When suffering from back pain, patients often take medications prescribed by their doctors to dull the aches. However, becoming overly reliant on painkillers can cause other serious problems like addiction, cardiovascular disease, and traffic accidents due to drowsiness.
New research shows that those with neck pain or back discomfort are better able to battle this problem if they follow a chiropractor’s advice or engage in light exercise instead of relying on pain medication, according to The New York Times.
Neck pain affects as much as 75 percent of the population in the United States. Research published in The Annals of Internal Medicine show that chiropractic care or simple exercise regimes done at home reduce the pain more effectively than taking aspirin, ibuprofen or other painkillers.
Researchers from the Northwestern Health Sciences University in Minnesota followed 272 subjects without a known cause of neck pain for approximately three months. The patients were split into three groups. One group was required to visit a chiropractor while another met with a physical therapist who instructed them to perform simple neck exercises. The third group was told to take acetaminophen and – in some cases – narcotics and muscle relaxers.
The non-medicated groups had a much higher loss of pain after 12 weeks than those in the medication group. This shows that exercise and spinal manipulation can be a much better form of treatment for neck pain and similar aches.
Fox News interviewed one fitness expert on the benefits of yoga and stretching for patients with chronic back and neck pain. Many day-to-day activities, like sitting in front of a computer or picking up a child, can cause strain on your spine, and regular exercise can strengthen these core muscles.
“I help people to eradicate pain, improve posture and enhance performance through a combination of yoga, conscious corrective exercise, self-care with grippy, pliable Yoga Tune Up message balls and stress reduction techniques,” Jill Miller, a fitness therapy expert and creator of Yoga Tune Up, told the news source.
Simple exercise regimes may be a better option for patients with chronic back or neck pain than taking a constant stream of medication.