Massage as a back-pain killer
A regular massage is often considered to be a treat, rather than a necessity.
Most people believe that having a massage is good for aches and pains, or can help if they’ve overdone the exercise. Not everybody realizes that massage therapy is also a powerful painkiller that can even be used to help people with back problems to reduce the amount of medication they need to take.
Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on back pain and if you’re one of the 31 million Americans who suffers with back pain at some point in their life, you’ll know how miserable it can be.
If you are dealing with chronic back pain – which is pain that’s lasted more than three months and less than six – it can impact your daily life, and stop you doing things you want to do.
You could be reliant on drugs to keep you mobile or help you sleep. If you can no longer exercise pain-free, you might end up in a vicious cycle of inactivity which makes your pain worse, which stops you being active.
Or you could just increase your meds but that just masks the problem. Also, some strong pain meds contain painkillers opioids like codeine which can lose their power over time as you build up a tolerance to their effects. They can also have unwanted side effects.
What you need is a way to manage your back pain that is effective but doesn’t have the side effects.
Wouldn’t you know it, research has shown that regular massage along with your prescribed medication, an integrative approach and any other advice from your healthcare supplier can be so powerful that you might be able to decrease the number of painkillers you need to manage your back pain and start to live a more active life.
How massage can help beat back pain;
A massage session doesn’t just relax you, it can help to promote tissue repair, improve the blood circulation and does wonders for your stress levels and mood.
Recent research showed massage was superior to placebo or no treatment in reducing pain and disability.
Massage was also significantly better than physical therapy in improving back pain (VAS: -2.11, 95 percent CI: -3.15, -1.07). For subjects with neck pain, massage was better than no treatment, placebo, or exercise in improving pain or disability.
If you are suffering from back pain giving regular massage with an experienced therapist a try it is likely to be effective and has many other benefits as well.
Check out our post on 10 ways massage can improve health
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