Herbal Food For Spinal Pain

Herbal Food For Spinal Pain

Natural Pain Relief: Popular Herbal Options

Here are some common herbal remedies used for natural pain relief:

    Capsaicin. Derived from hot chile peppers, topical capsaicin may be useful for some people in relieving pain. "Capsaicin works by depleting substance P, a compound that conveys the pain sensation from the peripheral to the central nervous system. It takes a couple of days for this to occur," says David Kiefer, MD, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine.

    Ginger. Though more studies are needed, says Dr. Kiefer, ginger extract may help with joint and muscle pain because it contains phytochemicals, which help stop inflammation. Few side effects have been linked to ginger when taken in small doses.

    Feverfew. Feverfew has been used for centuries to treat headaches, stomachaches, and toothaches. Nowadays it's also used for migraines and rheumatoid arthritis. More studies are required to confirm whether feverfew is actually effective, but the herb may be worth trying since it hasn't been associated with serious side effects. Mild side effects include canker sores and irritation of the tongue and lips. Pregnant women should avoid this remedy.

    Turmeric. This spice has been used to relieve arthritis pain and heartburn, and to reduce inflammation. It's unclear how turmeric works against pain or inflammation, but its activity may be due to a chemical called curcumin, which has anti-inflammatory properties. Turmeric is usually safe to use, but high doses or long-term use may cause indigestion. Also, people with gallbladder disease should avoid using turmeric.

    Devil's Claw. There is some scientific evidence that this South African herb may be effective in managing arthritis and lower back pain, but more research is needed. Side effects are very rare if taken at a therapeutic dose for the short term, but it’s not advised for pregnant women and those with gallstones or stomach or intestinal ulcers.

Herbal Food For Spinal Pain

Natural Pain Relief: Proceed With Caution

There are many other herbal remedies for natural pain relief, such as boswellia and willow bark. The American Pain Foundation also lists these herbs for pain management:

Herbal Food For Spinal Pain

    Ginseng for fibromyalgia

    Kava Kava for tension headaches and neuropathic pain

    St. John’s Wort for sciatica, arthritis, and neuropathic pain

    Valerian root for spasms and muscle cramps

Low Back Pain With Emotions

Low Back Pain With Emotions

Chronic pain can limit your everyday activities and make it hard to work. It can also affect how involved you are with friends and family members. Co-workers, family, and friends may have to do more than their usual share when you cannot do the things you normally do.

Unwanted feelings -- such as frustration, resentment, and stress -- are often a result. These feelings and emotions can worsen your back pain.
Mind-body Relationship

The mind and body work together -- they cannot be separated. The way your mind controls thoughts and attitudes affects the way your body controls pain.

Pain itself, and the fear of pain, can cause you to avoid both physical and social activities. Over time this leads to less physical strength and weaker social relationships. It can also cause further lack of functioning and pain.

Low Back Pain With Emotions
Stress

Stress has both physical and emotional effects on our bodies. It can raise our blood pressure, increase our breathing rate and heart rate, and cause muscle tension. These things are hard on the body. They can lead to fatigue, sleeping problems, and changes in appetite.

If you feel tired but have a hard time falling asleep, you may have stress-related fatigue. Or you may notice that you can fall asleep, but you have a hard time staying asleep. These are all reasons to talk with your health care provider about the physical effects stress is having on your body.

Stress can also lead to the emotions of anxiety and depression and a dependence on others. It can also lead to an unhealthy dependence on medications.
Depression

Depression is very common among people who have chronic pain. Pain can cause depression or make existing depression worse. Depression can also make any pain worse.

If you or your family members have or have had depression, there is a greater risk that you could develop depression from your chronic pain. You should seek help at the first sign of depression. Even mild depression can affect how well you can manage your pain and stay active.

Signs of depression include having:

    Frequent feelings of sadness, anger, worthlessness, or hopelessness
    Less energy
    Less interest in doing things or less pleasure from your activities
    Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep
    Decreased or increased appetite that causes major weight loss or weight gain
    A hard time concentrating
    Thoughts about death or suicide

What to Do About Your Emotions

A common type of therapy for people with chronic pain is called cognitive behavioral therapy. Seeking help from a therapist can help you:

    Learn how to have positive thoughts instead of negative ones
    Reduce your fear of pain
    Make important relationships stronger
    Develop a sense of freedom from your pain

Sex With Back Pain or Spinal

For many of the millions of Americans who suffer with back pain, trying to maintain a healthy sex life can be frustrating. But back pain doesn’t have to mean no sex, though it may mean taking a different approach to lovemaking. And that can be a good thing. As the saying goes, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” The first step is to get a sound back pain diagnosis from a doctor or therapist. Remember that sexuality is an integral part of normal, healthy relationships. So be sure to ask how a specific back condition might affect it, and follow the advice received. Ideally, both partners should be present so both hear the same advice.

Emotional and Psychological Issues With Sex

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Understandably, the limitations brought about by back pain may produce stress that can damage a relationship. The person who doesn’t have the pain often finds it difficult to understand what his or her partner is experiencing. The negative effects that pain has been causing in a couple’s sex life can sometimes spill over into other aspects of the relationship.

Good communication is critical. Otherwise, one partner may mistakenly interpret a reluctance to engage in sexual activity as an excuse for not wanting to be close, which can lead to feelings of rejection and resentment.

To reduce the tension, try to create an atmosphere in which neither partner will feel rushed. Be patient with each other. Many therapists suggest setting the stage with a gentle massage, a hot bath or shower, or the application of a pain cream - any of which can relax the muscles and ease pain. Even under the best of circumstances, back pain may occur during sex. Knowing this, couples should plan how they’ll respond ahead of time, so they can avoid becoming angry or frustrated so Sex under.

quote : http://www.spine-health.com/conditions/back-pain/back-pain-and-sex

Cause of Low Back Pain

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Patients with low back pain are often plagued with frustrations, confusion and distress. Depending on whom they consult (orthopedic, neurosurgeon, traditional medicine practitioners, physiotherapist and chiropractors), they may be told different things, ranging from muscle strain, bone degeneration to spinal pain.

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Doctors have many ideas about what causes low back pain, but no single explanation applies to everyone. No one back pain is the same as another person. The causes of low back pain can be very complex as there are many structures in the back that can cause pain.
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Sources of back pain:

• Prolapsed Disc/Slipped Disc (See Condition)
• Nerve Root compression/Spinal Cord compression (See Condition)
• Intervertebral Disc Inflammation (See Condition)
• Arthritis of Facet Joints in the spine (See Condition)
• Spinal Fractures
• Degeneration of Spine (See Condition)
• Abnormal slippage of spine (Spondylolisthesis)
• Myofascial Pain/Fibromyalgia (See Condition)

1. Intervertebral Disc. It may be a disc herniation or a discal tear, resulting in protrusion of disc material into the spinal canal. Treatments using interventional pain procedures include nucleoplasty, intradiscal radiofrequency lesioning.
2. Impingement of spinal nerve roots. This impingement may be due to protruding disc or enlarging facet joints, encroaching into the spinal canal, resulting in narrowing of the space (spinal stenosis) and nerve entrapment. For patients who are afraid of surgery or not a candidate for open surgical decompression, we can offer adhesiolysis and ballooning of the spine.
3. Disc Inflammation and Degeneration. The disc may be damaged due to excessive stress and load. This can cause chronic axial back pain without any leg symptoms. Prolonged sitting will precipitate the pain.
4. Facet Arthropathies/Spondylosis. Facetal pain can be secondary to acute inflammation or degeneration. Additional physical stress may pose on the facet joints if it is compounded with scoliosis or kyphosis of the spine. Radiofrequency ablation of the painful nerves can give relief to patients who do not want fusion of their spine.
5. Pathological conditions of the vertebral body. Compression fractures of the vertebral body can result in loss of height and additional stress on the surrounding facet joints. Vertebroplasty can be useful to increase the height of those compressed spinal bodies.
6. Spinal degeneration such as scoliosis, spondyloslisthesis can result in significant structural problems such as curvature of spine – this can cause narrowing of the spinal canal internally or increased muscle tension and spasm externally.

Combination of different conditions
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Low back pain may be related to aging. As a result of wear and tear on the spine, ligaments, and disks, increased pressure applied axially (by excessive lifting of a load), a disk may begin to protrude or collapse and put pressure on the nerve root leading to a leg or foot, causing pain in those areas (sciatica).
The problem can be aggravated by associated conditions, such as narrowing of the canal or shifting of the vertebra (slippage of spine on top of one another).
Low back pain is sometimes caused by:

• Excessive stress to the back, such as lifting something heavy
• Excessive weight gain, with poor surrounding abdominal muscles
• Minimal movement, such as bending or reaching for something
• Problems with tendons r ligaments in and around the spine
• Malpositioning of vertebrae

Occasionally, back pain happens with no cause. There may not be a trauma or any injury sustained by the patient. Nonetheless, the pain is real and needs to be treated. Otherwise the back pain can present slowly and progressively becomes chronic and disabling. Advance investigations with Xray may not pick up any abnormalities in the spine. Muscle sprain resulting in back pain can present this way, and may not show up in any investigations. These conditions while may be disabling, will need other less invasive treatment rather than surgical approaches.

Low Back Pain

 Low back pain is extremely common. Almost every person will have at least one episode of low back pain at some time in his or her life. The pain can vary from severe and chronic to mild and short lived. For most people, it will resolve within a few weeks. However, in 30% of patients, this back pain may be a sign of something serious.

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Position that must be considered :

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Symptoms of Low Back Pain

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The symptoms of low back pain presents in a variety of ways. Some only complain of pain in their backs while others have both leg and back pain. Walking a distance can precipitate their painful area. Some patients may have localized back pain when prolong sitting or sitting, while others have pain only when flexing or extending their back. Most people find that lying down will improve their pain and after their initial severe episode, many will be able to rest at night without severe pain. Most people experience more severe pain when they lift or carry something heavy. Some get relief from extending the back.

Leg pain also can be part of the problem. The pain is most common in the back or outer side of the thigh, and can go all the way to the foot. Pain that goes to the foot is called “sciatica” because it is pain that follows the course of the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is often made worse by coughing or sneezing or straining.

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For about 60% of back pain, the acute episode of back pain can be very severe for a few days or a week and then will often improve. By 2 weeks to 4 weeks, most people get better. The cause of this type of pain is usually injury to the muscles or ligaments. The rest of 40% of patients can have disabling pain flare without getting better including disabling effects interfering standing, sitting and walking, resulting in hospitalization and medicalisation. These patients usually have a spine disorder, involving nerves, discs and facet joints. The length of time between episodes of pain flare varies greatly from person to person, as does the length of each episode, the intensity of each episode, and how well each individual copes with the pain.

Diagnosing Low Back Pain

Diagnosing Low Back Pain

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See your doctor to diagnose low back pain. Tell him your complete medical history. It is important to identify the site of primary pain (maximum local pain site) as well as secondary pain (diffuse, non discrete pain). The physical examination may yield neurological signs with motor and sensory deficit. The doctor checks for:

• Evidence of nerve problems. The doctor evaluates strength, sensation and reflexes. He or she may ask you to move your spine to see how limited the motion is.
• Poor blood circulation. Although not related to the spine, poor blood circulation can lead to back pain. Tell the doctor what activities aggravates or improves your symptoms.
• Injury to the spine and the integral supporting elements.
• Muscle spasm affecting posture and alignment of spine. Tell the doctor what motions or positions hurt and what helps relieve the pain. 

Types of lower back pain that indicate a surgical emergency
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These symptoms indicate a serious medical condition requiring urgent medical attention and possibly surgery:

• Sudden bowel and/or bladder incontinence
• Progressive weakness in the legs
• Severe, continuous abdominal and low back pain (possible leaking blood vessel)
• Back pain with fever and chills
• History of cancer with recent weight loss, or those have just suffered a severe trauma should also seek immediate medical attention