Treating back pain through noninvasive methods has several advantages over invasive and pharmaceutical-based interventions for all but the most severe forms of chronic lumbar pain. Besides addressing part of the problem, these interventions offer lasting relief without the side-effects.
In the case of treating back pain and managing its symptoms, professionals prefer trying out all noninvasive methods of addressing the problem. Noninvasive methods and painkilling medications are the least disruptive of the ways to address back pain, with little to no downtime between each session. They are also often easier on the pocket and, barring truly dire cases, are usually enough to treat most forms of lower back pain.
It is only in truly extreme cases, where the back pain cannot be addressed or remedied any other way, that physicians recommend invasive techniques. People in busy urban areas like Salt Lake City can take the time to get massage therapy and other noninvasive therapies to address minor cases of back pain.
A Noninvasive Advantage
People tend to default to solving back pain issues with an over-the-counter painkiller, which essentially only addresses a recurring symptom rather than the problem itself. Although this is not problematic at all for very minor and acute sources of back pain that gradually heal on their own, they are less ideal for chronic back pain, which indicates something a lot more challenging to address.
The act of manipulation of the area, when done carefully and methodically, can encourage the body to release its endorphins, which help manage pain without taking medications. These can help minimize the patient’s need for painkillers in long-term pain management.
In addition, noninvasive manipulation—chiropractic, physical therapy, and massage therapy—also provide several advantages to medications when addressing recurring and chronic back pain. Physical manipulation of the affected area can gradually help address the underlying cause of the problem and facilitate healing much faster than just remedying the outlying pain.
Avoiding Medicine Dependence
Even medical doctors discourage the consistent use of medications, especially when the source of the back pain fails to heal on its own. As the body gets used to the presence of the medicine within the body, it develops a tolerance, which gradually nullifies the drug’s effectiveness to the source of pain.
Some types of pain medication can have serious side-effects for the user when used in excess, and too often the body’s growing tolerance for its presence in long-term management may eventually require patients to take higher and higher doses. Especially with very potent painkilling drugs, this can present risks to their long-term health that can only be justified by the severity of the pain.
Because of this, pain medications that are not over the counter treatments sometimes also require an expensive targeted delivery system to minimize the likelihood of side effects and reduce the possibility of tolerance.
A Targeted Approach
Non-drug interventions frequently act either directly on the affected regions or within the vicinity of the area surrounding it. Massage and chiropractic therapies work within the affected areas and nearby, depending on the nature of the back pain’s origin.
Some forms of intervention also address a lingering cause of most common forms of non-injurious back pain—poor posture. The appropriate exercises can be seamlessly incorporated into other noninvasive back pain therapies to help bolster the muscular strength in key muscle groups, which can help prevent the recurrence of back pain from muscle spasms and poor posture.
