Acute back pain is a very frightening experience for most. The onset can come out of nowhere! The typical presentation can be that you were ‘putting your shoes on’, ‘reaching for a cup of tea’ or ‘slept funny’ but the reality is, the vast majority of activities that bring on the onset of Acute Back or neck pain have little to do with the pain itself, nor do they equate to the level of so called ‘damage’ people perceive they have.
In truth, the evidence tells us now that events leading up to the start of an episode of acute pain tells us more than we first thought.
Sleeplessness, stress, personal issues and inactivity all raise our body’s natural alarms. This in turn makes our central nervous system and muscles – particularly in the spine – be ‘fight or flight’ ready…. on too much and resting too little. Couple all this with a change in your normal habits and this can trigger things off – a perfect storm!
If you have acute Spinal pain but don’t have the following:
- doesn’t refer into the arms or legs
- isn’t coupled with any pins and needles/numbness
- an altered bladder or bowel issues (if you do seek advice from your GP urgently)
….then the best advice is to
- relax (easy to say I know!)
- take regular pain relief
- use hot packs
- keep moving
In a few days it will most likely ease and you can return again to your normal activities. It can be normal for it to take 6 weeks to clear up and you can have some Physiotherapy treatment in this time frame which may consist of advice, manual therapy but most importantly EXERCISE 🙂
As always if you have any questions get in touch!