back remedies

I used to have disabling back pain.  Now it's under control.  I attribute this to several things I've done that help my back.

1. Caltrate + Minerals.  This supplement has been really amazing.   I can't really use other mineral combinations, because either they aren't absorbed well enough, or they have too much magnesium, which gives me diarrhea. When the absorption isn't good, I still get back pain, or, alternatively muscle restlessness throughout my body

2. Shower, as recommended by a chiropractor: 5 minutes on my back as hot as I can stand, followed by 1 minute as cold as a I can stand.  I also do the yoga six motions of the spine under the hot water, every time I take a shower.  These are the cat & dog stretches, the puppy dog stretches, and twisting.  I've got to do a video of this, so people who don't know what I am taking about will understand.

3. Use of ice for the first 2 days after an acute episode of pain.  Again, as recommended by the chiropractor, it's 15 minutes of ice every hour, as needed.

4 Sleeping on my side with pillows between arms and legs — though recently I’ve dropped the pillows and added transfer to a lounge chair if lying down gets painful

5. Daily yoga, exercise and/or weight routines, many of which are geared around the six motions of the spine, as well as strengthening abdominal muscles and back leg lifts.  I keep meaning to do youtube videos of my routines.  I have six different routines, which i keep rotating through.  I haven't got round to posting videos.  As my ex used to say, there is a shortage of round to-its.  As of 2024, I’m doing yoga or sometimes weights twice a day plus the movements in the shower, which seems like a lot but, given that I’m not in pain, seems worth it. My morning routine, which is specifically aimed at sciatica includes, child pose, forward pigeon with introductory rocking, downward dog, the back twisting T posture, my chiropractors exercises (below), the back roller, and the yoga wheel. 

6. Loose clothing.  I find tight clothing tends to send my muscles into painful spasms.  This includes waistlines and underwear elastic.  I am most comfortable in loose dresses. If I were a guy, who might not feel comfortable with dresses, I would wear loose pants with suspenders.

7. Staying regular.  Constipation causes back pain.

8. Inversion.  See my headstand stool video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UymDzN4U3U

9. Avoiding long uninterrupted periods of sitting

10. Doing the child pose for at least 30s followed by the rotation pose on my back on both sides in response to low back pain.  Also useful: locust. 

11. Cultivating an attitude of insouciance regarding back pain. Anxiety worsens spasms. 

12. Chiropractic adjustment. My parents had fear and loathing of chiropractors. They always had horrendous back problems. When my back was in spasm, shortly after childbirth, the UPS driver told me That all the UPS drivers went to this one chiropractor. I decided to reject my parents’ attitude. However, recently, with all these things I’m doing I seldom have to go. Then, of course, I’m not carrying children either, but then they weren’t either after we got older and they continued to have back problems.

I should say, too, that carrying kids was a challenge.  I was in the chiropractor's office much more often when I was carrying pre-schoolers.

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I am now using several devices for adaptive yoga. The back roller seems to be particularly good for back pain

1. headstand stool
2. garden kneeling pad for postures that involve putting knees on the ground
3. back roller, first thing in the morning
4. yoga wheel to improve stretches in the fish, the wheel, the plow, and side stretches
5. elastic loops for 
• side pidgeon (one end around foot, the other end around hand near head);
•  sitting twist (to connect hands under upward pointing knee); 
• cow-face pose (Gomukhasana)
• an exercise that my chiropractor recommended (to be done in repetitions of 10): Sitting down, put the elastic around the lower legs below the knees.  Then separate the lower legs, while moving the elbows backwards and arching the back.  Then relax the legs, while moving the arms forward around the body and curving the back forward
• Another exercise he recently gave me to combat scoliosis is repeatedly pressing a soft object into the wall with my left hip, to combat my right hip sticking out