If you’ve suffered from a back injury, and you’re living daily with back pain — having a back surgery operation may seem like your only choice to find relief. While back surgery can prove beneficial and treat back pain for patients, many others have benefitted from one of the many alternatives to back surgery.
Understand The Perils Of Back Surgery
While there can be many benefits to back surgery, numerous people fail to recognize the potential risks associated with undergoing a back surgery procedure. Every back injury and source of back pain is — to a degree — unique to the individual, and you should never rush into an operation of this magnitude.
No matter the hospital or surgeon, an operation always runs the risk of infection, nerve damage, excessive bleeding, or additional complications. Even after you leave the hospital, you run the risk of further medical complications, or the end result that the surgery simply wasn’t effective at treating your pain.
To avoid these perils, it makes sense that people would look into alternative methods for treating pain. If the surgical operation is only intended to reduce pain, unlike other types like reconstructive surgery or cosmetic surgery — then as a potential patient, you should look into other types of pain treatment. If you had the chance to avoid a hospital visit and lengthy recovery time — why wouldn’t you look into alternatives to back surgery?
These alternatives tend to offer a wider range of health benefits — focusing on a holistic approach to wellness — and they reduce the risk of additional complications. With alternatives to back surgery like yoga, chiropractic care, or weight loss, you may be able to treat the source of your back pain and boost your overall health. Here are some of the most popular alternative to back surgery.
1. Seek Chiropractic Care
One of the most popular and effective alternatives to back surgery is visiting a chiropractor. These specialized medical professionals can perform spinal adjustments and other advanced techniques to treat the source of your back pain. Additionally, effective chiropractic care has a host of other wellness benefits, including improving your state of mind.
2. Practice Yoga
Yoga is a practice that involves stretching, posing, and light-to-moderate exercise that benefits both your body and mind, which is backed by research. Not only can yoga help provide relief for back pain, but it can also improve your strength, balance, and flexibility. Yoga also helps you relax — and can lower your anxiety and blood pressure — and even reduce inflammation. In addition to helping you to manage stress, yoga, when done in a group setting, can help you make connections with others.
3. Do Light-To-Moderate Exercise
In addition to yoga, any type of light-to-moderate exercise can help ease the burden of back pain. You don’t need to hit the weights like Arnold Schwarzenegger to find relief. Just try some exercise, such as jogging, walking, Tai Chi, or yoga — all of which can reduce back pain and lead to myriad health benefits. Focusing on your core strength, in particular, can improve your posture and strengthen the muscles in the middle of your body.
4. Attempt Acupuncture
Many people have found that acupuncture is effective at relieving their pain. Commonly used by professional athletes, acupuncture is a technique that uses small needles to stimulate specific nerve points in the body. In addition, acupuncture has proved effective for many in aiding in their recovery from injury or surgery — and promoting a sense of calmness and relaxation.
5. Improve Your Diet
There is really no end to what a healthy and balanced diet can do for your health. While it may not seem obvious as to how a diet can affect your back pain — an anti-inflammatory diet can actually be as effective for treating pain as anti-inflammatory drugs are. Because inflammation is linked with pain, reducing one will inherently lead to a reduction in the other. Common anti-inflammatory foods include nuts, seeds, leafy green vegetables, fatty fish, like salmon or sardines, and fruits and vegetables, like blueberries, oranges, tomatoes, and carrots.
6. Stop Smoking
Similar to a healthy diet, it may seem strange how smoking affects your back pain — but, in fact, it does. Smoking impacts your blood circulation throughout your body and makes it more difficult for your body to get the vital nutrients you need to function. Over time, this can cause your spine and back muscles to become weaker. By quitting smoking, you can improve blood flow — and help your entire body.
Getting Back Your Life
Living with back pain can rob you of the simplest joys. From taking part in sports, exercising regularly, or even just taking a short walk, chronic back pain has a dramatic and long-lasting impact on the daily lives of numerous people. It makes sense then, of course, that anyone dealing with back pain would seek a fast and effective treatment option to reduce their pain. While back surgery may seem like the best route, it is not always the best treatment option for everyone.
There are many alternatives to back surgery that can effectively address your pain — and help you avoid the risks of surgery. Treatments like chiropractic care, yoga, or regular exercise can reduce your pain over time — and even improve your overall health. As holistic, noninvasive approaches to treatment, these alternatives are safer and can be just as effective to surgery — and may be even more impactful — for your lasting well-being.
