  Here's the natural approach:  Check the styles out in stores, the ones you think you may do well on keep in mind.  Once you have a idea of what you would like to try, consider a weekend trip with your spouse or significant other.  Find a motel or hotel that has the style you want to try.  Spend a couple nights on it.  Evaluate how well it worked, or didn't work.  Repeat.  Two things come from this approach, your social life is helped, and you can experiment relatively cheaply.  Build your perfect bed in your mind.

Once you have the style in mind, continue shopping.  Look for models that feature what you want.  If you are a side sleeper, you will probably like lots of comfort materials on top.  Back and stomach sleepers prefer much less.  Do not buy a "fashion" bed, or in other words, a bed that is popular because of a TV show, or a brand name.  Brand names can be useful, but do not assume all offerings in a brands catalogue are the same.  The trend today is "Good, Better, Best" marketing.  Use a retailer that is genuinely interested in you, not in up selling.  You can tell by observing how they approach the sale, keep in mind that they all want your business and will ask for it.  Are they overly hyping one brand over another?  Are they trying to sell you on the lowest price?  Do they listen to what you say? 

The last step is to try to find a store that has a return policy.  We are making a good guess, but you never know.  Continue to evaluate how your pain is feeling for several weeks, if it is improving, you made a great choice.  If not, it is time to try other things to help it. 

Since back pain is a popular subject, watch for our next entry as we continue to explore ways of helping us live pain free lives, naturally.  Until then...

Sleep Well!

Posture

How good is your posture?  And why is it important?  When I was very young, teachers would tell us to "stand up straight", but we always like to slouch.  I have noticed when very young children sleep, they can contort themselves in all sorts of funny ways.  And being in the bed business, I have seen customers try out my products in their normal sleeping positions... WOW!  But why is it so darn important?  Posture is the way we balance our bodies against the force of gravity, the better the posture, the less effort required.  Our bodies are built to be efficient, that's why it is easier to say put weight on, than take it off.  And our skeletal systems are designed to waist as little effort as possible keeping our bodies up right.  But, we do have to encourage posture, especially when sitting or lying down.  Otherwise our joints and bones can become off line, making it that much harder to maintain posture, and causing pain.  So good posture will keep bones in the right alignment, so we use our muscles properly.  Good posture will help decrease the abnormal wearing in our joints, which can cause pain, like arthritis.  Good posture decreases the stress on our ligaments, which are the tissues that join our bones and joints together.  Good posture prevents the spine from becoming 'fixed' in an abnormal position.  Good posture helps prevent fatigue, allowing us to be more productive and increase stamina.  Good posture helps prevent over use problems, backache, and muscular pain.  Good posture contributes to an overall good appearance.

But we spend a third of our lives in bed, which is why Comfortaire is all about good waking posture while asleep.  Air technology helps you stay in alignment.  That means less stress on your joints and a better morning.  More than that, better alignment will help you sleep better, help combat things like acid reflux, and other conditions that rob us of productive sleep.  All this without cramming a towel under your lumbar, a pillow between your knees, or a sagging mattress.  

Sleep Well!

http://hannahsbetterbeds.com