How to Prevent Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain can prove very debilitating and limit your body in getting things done. Mostly caused by muscle weakness in the abdomen, back or both, lower back pain can keep you from doing your work and chores as well as give you poor performance in sports. Although you can find many medications on the market to treat this malady, they work only temporarily and can’t prevent the recurrence of back pain. A small lifestyle change proves a vital key in preventing and managing lower back pain.

1. Ensure you have enough back support while sleeping is a task that starts at the mattress store. Sleeping on a lumpy mattress can cause or worsen lower back pain. Replace your old mattress with a memory foam type that offers enough support to help keep the spine in alignment. This also allows your other muscles and bones to relax during sleep to prevent waking up and experiencing back pain. Visit your local mattress retailers and ask the staff to provide you with more information.

2. When sleeping, try to avoid resting on your stomach. Try sleep sideward with a pillow between your knees. Sleeping on the stomach will often arch your back and place too much pressure on the neck and spine, which can cause back pain.

3. Practice having correct posture at all times. Stand and sit up straight to lessen the tension in your muscles. Your back should have the spine’s natural curve to take the stress off the backbone.

4. Engage in stretching exercises. A few stretches can reduce your stiffness and may help relieve the pressure on your spine. This also strengthens your back muscles, providing extra strength support. The exercises also improve your core muscles, helping increase the lower back and abdominal areas to prevent further injury and back pain.

5. Get a massage. When pressure is applied to certain reflex points of the body, it will open up and help the stimulation of blood circulation to help relax the muscles.

6. Add purple grape juice to your diet. Studies show grape juice can help increase blood flow and oxygen flow to the body, allowing better support to the spine.

7. If your work requires you to sit for a long time, ensure you use your leg muscles and not your back. Get up and move around once in awhile. Allow your back muscles relax to prevent them from straining.

8. Drink plenty of water. The inter-vertebral disks that act as pillow-like cushions between your vertebrae in your spine are mostly composed of water, making up 65 to 90% of their tissue volume. Drink six or more glasses of water every day to keep them the healthy shock absorbers they are.

9. Maintain a nutritious diet. Include foods rich in calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D in your diet to help prevent osteoporosis and other bone damage.

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