Strategies To Manage Upper Back Pain

Chronic pain in your upper back can be just as debilitating and even more painful than pain in your lower region. By taking certain steps to improve your condition, you can lower your pain levels and can make a dramatic difference in your day-to-day quality of life. 

Injection Therapy

Before contemplating surgical intervention to address spinal pathologies, you should explore less invasive procedures that may produce similar effects. Guided injections using anti-inflammatory steroids can significantly lessen pain associated with nerve root impingement. Lidocaine injections are another excellent way to block the transmission of nerve pain that extends from your neck or upper back through your shoulders, arms, and hands. 

Typically, you should consult with a physiatrist or pain management specialist to administer this type of treatment. It may be advantageous to seek out assistance from a treatment provider such as Jordan Sudberg who has experience in physiatry and pain management. In seeking out a provider, it is especially important to consider the doctor’s experience, and you should ideally work with someone who can offer you a variety of treatments. 

Chronic upper back conditions don’t have a one-size-fits-all treatment. A knowledgeable physiatrist can review different options with you and give you meaningful insight into the best remedial steps for your individual condition and symptoms.

Dietary Changes

You may be surprised to learn that there is a strong correlation between the food that you eat and inflammation levels. Overloading your diet with a lot of highly processed foods containing hydrogenated seed oils or refined sugars may worsen inflammation in your joints and spine, thereby exacerbating nerve pain. Eating less red meat may also help to mitigate inflammation.

In addition to lowering inflammation, eating healthier could also help you lose weight. Weight loss can be beneficial to individuals with lower back pain or knee pain because these parts of the body bear more of the brunt of excess body weight. Nevertheless, maintaining a healthy body weight may stabilize hormonal balances in your body and help you regulate stress levels.

Ergonomics

Your daily habits can have a huge impact on your upper back health. Many people who sit in front of a computer for their entire work pain develop problems with the alignment of their cervical vertebrae, putting tremendous pressure on discs and nerve roots. Likewise, constantly looking down at your phone can cause your cervical vertebrae to shift out of alignment. 

Set up your workstation with attention to ergonomics in order to minimize potential harm to your upper back. Get an adjustable chair that you can sit back in comfortably. The screen you look at must be eye level so you won’t have to crane your head up or down as you work. Using a split keyboard may reduce tension in your shoulders and the muscle groups supporting your cervical and thoracic spine. 

Upper back problems such as herniated discs or cervical spondylosis typically do not improve on their own like many other types of episodic orthopedic injuries. Pursuing effective treatment options could enable you to achieve considerable relief from your symptoms.

 

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