Acupuncture for Back Pain and Strain
Back Injuries such as sprains and strains are one of the many reasons people will approach Coburg Chinese Medicine to seek acupuncture. We recommend acupuncture for the treatment and management of pain disorders and there is some very good developing evidence supporting the view that acupuncture is effective for back pain and other types of pain. Please refer to our previous blog for more research about how acupuncture can help with pain. As part of the acupuncture treatment at our Melbourne clinic we will provide advice and tips of how to manage your back pain
Take Charge of Your Back Pain
An important aspect of recovery from a back injury is being an active participant and taking charge of your recovery. We either have the option of being passive about our health and hope that something changes, or we can work proactively towards healing and recovering from our injury. At our clinic we like to empower people with the knowledge of what we have have found to be clinically useful for our patients. We have come up with the 3 key tips and advice that we provide in our Melbourne Acupuncture clinic.
Back Pain and Injury - 3 Key Tips for Recovery
Tip 1: Try a Heat Bag or Hot Water Bottle for Your Back
Although ice can be useful in the treatment of injuries in the beginning, we would not recommend using ice beyond the first few hours because it can interfere with the body being able to self heal. The preferred option according to Acupuncture and Chinese medicine theory is to use warmth. We recommend the application of heat to the affected area after the application of relevant first aid. There are lots of different ways to achieve this i.e. hot water bottle and heat bag. For those more difficult areas such as the shoulder and mid back, we recommend using an adhesive heat patch such as Hotteeze or Flexeeze.
Tip 2: Rub Some Liniment Into Your Painful Areas
Topical liniments such as deep heat, tiger balm, po sum on oil and our own in house special liniment should be applied every 3-4 hours to the affected area. This may help temporarily with the pain and provide an additional tool to reduce your reliance upon pain medication. The three main ingredients typically found in most liniments are Menthol, Camphor and Wintergreen oil. Both the Menthol and Camphor can help reduce muscular pain, with menthol providing a cooling sensation and camphor a warming sensation. Wintergreen oil is often included for its local anti-inflammatory action. Remember to wash your hands thoroughly after applying liniments.
Tip 3: Keep Active and Rehab your Injury
Although resting the affected limb or area can be a strategy to ensure the affected area is not re injured and to give it time to repair. It is also worthwhile to point out that with back pain or an injury, it can be sometimes can also be a very useful way to actually assist with recovery. In many cases of chronic injury, it may be that the injury and pain is being aggravated by the lack of strengthening exercises and supporting rehabilitation. Gentle stretches and exercises such as those given by your treating health professional or acupuncturist can often be useful to help strengthen and maintain movement. We often send our patients off to local personal trainers for support and training to help with their recovery.
Bonus Tip for Back Pain Recovery
Keeping a Healthy Mental Attitude to Pain
Dealing with pain can take a toll on ones mental reserves, especially long term injury or back pain. It is not uncommon to see depression and lethargy begin to settle in. Meditation, or mindfulness as it now commonly known, may offer a possible solution to assist not only with your pain management but also with your mindset.
Insight Timer - Mindfulness phone app
Our Acupuncturist utilizes this as his day by day application and recommends it regularly to. This application is free and it contains an accessible database of different mindfulnesss and contemplation sessions that you can use. Some of those sessions are designed to deal with pain, injury and recovery It additionally enables you to bookmark a specific session to be able to rerun a session you have found useful.
Our Melbourne Acupuncture Clinic.
Based in Melbourne, the Coburg Acupuncture clinic is located in the heart of Coburg on Sydney Rd and provides Acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine, massage and cupping services. The Coburg Clinic services people from Coburg and surrounding Northern suburbs such as Brunswick, Pascoe Vale, Preston, Fawkner, Thornbury, Northcote.
The article is for informational purposes only and is not to be considered health advice. Readers are advised to contact their Chinese medicine practitioner or treating health care provider for advice specific to their circumstances.