Focusing On My Back Injuries

Alternative Approaches For Treatment Of Chronic Back Pain

10 June 2015

Timothy Byrd

If your doctor has tried the traditional non-invasive forms of treatment and you still experience chronic pain in your back, they may offer surgery as your next option. Before considering surgery, there are several non-traditional approaches that may give you relief. Here are a few different treatments available to you that may keep you from having to undergo a major back surgery.

Chiropractic Treatment

A chiropractor, like Charles C Gerleman Chiropractic Clinic and others, is focused on the spine and the muscles and nerves surrounding it. They offer a number of approaches to treat your back pain, such as:

• Spinal Manipulation - This is used to reposition vertebrae in your back that have become misaligned. When the vertebrae are out of their normal alignment, muscles and nerves become irritated, causing pain. Manipulation of the bones back into their natural position removes the irritation, reducing pain and inflammation.
• Active Release Techniques (ART) - The chiropractor uses their hands to find knotted muscles that may have spasms. Then they apply steady pressure to the area with their hands, elbows or a special tool until the muscle relaxes. As the muscles relax, the spasms stop and give you some relief from the pain.

Acupuncture

Based on Chinese energy points, or meridians, mapped out against the body, tiny needles are inserted just under the skin to stimulate energy flow in different areas. The practitioner will focus on those meridians that control the muscles next to the spine. The goal is to relax those muscles and reduce nerve irritation that causes your pain.

Acupressure and Meridian Tapping

These are two techniques which use similar energy meridians as does the acupuncture practitioner. Instead of needles, these approaches rely on finger pressure or light tapping with the fingertips on those energy points to relax the muscles in the back.

Hypnosis

This practitioner will help you to distract your mind from focusing on your chronic pain. Constantly anticipating the pain can cause anxiety and irritability. Hypnosis doesn't remove the pain but allows you to focus on other thoughts and ignore the existing pain.

Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP)

This may be used along with hypnosis or by a practitioner that specializes in treating pain with NLP. The theory behind this treatment is that language can be used to reprogram parts of your thought process to reframe how your body reacts to the pain. For example, after an NLP session, you could feel warmth in the area of your back where before your experience was just pain.

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