Back Pain Relief – Buyer’s Guide
Back pain affects up to 80% of the population in their lifetime. Back ache, neck ache, neck stiffness, back stiffness, back muscle spasm, neck muscle spasm, referred pain, muscle weakness and altered sensation are symptoms of common back pain and neck pain conditions such as whiplash, sciatica, herniated disc, sacro iliac joint pain, facet syndrome, lumbago, spinal stenosis and degenerative disc disease. Physiotherapy treatment, incorporating exercises that encourage good posture and awareness of back care, is effective in most cases, but many self-help products are available too.
This Buyer’s Guide will help you to choose the best products to prevent and treat your back pain.
Physiotherapy treatment by a Chartered Physiotherapist is effective in the relief of back pain in most cases, but there are many products that you can use at home to help you to strengthen your back muscles, improve your posture and reduce back pain and stiffness. The DVD: ‘Treat Your Own Back Pain’, by Leading Chartered Physiotherapist Judith Pitt-Brooke, is essential viewing for anyone who suffers from back pain. Whether your back pain has come on suddenly or gradually, whether your bad back is severe or mild, regardless of age, there is a great deal you can do yourself to relieve back pain and make yourself better. This DVD helps you to understand the cause of your back pain, as well as offering a precise and specific back exercise programme to help manage and recover from a back problem.
A simple device for the relief of back pain at home is a Back Stretcher. Being seated at a desk all day, or at the wheel of a vehicle during long journeys, causes back pain because of prolonged poor back posture. A back stretcher is a fully adjustable, lightweight and portable back stretching device designed for the prevention and treatment of back pain. A back stretcher can be used at home to restore the normal curves of the spine, to prevent imbalance in the back muscles and to counteract poor posture. Appropriate home use of a back stretcher can greatly reduce back pain caused by poor posture.
The Chattanooga Stabiliser Pressure Feedback is a useful device that provides a visual indication of whether you are working the correct postural muscles, in the right manner, when performing specific back exercises. By using the Chattanooga Stabiliser Pressure Feedback to improve your postural or 'core stability' muscles in this way, you greatly improve spinal stability. Research has proved that this is very effective in the treatment of back pain caused by conditions such as a slipped disc or sciatica.
Back Rehab at Home Product Range
The TENS system is recommended by back pain clinics and physiotherapy departments throughout the world because there is strong scientific evidence that it works to relieve back pain. A TENS Machine passes an electrical current through the skin to stimulate nerve endings in the back. The stimulated nerve endings send a signal to the brain and produce drug-free relief of back pain. You just apply the electrodes to the area where you are experiencing back pain and set the duration of the treatment to obtain instant TENS treatment of back pain caused by common conditions, such as sciatica, arthritis and lumbago.
TENS Machines Product Range
Pain relieving gel contains Ibuprofen, a pain killer which acts directly on the back muscles, plus ingredients that stimulate blood flow, making it ideal for the treatment of back pain, lumbago, sciatica, general back muscle stiffness, as well as back pain resulting from sporting activities. Heat rubs, sprays and deep heat patches work in a similar way, though without a pain-killing ingredient, to deliver penetrating warmth to reduce back pain. A warm bath, enhanced with a deep heat bath tonic, is an excellent remedy for general back aches, pains and stiffness following exercise.
Pain Relieving Gel Product Range
By stimulating blood flow and improving the extensibility of joints and muscles, the direct application of therapeutic heat is very effective in reducing pain and stiffness in the back and neck, greatly improving your mobility. When you suffer back pain or back muscle spasms away from your home, where conventional hot packs are not practical, single-use Instant Heat Packs are the ideal treatment. In the home a heat wrap - a wheat-filled fabric bag - can be heated time after time to deliver healing warmth to painful back conditions. A wheat-filled bag can also be stored in the freezer so that, after an accident or a sporting injury, it’s immediately available to deliver instant ice-cold relief of acute back pain.
Hot Packs and Wraps Product Range
If you suffer from low back pain conditions such as sciatica, herniated disc (slipped disc), degenerative disc disease, facet syndrome, back muscle strain, spinal stenosis, or you have undergone back surgery, it is important that you support your back when you are in bed. Memory foam is a modern material that moulds to the shape of your body and always returns to its original shape when pressure is removed. While you are asleep, memory foam mattresses and mattress toppers provide constant support to your spine, maintaining its natural curves, thus preventing and relieving low back pain. Similarly, a memory foam pillow does not squash flat, so it gives the head constant support and encourages correct spinal alignment, taking away strain and tension from the muscles of the upper back, preventing back pain.
Pillows and Mattresses Product Range
