What can I do to prevent low back pain?

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Almost everyone gets low back pain at some point in their life. Studies have shown that up to 90% of adults will experience low back pain at least once. This means that we have very little ability to prevent low back pain from happening in the first place. That type of prevention is called primary prevention. Unfortunately, doctors aren’t really able to make any recommendations on primary prevention of low back pain.

The good news is that once someone has low back pain, we know what they can do to make it go away faster. This is called secondary prevention. Your doctor’s advice for secondary prevention of low back pain is probably very similar to other advice you’ve heard before to improve your overall health. In fact, being in good general health is probably the best thing you can do to cope with low back pain once it happens. Good overall health focuses on things like getting regular physical activity, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking.

If you’re not getting regular physical activity, it’s important to start. You should always start a physical activity program slowly. Exercise can really help you reduce how severe your low back pain is, and can also make it go away faster. For more information on lifestyle and low back pain, please take a look at this article on our website.

If you’re over your ideal body weight, the added weight you’re carrying can make it more difficult to relieve your low back pain. Making better food choices, eating less, and regular exercise can help you achieve a lower body weight.

If you smoke, it may be difficult for your low back pain to go away. That’s because smoking can reduce the amount of blood that circulates through your spine, making it difficult for your tissues to heal. Some smokers also cough a lot. Coughing can put pressure on your discs, and repeated coughing might make them age faster. For more information on a healthy lifestyle and low back pain, please take a look at this article on our website.

Many products are being sold with claims that they can help prevent low back pain. They include things like back supports, belts, braces, chairs, mattresses, beds, shoes, insoles, and orthotics. If you’ve never had low back pain, there’s no scientific evidence that using these products will prevent it from happening. If you’ve had low back pain in the past, it’s difficult to know if these products will help you. Some of them can be very expensive and you might not know if they work until you’ve used them for months. Since low back pain often comes and goes, it’s hard to know if these products really help. We hope those answers will come in the future with a better understanding of what causes low back pain.

 
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