Back pain can be debilitating. It can eat into your social life, reduce your sleep, and determine what you feel you’re able to do and what you should avoid doing. As such, this is an affliction for which many people seek remedies, going from consultant to consultant, hoping for answers.

The truth is that many back pain issues are difficult to pin down and treat. However, this article looks at three alternative treatments that you might not have previously identified, which might work for your form of injury or long-term issue.

Back Exercises

You might have been told to exercise your back muscles or your abdominal muscles in order to strengthen this part of your body, but it’s difficult to know where to start when it comes to back exercises. Many might leave your back feeling worse than it did before you exercised, giving you a reason to abandon the treatment method altogether. As such, it’s important to know what you can handle and exercise within your limits.

An excellent place to start is in the pool. In water, you can do simple, non-load-bearing exercises that will flex your back and abdominal muscles in such a way that you’ll likely be able to avoid undue stress. Water workouts are a brilliant beginner’s form of exercise you can do every day to build up to more intensive training in the future.

Spinal Treatments

Many back problems ultimately stem from the spine, not necessarily from the muscles around it. In these cases, exercise might have no effect whatsoever on your pain level – underlining how important it is to see specialists and get a diagnosis before you embark on an exercise regime. There are several different options to treat the spine, but some are more advanced than others.

For instance, a relatively novel form of spinal cord injury treatment involves the injection of this area of the body with stem cells. This can help to regenerate tissue, alleviate pain, and give your body a chance to recover from an injury. While this option will not be appropriate for some types of back pain and injuries, it’s certainly worth looking into if you have not yet come across this solution.

Acupuncture

For some, acupuncture appears to be an alternative form of medicine that they believe will have little impact on the pain they experience in their back. For others, it’s been the saving grace that has enabled them to recover from their pain and banish memories of back injuries to the past.

While this is a form of medicine that some doctors feel will not help with back pain, it’s something that an increasing number of patients are trying out, having heard from other similar patients that it does help to relieve pain. You should always talk to your doctor before trying acupuncture, as their advice will be important in determining whether it’s appropriate for your case.