Here are guidelines to help you in your recovery and healing from sciatica and back injury. These are provided in addition to the recommended back stretching and strengthening exercises. As you recover and your injury/condition heals, light aerobic exercise can also be started and increased steadily.
Eat Healthily
Your healing process will definitely be helped with a good diet and nutrition. Your diet should include good quality protein - vegetable or animal - as a source of the building blocks for tissue healing. Add plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables to supply the vitamins and trace elements necessary for effective healing. A wholefood/natural vitamin supplement is often helpful too.
Get Plenty of Sleep
Active exercise is one of the best ways to encourage sleep. Inactivity tends to prevent the deep sleep that is so helpful for healing - both physical and emotional. Avoid stimulants such as caffeine or nicotine close to bedtime.
Don’t Smoke
Smoking is always bad for you (you knew that). When you are recovering it should be avoided in particular, because it diminishes the available blood supply to the injured areas and makes your nervous system more sensitive.
Control Your Anxiety
Managing anxiety and fear of re-injury is important to enable you to regain normal muscle function. A common psychological reaction to low back pain is that your nervous system responds to the pain by instructing the muscles near the affected part to protect against further injury.These muscles then “seize up” which causes more pain and stops the correct movements.
The exercises in the Better Back System specifically tell your back muscles to re-start their normal movements to overcome this neurological barrier to correct muscle function.
Limit Drug Use
Clearly medications help with pain relief and sciatica and back pain can be particularly excrutiating. Nevertheless, try and restrict your use of drugs. medications. The use of heat or cold, or liniment or massage, as a mechanism for pain control is a very safe and positive alternative for pain management.
When drugs e.g. narcotic medications and muscle relaxants are used over extended periods, they can cause depression, so try to use them as little as possible. Also, anti-inflammatory medications may provide short-term pain relief, but there is no evidence that they do anything to speed up the healing process.
Exercise Properly
We recommend the Better Back System for special back exercises that will help your back to heal and build up strength so your back injury is much less likely to occur again.
The special exercises train your nervous system to instruct your back muscles what to do and provide an effective exercise and rehabilitation program.
See Your Doctor
If back pain persists or yu have not experience dit before, you can seek the assistance of an appropriately trained and licensed health professional for your rehabilitation.
Also, its important to see a physician if your sciatica or lower back pain lasts for more than a few weeks or a month, or if you have any symptoms that cause you concern.
