• Joint mobilization (gentle movement of joints to increase range of motion) • Soft-tissue manipulation (often with metal or plastic massage tools) to ease tightened muscles and improve circulation • Supervised exercise and assisted stretching How Important Is Exercise? Exercise is a key part of physical therapy – both during your PT session and at home. “For many people with back pain, walking is like ‘nature’s back balm,’” says Reynolds. “When you walk and swing your arms, a hydraulic pumping action takes place in your spine, low back and surrounding soft tissue that can be very therapeutic.” Walking is great for rehabilitation and prevention and can lower blood sugar and cortisol levels, which rise when you’re injured. Exercise for back pain should also include strengthening abdominal muscles to help protect the spine. You also can protect your back longterm by strength training three days a week. Spinal Injections For severe back pain or pain that hasn’t responded to physical therapy or other conservative approaches, doctors can inject medicines directly into the spine to relieve back pain. It takes anywhere from a few days to a week for an injection to take effect. “Typically, we use injections for chronic back pain, such as pain caused by disc degeneration,” says Dr. Kihlken. “We use many types of injections – most commonly epidural steroid injections to relieve swelling and pain. Spinal injections can also treat symptoms like tingling, weakness or radiating pain. Steroid injections usually relieve symptoms for one to three months, and the injections must be given at least three months apart.” Other spinal injections include facet joint injections, which treat pain in the small joints between vertebrae. Trigger point injections relieve muscle pain and swelling, such as for fibromyalgia (fatigue and widespread muscle pain and tenderness) or myofascial pain syndrome (long-lasting muscle pain). “We also use radiofrequency ablation (RFA) to treat chronic back pain, such as arthritis in the facet joints in the back,” says Dr. Kihlken. “This procedure applies heat to the joint’s nerve tissue to block pain signals. RFA can relieve pain for six to 12 months.” If back pain is stopping you from enjoying golf and your best life, Franciscan Health can help as it offers a full range of nonsurgical back pain treatments to let you live without pain.
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