5 Ways to Alleviate Back Pain

Alleviate Back Pain

Back pain is something that a majority of American adults will go through at some point in their lives. It can begin with something as simple as doing yard work or bringing groceries into your house.

Though back pain is common, it can cause a lot of frustration in your life. Even minor back pain can keep you from enjoying your daily activities, and more serious back pain could make it difficult to work or drive.

If you are struggling with back pain, you are likely ready to try whatever it takes to make it go away. Here are five strategies for getting some relief from your back pain:

Use Heat and Ice 

For pain relief, both heat and ice can help with your back pain. When you injure your back, begin with ice as a treatment for a couple of days. It will help reduce your swelling and start the healing process.

After two days, switch to heat for your pain relief. A heating pad can help your back loosen up and soothe your pain. However, if you find one more relieving than the other, that’s fine. Whatever works for you is the best method for your pain relief.

Get Moving to Alleviate Back Pain

When you are in pain, you may be tempted to stay in bed until you feel better. However, you should try to get back on feet within a few days if possible. Mild activity can help you feel better, even something as simple as walking can help.

It is important to work on things like improving your flexibility and strengthening your core over time, as these will help keep your back pain at bay. However, keep in mind that you should avoid strenuous activity until you are fully healed to avoid making your injury worse.

Be Aware of Your Body, Day and Night

You may not realize how much the way you carry yourself can impact the level of your back pain. During the day, work on improving your posture. Whether you are sitting or standing, good posture can make a big difference in improving your back pain.

Another thing to pay attention to is the position that you sleep in. An unsupportive mattress or bad sleep position can make your back pain worse. Try to avoid sleeping on your stomach, as that can aggravate your back. If you sleep on your side, try putting pillows in between your knees to keep your spine straight. If you sleep on your back, you can put pillows under your knees for relief.

Practice Healthy Habits

Healthy habits can be a huge help in alleviating your back pain. To start, if you are a smoker, you should quit as soon as you can. Smokers may be more likely to have back pain.

Other wellness techniques that might help your back pain include healthy eating habits and meditation. Since meditation focuses on breathing and relaxing, it can help your back loosen up.

See a Specialist to Alleviate Back Pain

Though all of these techniques can help your back improve, you still may need to see a specialist if you are in a lot of pain all of the time. Your medical professional can help you find the right path to getting your back healed and your pain alleviated.
Back pain does not have to ruin your life. Talk to a specialist and begin the healing process.

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3 Ways to Avoid Back Pain

Avoid Back Pain With These 3 Tips

Millions upon millions of people will experience some type of back pain in their lives. We use our spines much more often than we think, so years of overuse will take its toll.

Most people probably won’t have serious complications, but the pain will be enough to slow them down and ruin a few days. Others may develop chronic pain which is something that can last for weeks, months or even years.

While non-injury spinal problems such as age-related disorders, infection, and complications from an existing disease aren’t easily prevented, there are still ways to avoid back injuries by following a few simple, quick-and-easy tips.

3 Quick Tips to Avoid Back Pain

  1. Lift with your knees. Lift with your knees, not your back! You’ve heard this before, but it bears repeating. Using your knees to help carry the weight of a heavy object instead of your back is the proper way to lift something. If you use your lower back to lift, the muscles and ligaments can be strained, and your spine can suffer stress which can lead to complications like herniated discs.
  2. Exercise. Routinely exercising and stretching keeps your muscles and ligaments strong and loose. If your back is tight, it can’t perform properly and your movements will be stiff and limited. You don’t have to be a gym rat, but working out a few times a week will make a huge difference in what your body is able to handle, reducing the risk of injury.
  3. Take your vitamins. No, your mom wasn’t just trying to push vitamins on you as a kid for no reason. Lack of vitamins and minerals such as calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K2, magnesium, and potassium can lead to weakened bones, causing them to be brittle and porous, putting them at risk for fracture or breaking. Additionally, vitamins and proper nutrition can help counterbalance the effects of age-related bone and joint deterioration.

Your Tampa Pain Doctors

The tips above are very easy to follow and will certainly help you avoid back injuries if you stick to them. However, if you’ve already suffered a back injury or you’re in pain now, contact Tampa pain specialists at Florida Pain Relief Group. We specialize in pain relief.

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3 Risk Factors for Chronic Headaches

Are You Suffering From Chronic Headaches?

Chronic Headaches — This isn’t an article about your typical, run-of-the-mill headache. Take a couple aspirins and you’ll be fine after about thirty minutes. We’re here to discuss chronic daily headaches that are debilitating and stop you in your tracks. These types of headaches, often grouped together with migraines, can severely limit your ability to have a happy, normal life.

As we said, this isn’t the type of condition that a couple OTC pain relievers are going to fix. More involved, but still minimally invasive (if really “invasive” at all) measures are required to manage the pain and get your life back. While more effective prescription medications such as NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) can help with the pain – as well as anti-depressants to counter the emotional stress experienced that actually makes the pain worse – an exciting new way of treating pain directly is offered by Florida Pain Relief Group.

Botox injections are not just for anti-aging anymore. Direct injections of Botox into the affected nerve can stop the pain signals and provide lasting relief. This method has proven very successful in pain management, as well as, not allowing for a potential drug dependency to form.

Risk Factors for Chronic Headaches

Out of the gate, you want to say stress is a major factor, don’t you? While you wouldn’t be wrong because stress is a major component, or agitator, of most illnesses, there are other factors that seriously put someone at risk for chronic headaches.

Three Major Risk Factors for Chronic Headaches

  • Genetics. If there is a genetic predisposition for chronic headaches or migraines, such as one of your parents suffers with them, you run a higher risk of getting them as well.
  • Age. As we age, our bodies and body chemistry are altered by time and external circumstances, in addition to effects during certain physical stages in our lives. If they are going to be an issue in the future, people experience their first chronic headache or a migraine during adolescence.
  • Gender. Women get chronic headaches and migraines three times as much as men. If a woman suffers from chronic headaches, she may notice that the headaches begin just before or shortly after menstruation.

Chronic Headache Pain Relief in Tampa

Don’t suffer with your chronic headaches alone when a Florida Pain Relief Group clinic is so close to home. Our pain experts are right here in Tampa and ready to help manage your pain today. Contact us now!

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3 Risk Factors for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome & You

While it’s not written in concrete that being a typist, data entry clerk, or any profession that requires constant, repetitive hand and finger motions will, itself, lead to carpal tunnel syndrome, it’s clearly a major contributing factor.

If your job requires you to constantly handwrite notes or peck at the computer, you’re at a greater risk of getting carpal tunnel. There are also countless people who suffer from this uncomfortable disorder who work with power tools and on assembly lines. This syndrome is somewhat of an equal opportunity condition that targets those who work with their hands.

A Little Bit About Carpal Tunnel

The pain, tingling sensations and overall partial immobility one gets when suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome is due to compression of the median nerve or tendons that control hand and finger movement. The median nerve is located in the carpal tunnel, the narrow passageway located in the wrist. In addition to the median nerve, the nine tendons that bend your fingers also flow through the carpal tunnel.

Treating Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

There are several non-surgical ways to treat carpal tunnel syndrome such as anti-inflammatory medicine like aspirin or ibuprofen for short-term pain relief, or a wrist splint that holds your wrist in position while attempting to relieve pressure.

Another recommended minimally invasive pain relief option is steroid injections to directly target the pain.

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome Relief in Tampa

Even though we’ve listed some jobs that may lead to carpal tunnel syndrome, there is no single cause that doctors have identified. The disorder can occur any time the median nerve or carpal tunnel is compressed or squeezed, and it may be that a combination of factors that leads to its onset.

If you’re suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome and want immediate pain relief, contact the pain experts at Florida Pain Relief Group in Tampa today.

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Fibromyalgia Treatment in Tampa

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Get relief from fibromyalgia pain in Tampa with Dr. Gari.

The pain that comes with fibromyalgia is often all-encompassing. Patients who have it are always looking for a way to achieve some level of relief from the daily struggle with pain.

In a recent appearance on DayTime, Dr. Rodolfo Gari, Medical Director of Florida Pain Relief Group in Tampa, FL, discussed the various treatment options that are available.

In the video below, Dr. Gari discusses the signs and symptoms of Fibromyalgia, and how to get treatment in Tampa for Fibromyalgia.

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Dr. Rodolfo Gari Talks Chronic Headaches: Its Causes and Treatments

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Interviewer: We’ve all had headaches that come and go, but then there are those who deal with chronic headaches that just won’t go away. Dr Rudy Gari from the Florida Pain Relief Group joins us now to help us get rid of them. And Dr. Gari, this is perfect timing, because I’ve had a headache for the past four days. So what’s the difference between a regular headache and a chronic headache?

Dr. Gari: Well the key term, Cindy, is called chronic. So chronic means anything that lasts longer than what it should.

Interviewer: What should it last, a couple of hours?

Dr. Gari: Maybe an hour or two. Anything more than that, if you get them frequent… You can have irregular chronic headaches, you can have regular chronic headaches there’s all kinds of different nomenclature for headaches and it has to do with the type of headaches that you get and also the duration and the treatment for it.

Interviewer: Well, let’s talk about what can cause these chronic headaches because I need to know.

Dr. Gari: Chronic headaches can be caused by different factors. The underlying factor is the fact that when you get headaches, it’s essentially some sort of irritation in your brain and that’s usually vascular, it’s usually something that…your blood vessel either dilates or constricts. And that causes sort of an inflammatory process in those vessels and those nerves are associated around those blood vessels that gives you that pulsating type of headache [inaudible 00:01:17] that pulsating that you’re feeling is actually the pulse of your vessels. That can be aggravated by tension, stress.

Interviewer: Check, check.

Dr. Gari: Sometimes people are just predisposed to that, you know, just anything, sometimes with lights. Any activity you know can cause headaches to come on, stay there, and stay a lot longer. Sinus infections. I mean, all kinds of things can cause and make those headache worse.

Interviewer: Right. Are there some people that are more prone to these chronic headaches? Is there some underlying factor going on?

Dr. Gari: There is usually some sort of…there are certain types of headaches that are predisposed, they’re inherited, because we know that genes and your genetic make up can predispose you to certain type of headaches. So you know, a family history of chronic headaches usually leads to someone else also having a chronic headache.

Interviewer: If you’d have chronic headaches you know that popping pills is not going to give you much relief because it’s just going to come back the next day. So what can you do to help somebody who is through this?

Dr. Gari: Well one of things that people maybe don’t know about and I see on a regular basis is something that’s called hyperalgesic headaches. And what that is, you can actually get headaches from taking too many pain pills. So it has what’s called a paradoxical effect, meaning the opposite effect. So sometimes I have patients and they’ll come in, and they’re taking like massive quantities of morphine and other very highly potent medications and they have chronic headaches. And what I tell them is we’re going to have to place in what I call a drug holiday. Meaning that we’re gonna switch you over to a different type of medication and let your body reset itself. Your headaches actually get better by reducing the amount of medication that you’ve taken.

Interviewer: And if somebody’s got tension headache, can you help them with that?

Dr. Gari: Tension headaches we can definitely help them, and you have to work at all the cause of the tension, usually maybe there’s a lot of anxiety. So you know, so we tell them to have a good healthy lifestyle. Sometimes the patients are depressed, sometimes they need something for anxiety and then inflammation or just the pain itself.

Interviewer: Right, so you get to the source of the matter and fix it from there?

Dr. Gari: Absolutely.

Interviewer: Good stuff. Dr Gari, thank you very much. You can visit their website, it is floridapainreliefgroup.com and schedule your same day appointment. Get relief right now or give them a call at 844-KICK-PAIN. Dr.Gari, thank you again.

Dr. Gari: Pleasure.

Interviewer: We’ll be right back.

 

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3 Risk Factors for Fibromyalgia

Determining Fibromyalgia Risk Factors

It’s estimated that more than 3 million people suffer from fibromyalgia in the United States. Fibromyalgia can cause chronic fatigue, disrupt sleep patterns, affect the memory, and alter the mood. It is marked by persistent widespread muscle pain in various parts of the body and is often debilitating.

There is no cure, but the chronic pain associated with the disorder can be managed with proper treatments and therapies right here in Tampa, Florida.

3 Risk Factors for Fibromyalgia

  1. If you’re a woman, then your chances of a fibromyalgia onset are greater. This painful disorder is diagnosed in woman far more often that men for physiological reasons (ie. the differences in human male and female bodies.)
  2. If another family member has fibromyalgia, you are more likely to suffer from it at some point as well. Genetic predispositions and inherited traits put some people at a higher risk of the disorder’s onset.
  3. If you have rheumatoid arthritis you may be more likely to develop fibromyalgia due to already being prone to painful nerve disorders.

Get Fibromyalgia Help in Tampa

Fibromyalgia is a tricky health concern. It is believed that repeated nerve stimulation causes the brains of those suffering with fibromyalgia to change, leading to an abnormal increase in levels of neurotransmitters (the chemicals in the brain that signal “pain.”) Over time, it is thought that the brain’s pain receptors seem to develop a “memory” of the pain and become more sensitive, often overreacting to pain signals in the future.

Over-the-counter (OTC) medicine like aspirin can offer a brief respite, but the pain will return and you don’t want to become dependent on painkillers, the OTC or prescription-kind. There are alternatives to managing the chronic pain of fibromyalgia. Non-pharmalogical therapies can be a great way to reduce the pain without surgery or medication.

Our pain management experts at Florida Pain Relief Group can help relieve the awful pain that fibromyalgia causes. Get on board with us today to make fibromyalgia pain walk the plank!

 

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5 Benefits of Acupuncture

Have you tried acupuncture yet?

You know, the thing where they stick you with a bunch of needles and it’s supposed to make you feel better? Does it even work? The answer is a resounding YES! The 3000-year-old ancient Chinese healing treatment is used to promote and restore balance to the energy that flows throughout the body.

Benefits gained from this non-invasive therapy include relief from anxiety, stress, and depression, as well as, relief from digestive problems like irritable bowel syndrome. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Check out the following 5 amazing benefits you can get from regular acupuncture sessions.

Top 5  Benefits of Acupuncture

  1. Pain Relief. Acupuncture has been proven to help heal migraines and lower back aches. Regular sessions can relieve pain and discomfort for months at a time.
  2. Heart Health. Acupuncture helps to lower high blood pressure and stress which are two triggers for heart attacks and disorders.
  3. Mood Altering. In addition to the stress relieving just mentioned, acupuncture has been known to regulate the neurotransmitters in your body that promote happiness.
  4. Immune Boost. A skilled acupuncture therapist can place certain needles that trigger immune-boosting cells to target infections and irregularities.
  5. Sleep Assist. Acupuncture helps increase the production of the neurotransmitters that are associated with relaxation which can help those who suffer from troubling sleeping or insomnia.

These five reasons alone should have you ringing our phone off the hook right now, but there is so much more acupuncture can do for you and your pain! Contact our doctors today to find out more, or go ahead and schedule an appointment to get your session booked now.

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Causes and Symptoms of Lower Back Pain

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Lower Back Pain Relief : Millions of people suffer from lower back pain. In fact, according to the American Chiropractic Association, it is the leading cause of disability worldwide and is the second leading cause of missed work. Pain the lower back, or lumbar spine, can take a variety of forms. Acute, or short-term pain, may arise due to a ligament sprain, muscle strain, or overexertion. This type of back pain will usually subside after a few days or weeks with treatments like rest, stretching, and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medication.

However, chronic low back pain can persist for weeks, months, or years. This type of long-term pain is usually due to some type of degenerative condition such as degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis, herniated disc, ankylosing spondylitis, bone spurs, or chronic pain syndromes. Inflammation or degeneration of the spine can exert pressure on nerve roots in the spinal canal and cause the following symptoms:

  • Radiating pain that begins in the lower back and travels down through the hips, buttocks, and legs
  • Muscle weakness or spasms in the lower extremities
  • Tingling or a pins-and-needles sensation in the lower back, legs, and feet

Anatomical problems such as bone spurs, herniated discs, and inflamed vertebral joints will usually press on the spinal nerve root on one side of the spine, which means that symptoms are usually unilateral (only affecting one side).

Getting a Lower Back Pain Diagnosis

Several different types of lower back conditions can give rise to similar symptoms, though each disorder should be treated differently. It is extremely important to get a diagnosis for your lower back pain from a medical professional. A doctor will likely perform a thorough physical exam, ask you about your symptoms, and review your medical history. Imaging exams such as an X-ray, MRI, or CT scan may also be necessary to pinpoint the exact cause of your lower back pain. While some spine conditions respond to conservative treatments such as physical therapy, low-impact exercise, and chiropractic work, severe lower back pain may require more targeted pain management techniques.

Lower Back Pain Relief in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area

Some people think that chronic lower back pain is a fact of life. However, when lumbar spine discomfort affects your quality of living, it’s time to seek treatment. At Texas Pain Relief Group, we offer a variety of nonsurgical pain management therapies for the lower back:

  • Facet joint injections
  • Lumbar epidural steroid injections
  • Lumbar sympathetic nerve blocks
  • Spinal cord stimulation
  • Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS)

If you’re ready to take the first step toward lasting pain relief, contact Texas Pain Relief Group to find out what lower back treatments may be right for you.

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Chronic Abdominal Pain Treatment

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It might start as an upset stomach. Nothing to get too worried about – people experience this on a regular basis. It could be you are nervous about something, or your last meal did not agree with you.

The next day the abdominal pain remains. It hasn’t gotten better despite the over-the-counter medications you have taken. By the third day, it becomes clear that something might be wrong. And at the end of the month, you’re still dealing with the abdominal pain. Something may be wrong.

“Abdominal pain that lasts for more than three months is called Chronic Abdominal Pain or CAP,” said Dr. Prasad, a pain specialist with Texas Pain Relief Group in Frisco, TX.  “Pain can vary in location, intensity, and character. Pain can be brief, lasting for a few minutes, or it may persist for several hours and longer. Associated symptoms can be diarrhea, bloating, indigestion.”

About 2-3% of adults at any time suffer from chronic abdominal pain. The causes of chronic abdominal pain can vary greatly.

“CAP can be caused by conditions affecting the organs in the abdomen and pelvis,” Dr. Prasad said. “Stomach and intestines; organs like liver, pancreas, kidneys, urinary bladder; female reproductive organs like ovaries and the uterus.”

Treating CAP depends on the severity and location of the abdominal pain. Often it will involve consultation and evaluation with other specialists, such as gastroenterologists, urologists, surgeons, gynecologists and any other specialist relevant to the condition.

“Treatment options for CAP can be conservative treatment with just medications,” Dr. Prasad said. “When medication alone fails to provide relief, procedural treatments may be considered including injections to block nerves. For resistant cases, the doctor may even consider spinal cord stimulation or pain pumps.”

Procedures such as nerve blocks, spinal cord stimulation, and pain pumps do not require hospitalization and are often performed on an out-patient basis. Most are done under sedation so the patient does not experience any discomfort associated with the procedure.

Dr. Prasad is currently seeing new patients at his office locations in Frisco and Euless.

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