As you age, the number of conditions that can manifest and restrict your movement increase; some of them have no treatments or cures to fix the problem easily. In a study from the National Library of Medicine, the prevalence of lower back pain in seniors was estimated to reach as high as 50%. Back pain, while painful and sometimes debilitating, can worsen for various reasons, but there are luckily steps you can take to help alleviate the problem.
Is back pain causing you hardships in your daily life? Here are some tips to help lessen the pain of lower back pain and prevent it from reoccurring in the future.
Tips To Stave Off Back Pain In Seniors
Please remember to always consult a physician, nurse, or qualified staff member before making drastic changes to your health, medication, exercise routine, or diet.
Tip #1 – Exercise
We recently wrote about ways that seniors can stay active even if they suffer from injuries or conditions that make them unable to stand or walk for long periods of time. Not only can this exercise help all of the functions of your body, but exercises focusing on the core and shoulders emphasize correct posture and repetitive movement that can strengthen the muscles in your lower back. This can lead to less pain emanating from your lower back and the ability to become more active as the pain diminishes, a positive feedback loop of exercise and improvement that can significantly improve your health outcomes.
Tip #2 – Keep Your Weight Down
There is not one thing that by itself can eliminate chronic back pain. These first two tips are a fantastic example of how lifestyle changes can work in tandem to improve your health and overall well-being. Excess weight in the areas near your back and core can lead to lumbar pain, and exercise, along with dietary changes, can make a marked improvement in your weight.
Tip #3 – Change How You Sleep
Most people, at the end of the day, want to fall into bed and drift off to sleep in the most comfortable way. However, the position you sleep in can seriously affect multiple areas of your body, namely your neck and back. Sleeping on your side with a slight bend in the knees is the standard advice experts give to reduce back pain from sleep positions. Changing sleep positions can be an extremely challenging habit to break, but once you start, you will immediately notice improvements.
Tip #4 – Practice Good Posture At All Times Of The Day
Similar to sleeping positions, most people don’t want to worry about their posture when relaxing at the end of a tough day. However, by being vigilant about your sitting position at all hours, you may find that your back pain decreases substantially. Some chairs are designed in a way that naturally discourages slouching, and these are useful for people who practice poor posture when sitting at a desk or eating dinner at the table. Small posture changes throughout the day can lead to significant improvements, even if the pain is not noticed when sitting or lying down.
Chronic back pain doesn’t have to be something you live with. Make your concerns known to your doctor or trusted staff members and see which tips they think will best address your problems.
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