Most back pain can be handled with traditional home treatments.  But one problem deserves immediate attention by a physician.  If you can’t control your bowels or bladder, you need to see a doctor right away.  Loss of control can indicate something is compressing the nerves in your lower spine.  I don’t want to scare you, but this can be very serious.  If the nerves are compressed for too long they may be permanently damaged.  Other symptoms of this condition include a loss of feeling in the groin and being unable to urinate.

Fortunately, this condition is not common. The nerves that control your bladder and bowel are in the lower spine.  It just goes to prove once again that a spine problem can manifest itself in unusual ways.   There’s a name for the condition just discussed.  It’s called cauda equine syndrome.  That’s a fancy name for “get thee to a doctor” in my language.

If you have back pain and want to try something that will make it feel better, test a back pain inversion table. The table is easy to use and can be purchased for use at home. Basically it’s a tilting table.  You lie on it with your feet under a support so you don’t slide off.  Then you tilt the table as far as you want.  You don’t actually hang upside down, but it will tilt quite a ways.

The principle behind the table is the same principle as traction.  The point is to use something to pull the vertebrae in the back apart.  When you’re in traction, some kind of equipment is used to apply tension to your spine.  The inversion tables uses gravity.  The table only provides temporary relief though.  It’s not a long term solution to back pain.  But if it helps for even a little while, it’s worth a try if you have chronic or remittent pain.

There’s a term in the back pain field that’s called deconditioning.  Conditioning is when you improve your muscle tone through strength building activities.  Deconditioning is the exact opposite.  You begin to limit what you do because your back hurts.  Just like conditioning makes your back muscles stronger, deconditioning makes your back muscles weaker.  The more you refuse to do activities, and the less you move, the weaker your muscles will get.

This can lead to some real back problems.  When you avoid activity because your back hurts, you’re only going to make the problem worse.  When muscles get weak they can’t support the spine the way they’re intended.  Then the spine begins to have problems.  The back pain can emanate from the muscles, the spine or both.  It’s not a pretty sight or feeling.  So don’t stop being active because of back pain.  Instead you need to find ways to relieve the back pain.