Your Non-Surgical Care Options

If you're in enough pain to be reading this newsletter, you probably are considering a broad range of potential treatments. Here are some thoughts for you to consider while managing your condition and your back pain.

Understand the full range of options

Each of the many non-surgical treatments for back pain has many variations. For example, there are many approaches to physical therapy and exercise- some of which may provide more benefits for you, cause less back pain, or which you simply may like better. You may need to try several types of treatments, or combination of treatments, to find what works best for you.See Conservative care for back pain.

Don't forget the simple things

Sometimes a few simple changes can make a big difference. Ice application, heat therapy and/or moist heat are easy to do and may provide substantial back pain relief (e.g. during a bout of severe pain, following spine surgery, following pain caused by certain activities). Over time, regular stretching exercises and activity modification can also help prevent bouts of pain, and may be learned with the help of your doctor or therapist. See Ahh…ice massage therapy for back pain relief and Passive therapy: Passive PT (modalities) for back pain.

Consider coordinated, multi-specialty care

Integrated spine clinics may include physiatrists, chiropractors, pain specialists, physical therapists, etc. as well as surgeons. The theory with this approach is that diagnosis/treatment of spinal disorders is often too complex for any one specialist to be an expert in, and that enhanced communication between different specialists in one clinic will lead to better quality of care.See The integrated approach for back pain treatment.

Know when to consider spine surgery

Sometimes, the quickest road to pain relief is actually surgery. However, it's difficult to know if this is the case for you. Even though the prospect of spine surgery can be daunting, if you are in a lot of pain, we encourage you to understand your surgical as well as non-surgical treatment options. See Back surgery and neck surgeryand When to see a surgeon for lower back pain.

About Spine-health.com

We believe that becoming educated about your condition and treatment options is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. We hope this newsletter and Spine-health.com provide beneficial "Information therapy" for you as you manage your condition and treatment program.

Best regards,
Peter F. Ullrich, Jr., M.D., Medical Director
Stephanie Burke, President
Spine-health.com

About the Spine-health.com Newsletter: Each issue of the Spine-health.com newsletter, SpineNews Update, is written by the founders of Spine-health.com - Peter F. Ullrich, Jr., M.D., Medical Director for Spine-health.com and Stephanie Burke, President of Spine-health.com. The content in the newsletters is not peer reviewed by Spine-health.com’s Medical Advisory Board. The articles to which the Spine-health.com newsletters link have been peer reviewed by members of the Medical Advisory Board.