Sex

Back pain can be an intruder into your sex life and even ruin your relationship, if you are not careful. This article presents six things you can do to keep the love in your life when you suffer from back pain. The tips and insights here are provided by Terry O'Brien. Back Trouble (UK)

1. Try to Talk to Your Doctor About Your Sexual Functioning - or Turn Elsewhere
Patients tend to be uncomfortable about discussing sex and sexual positions with their doctors. According to Terry , a big part of the responsibility for the lack of communication between doctor and patient lies with the medical professionals. "Health care providers should be actively seeking the subject," he says. Sex is on par with returning to work and daily activities in diagnosing and treating back pain.

If your health care provider will not address your questions about sex, Terry suggests researching the information on the internet.

2. Address Your Attitude

Address your attitude about your condition and the effect it will have on your relationship. Terry says that quite often relationships break up when one partner experiences back pain. This is because, he says, reaction to pain is a learned behavior. "As you decide to be, that's how you are." Often people in pain will exaggerate it by avoiding sex. "This is what ruins the relationship," he says.

3. Accept that you may not be able to be as vigorous as you were prior to the onset of your pain. You can turn to your creativity and sense of discovery to help you adapt your sex life to the level your back can handle.

4. Know your condition and which positions bring on symptoms, as well as which alleviate them. Back injuries and conditions can be categorized by what kinds of movements make symptoms worse, and this information can be used to guide the selection of sexual positions.

5. With your partner, plan out which positions to try. Often you can modify your favorite positions with just a pillow or towel. Other times, you need to communicate and work it out with your partner. Talk about it up front, then expect, at times, that you will need to modify the plan. Planning your positions is a valuable strategy, Terry says, because relationships which accommodate back pain with a "we can adapt" attitude fare better than those in which the problem belongs only to the partner with the pain.

6. Get your pelvic floor muscles in shape. Strong flexible pelvic floor muscles can greatly enhance sexual function. The good news is that they can also do wonders for your back. The reason for this is that they are a part of the core support system that balances out muscle usage and stabilizes body posture. Terry says that along with their role in sex, the pelvic floor muscles are as important as the abdominals and low back muscles in back health.

Our incredible body!

"The human body is an incredible machine that adapts to the stresses we give it every day. Stresses such as poor posture, unusual movement or activities, or even a sedentary lifestyle can lead to poor mechanics and pain. Disability from back pain is second only to the common cold as a cause of lost work time.” Says Terry O’Brien (Back Trouble UK)

Back pain affects 80 percent of adults at some point in their lives, according to the Arthritis Foundation.

Here are 11 things you can do to prevent and reduce back pain:

1. Identify and correct body stresses such as poor posture, improper lifting techniques, or weak or tight muscles.

2. Strengthen your back, learn proper lifting methods, carry lighter loads, and use luggage carts for heavy packages and suitcases.

3. Increase your muscle mobility by stretching or doing activities -- such as yoga, tai chi, swimming or pilates -- that help keep you limber.

4. Boost your strength by doing exercises that involve the whole body, especially the core muscles of the stomach, back, hips and pelvis. In addition, strengthening your legs and shoulders can help improve your ability to squat, lift and carry items without overworking or injuring your back.

5. Do aerobic exercise, like walking, swimming and running, for at least 20 minutes three times a week. This kind of exercise increases muscular endurance and cardiovascular fitness, improves blood flow to the spine, and helps reduce stress.

6. Practice good posture. If possible, don't sit for long periods of time. Get up every 15 to 30 minutes and move around or stretch. When you're seated, keep your hips and knees at right angles to one another and use a chair with adequate lumbar (lower back) support.

7. When standing, keep your head up, shoulders straight, chest forward and stomach tight. Don't stand in the same position for too long. Use your legs, not your back, when pushing or pulling heavy items.

8. Use proper lifting techniques. When lifting objects from a position below your waist, stand with a wide stance and a slight bend at your hips and knees. Tighten your stomach as you lift and keep your back as flat as possible -- don't arch or bend it. When carrying heavy items, keep them as close as possible to your body. Don't carry items on only one side of your body.

9. Sleep on a firm mattress and box spring that doesn't sag. Sleep in a position that allows you to maintain the natural curve in your back.

10. Warm up before exercise or sports. Increasing muscle temperature and mobility beforehand will reduce the risk of injury.

11. Maintain/adopt a healthy lifestyle. Obesity and smoking increase the incidence of back pain.

Symptomatic Treatment

Symptomatic Back Pain Treatment:

Symptomatic back pain treatment is commonplace in medicine today.

Medical science has not been very effective in curing many common back pain conditions. Most of the accepted treatments for back pain only provide relief from the symptoms, rather than attempt to correct the actual cause of the condition. Symptomatic treatments are fine if the condition is incurable, but if used for curable back pain, they are examples of bad medicine and poor science.

Not all care providers continue symptomatic treatment past its usefulness or instead of a true cure.

A good health care provider will always prefer to cure the condition, and will work tirelessly to assist the patient in their recovery.

Back Trouble UK practitioners strive to treat the cause, not just the symptoms of the Back Pain Condition, with excellent results.