The back is aching, burning? Acupuncture can help.

Treating lower back aches without drugs and surgery

Low back pain is a very common condition, but what is the right treatment is still in debate. New research on back pain encourages exercise, shows having back surgery is not necessary and the evidence of benefit from surgery is weak, scans, x-rays, cortisone injections and long-term opioid use are often unhelpful.

Despite this, plenty of people are still going under the knife. Lumbar spine surgery rates are doubling roughly every 10 years, according to University of NSW professor of orthopaedic surgery Ian Harris.

There are however, cheaper, more effective ways to deal with back pain.

Get moving or exercising. Once you have the all clear from a doctor or physiotherapist, you are safe to move. In the case of chronic pain the brain is sensitized. It is over protective and creates a bigger than necessary pain buffer zone. you can still move and exercise within that pain buffer zone, without causing tissue damage, according to University of South Australia professor of clinical neurosciences Lorimer Moseley. Exercise reduces the rate of recurrence by 50 per cent. That's a good reduction. Not a lot of medical treatments are that effective. Experts said that there is no strong evidence that one type of exercise is superior to another, most exercise is beneficial.

Corticosteroid injections reduce sciatica (leg pain associated with back pain) by only five points on a 100-point scale compared to placebo in the short term, with no long term benefit," Associate Professor Hancock said. Professor Harris said that surgery is not best option for ordinary low back pain. Stay of drugs. Try to avoid opioids in almost all cases.

Acupuncture can trigger brain release endorphins to have analgesic effects for back pain.

References

http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2018-06-11/treating-lower-back-pain-without-drugs-and-surgery/9850798