How To Treat Back Pain After An Auto Accident

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Lower back pain from an auto accident can be debilitating to the point of excruciating pain with every movement. However, unless you have extreme trauma such as a broken spine or other injuries that require long periods of immobilization, the best types of treatment will allow you to get back on your feet as soon as possible.

Isn't Bed Rest Better for Back Pain?

Excessive rest can cause the muscles that support the spine to atrophy, shorten ligaments and tendons that connect muscle to bone, and cause muscles to become stiff. This leads to delayed progress in healing and prolonged pain. The recent practice of prescribing opioid painkillers to relieve back pain has been curtailed because of the burgeoning epidemic of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

When the body is engaged in an activity, the brain releases chemicals called endorphins, which provide physical and psychological reinforcement for continued rehabilitative activity because of their ability to reduce pain and produce a mild euphoria.

What Types of Treatments are Best Suited for Back Pain From an Auto Accident?

If you are experiencing short-term back pain but haven't been diagnosed with any serious physical injuries, you should begin with simple walking. Running or other higher impact activities should be curtailed. Heat will loosen the back muscles, allowing more freedom of movement without the dreaded twinge of pain.

However, you should only use a heating pad for twenty-minute intervals. Never lie atop a heating pad or leave it in contact with your skin for an extended period or burns could result. 

You can usually resume limited normal activities after a few days from a  simple back muscle strain, but you should support your back muscles when bending over by placing a hand on one leg or a nearby stationary object to give your back time to heal.

What Type of Treatments are Needed for Ongoing Back Pain?

If the pain doesn't go away after a few days of conservative treatment, or you are experiencing pain in other parts of your body as well, your spinal vertebra may have been pushed out of alignment by the auto accident.

The spinal vertebra are naturally in perfect alignment from the top of the neck to the bottom of the spine. They provide fluidity of movement as well as protection for the spinal nerves through which brain impulses travel to every area of the body.

When two or more vertebra are pushed out of alignment, the spinal nerves can become irritated or damaged at those points, causing pain that is localized at the point of misalignment as well as in other parts of the body. Brain impulses become garbled, interfering with natural healing processes.

Chiropractic care can help with many facets of back pain and injury. A chiropractor can manually realign errant vertebra, stretch muscles that may have tightened during the injury, as well as develop activities for home treatment and pain relief, including building muscle groups such as the abdominal muscles that support the back.

Skip the pills and get moving again, with help from a local chiropractor like Refkin Joseph P DC.


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