Back Pain, restricted range of motion, and laxity in joint movement are all very common occurrences during our lives. That knowledge doesn’t make your back or other joints feel any better, but the good news is that there are some simple things you can do to alleviate that pain. At AIM we use a “hands-on” approach to treat your back pain and to restore you to an active lifestyle.
We use a variety of methods that are specific to you and will address your goal. We use a multi-disciplinary approach to meet your needs from gentle muscle energy techniques, acupuncture, to Kinesio taping and naturopathic manipulation. We can also offer natural supplements that can help encourage healing and muscle relaxation. Some are the techniques offered at AIM that can help you alleviate your pain are listed below:
- Muscle Energy Techniques (MES) is a manual therapy techniques that helps restore balance and alignment in the body. These techniques not only improve muscle function, but can decrease hypertonicity of the muscle groups such as hamstrings and help improve back pain.
Acupuncture – Yes, acupuncture can help with everything, even back pain. This can often be a first step for those of us with stiff backs and necks from lots of office and computer work.- Kinesio Taping is a superb way to improve low back problems, in particular postural issues but also in those who are susceptible to low back muscular strain and fatigue from work and sports. After its application, the tape acts as a gentle, tugging reminder on the skin where it is applied to insure proper posture. The tape can be applied to decrease inflammation, stabilize joint and even reduce pain at the site where it is being applied.
- Supplementation like Magnesium (Cal-Mag) can act as a natural muscle relaxers and help with aching muscles that influence your back pain, and even with sleep. Homeopathics such as Arnica can be used to decrease acute pain and even chronic achy pain in muscles after exercise or injuries.
- Naturopathic Manipulation is a method of bone alignment where a gentle low force movement is delivered to the area of treatment to restore alignment. Such techniques can even increase blood flow to the area and decrease healing time.
- Trigger Point Injections are used to treat painful areas of muscle that contain trigger points, or knots of muscle that form when muscles do not relax. The gentle injections contain local anesthetics with B12 and other homeopathics, like Traumeel.
- Ultrasound Therapy is a noninvasive therapy used to warm the body’s internal tissues, which causes muscles to relax. Sound waves pass through the skin and into the joint muscles and other soft tissue to decrease inflammation, relax muscle and ultimately decrease pain in specific joints.
Some items on this list can be undertaken by yourself, such as supplementing Magnesium. Others will require you to come in for a visit. Ultimately, it is important to re-educate our nerves and our muscles to relax and reach a more functional tone. It is very important to have a multi-directional approach to help the healing process. No two individuals are the same and no two back pains respond the same. That is why we have found that when we combine these treatments together, we get much faster and more permanent results.