How to Alleviate Back Pain Without Surgery

Even minor normal back pain from strenuous activity can be annoying and restrictive, but when you have a constant more severe back pain you are liable to do just about anything to find any relief. However, before you jump on the option to undergo back surgery, consider your alternatives. A study done by the 'Journal of the American Medical Association' (2007) proved that a person can obtain the same benefits in pain relief and function through non-surgical methods versus back surgery and at a lower cost and recovery time.

Back pain is no stranger in the operation rooms in hospitals across the United States. As many as two-thirds of Americans have experienced some form of back pain in their life. For those who suffer disc injuries or sciatica the pain can be quiet severe. The traditional options for treating back pain ranged from as little as changing posture to as severe as having part of your spine surgically removed.

Many surgeons, prior to this recent study, did not believe that various back injuries/pain could be permanently relieved by any other measure than surgery. They would monitor a patient's progress while undergoing drug and physical therapy for up to 12 weeks and if little to no progress or relief was obtained, they would schedule surgery; some surgeons wouldn't even wait that long.

Most back surgery is an elective procedure and with the new findings more surgeons are opting to have patients under go non-operative options in addition, people are more empowered to make the decision to choose non-surgical methods for relief knowing it is just as effective if not more beneficial to them than going under the knife.

One option to fully relieving back pain non-surgically is spinal decompression therapy. Spinal decompression therapy can relieve back pain and other problems associated with spinal disc injuries. Bulging discs, herniated discs, degenerative disc disease, pinched nerves, and sciatica all lead to pain in your spine that is often caused by excessive pressure being asserting on your discs.

Something as simple as poor posture can lead to a spinal injury causing your vertebrae to apply excessive pressure to your discs causing your disc to compress or to slip out of alignment. Spinal decompression therapy provides gentle decompression of the compressed disc. A patient is securely laid on a computer controlled decompression table. The computer is programed to apply just the right amount of adjustment force to the compressed disc followed by relaxation breaks. This repeated gentle back and forth force elongates the spine creating a vacuum between the vertebrae which pulls the injured disc back into shape.