6 Back And Neck Pain Remedies

It’s highly likely that you might have to deal with back or neck pain at some point during your life. It’s inconvenient and sometimes debilitating. If you’re going through it, it can certainly impede your overall life enjoyment.

Luckily, there are things you can try that could help you alleviate your neck or back pain. We’ll discuss some of the most common ones in this article.

1. Yoga

There are many ways your back or neck can start hurting. For instance, it might happen because of:

• A slip-and-fall
• A sports injury
• A car accident

More than 3 million people suffer whiplash each year, and that’s something that’s going to cause your neck to hurt. It can get so bad that you can barely move.

One thing you can do to help your neck or back pain is to start practicing yoga. There are several kinds of it, and there are also studios that teach it all over the country.

Before you start doing it, though, you should first meet with the instructor and describe what’s going on with you. They might want to work with you a little one-on-one to try and determine your limitations.

You’ll probably do best starting with some very simple moves before attempting anything too complicated. In time, you should have more flexibility, which will mean less neck and back pain.

2. Arnica Montana

You can also use Arnica Montana to rub on your back or neck if they hurt. Arnica Montana comes:

• In creams
• In oils

You can find multiple different products with it. You can get it on Amazon or a similar online marketplace, or if you can find a holistic brick-and-mortar store, you can get it there.

Arnica Montana is a plant with painkilling properties. Different cultures have used it for hundreds of years. You can even distill it from the plant yourself if you like, though this is time-consuming, and you might not be patient enough for it.

If you have a spouse or partner, they can rub it on your neck or back when they hurt. If you don’t have one of these, you can get another family member to do it. Arnica oil or cream won’t solve your problem permanently, but it takes the pain away for a while.

3. Acupuncture

You can also see about acupuncture. If you scout around in your area, you can usually find a practitioner. If you’re in a rural region, maybe you won’t find one so easily. You’ll have to head to a major city to locate a doctor who does it.

Acupuncture is another treatment that has been around for a very long time. The Chinese have been utilizing it for thousands of years, and Western medicine now accepts it as well.

The doctor inserts long, thin needles into your body, depending on where it hurts. The needles hurt a bit when the doctor inserts them into the skin, but not very much.

Some medical professionals view acupuncture as pseudoscience at best or quackery at worst. That’s because they’re not sure exactly how it relieves pain.

If you find that other things you’re trying aren’t working, though, you might want to at least give it a try. Maybe with acupuncture, it’s a suggestion’s power that’s making you well. If it relieves your back or neck pain, though, that’s what’s most important.

4. Massage

You can also get a nice massage for your persistent back or neck pain. A massage feels lovely if you can find a masseuse or masseur who does it well. You can see them a couple of times per month, or as often as you’d like.

The only issue with massage is that it’s fairly expensive. You might pay anywhere from $50 to upwards of $100 for an hour. Most people can’t afford that very often.

However, your health insurance might pay for some of it. If you can show that you have a valid reason for getting massages, like imaging that reveals a soft tissue injury, that might convince your insurance company.

Perhaps you’ll have to come up with a copay, but at least it won’t be as much as if you were paying for the sessions entirely out of pocket.

5. Epidural

You might also get an epidural if you have something like a bulging disk or disk deterioration. An epidural is a spinal injection. A doctor administers it.

An epidural anesthetizes that particular area. In other words, you’re getting one to block your pain receptors.

This might be an option if the doctor knows you have a painful condition, but they’d prefer to try and numb that pain rather than operate. Doctors usually don’t want to do a neck or back operation unless they feel they have no other choice.

You might get a single epidural, or you might get them multiple times. It all depends on how bad your back or neck injury is and whether it will heal at some point or whether it’s permanent.

Some individuals get these injections multiple times every year. That’s if your back or neck is in quite bad shape.

6. Back or Neck Surgery

If nothing else works, and you sustained severe neck or back damage, you and your medical team might decide that you should get surgery. It’s true that medical science knows more about treating and fixing back and neck problems than ever before.

Still, doctors generally want to avoid back or neck surgery in most instances. They know if they mess things up even worse, you might never walk again, or you’ll have to live with even more serious pain.

Every situation is different, so you’ll probably need to get X-rays and an MRI. Even without a referral, you can also book a private MRI scan if it’s available in your area. You and your doctor can have a frank discussion about whether they believe surgery will help in your case.

Back and neck pain are no fun, but there are so many treatment options available that you should come up with one that works for you. You can then resume many of your favorite activities.