Back Pain, Neck Pain, Sciatica - Three Alternative Considerations

If you have back pain you know it can be, well - a pain in the back. Neck pain and sciatica are no fun either. So what do you do?

If you run off to a conventional doctor the first thing that will probably happen is you will be given a prescription for some type of drug that is a pain killer.

While this in itself may not sound like a bad thing at first, drugs for pain can get rather pricey especially if you have to keep getting refills to keep the pain in check. And, of course these also come along with the possibility of your developing a dependency on the drug and ending up with an addiction.

The next biggest conventional tactic is surgery. That means cutting into your body and causing problems that were not there to start with, like damaging muscles and tendons. Plus the body is opened up and exposed to all the super bugs, like MRSA, that tend to hang around in our hospitals these days due to the over use of antibiotics by conventional medicine in the hospital setting.

So what are we to do?

Many of us have tried less conventional protocols like massage and chiropractors. And some of us have had various successes or set backs with these procedures.Yet when it comes to becoming a Lortab junkie for life, a cripple due to inadvertent surgery or a corpse on a morgue table because of some super bacteria I say bring on the massseuse and the chiropractor.

What is more there are numerous other choices you need to be aware of today if you are considering that it is time to see a doctor because of back pain, neck pain or sciatica. Here are 3 other things you should consider first.

One, educate yourself. Learn everything you can about your problem. Read, watch videos, attend lectures, join forums and become informed about your condition.

"Isn't that what my doctor is for?" you ask, "To know about all these things?"

Well, yes and no. You see we are living in a world today of information abundance. You have heard of "information overload" - well doctors are human too and there is just way to much information being put forth these days for a doctor to know everything even in their own specialty.

So it is up to you to become responsible for and to be informed about your own health and health problems. Become a partner with your doctor(s) and not just a patient. To many doctors this concept will be new, you will have to educate them. Your doctor may still provide 90-99% of the information on your problem but that small percentage of "new" information you provide your doctor with may led him to discover what you really need.

Two, there are all kinds of new devices available now to help with pain before consigning yourself to surgery. There are decompression methods, inversion therapies, modified inversion therapy, different supports like back bubbles, support pillows, new heating pads that use light instead of heating coils and trigger point therapy devices to name just a few.

Hey and the good news is that even though some of these devices are in the hundreds of dollars they are still much cheaper and much less intrusive than hospital stays and surgeries.

Three, nutrition. By now most of us know about chondroitin, glucosamine and MSM. These help some people and others they don,t. Why? If your neighbor worked out 30 minutes a day and looked like a Greek god and you did the same thing and looked like Fat Albert wouldn't you want to know why?

Of course you would. And really here we need to get back to being educated again. Learn about terms like: synovial fluid, COX2, and hyaluronic acid. Learn what vitamins, minerals and supplements you need for healthy bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments. For example:

Did you know you can take all the calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin D you want but if you are low (and most people are ) on magnesium then you will have weak bones, muscles, etc. and the back pain, neck pain, and sciatica that becomes the result of insufficient magnesium levels.

The point to remember from all this is, that you don't have to become a drugged zombie or chopped meat on a surgeon's table to deal with back pain, neck pain or sciatica. There are other alternatives available.