Oh, My Back!

By Donald Findley 

                Inflammation!  If you live in the northeast especially in the winter you are familiar with what this is, and the pain that comes along with it.  Shoveling snow is one of the main causes of inflammation in the back during the winter.  There is nothing worse than waking up in the morning to ten inches of snow, and having to go out and shovel it before you are able to even go to work.  This is a job all in its own.  However, with just the simplest wrong turn of the back or just lifting without bending your legs you get this shooting pain in your lower back.  You stand up and attempt to stretch it out and most people go to the medicine cabinet for that old standby drug ibuprofen.  This is exactly what happened to me this past week, but I did not take the ibuprofen I chose to go the natural path of healing.  Here is what I did.  I hope it helps you.

            The first thing I did was apply an ointment of arnica (Arnica montana) to my lower back from just above the painful area to just below and off to both sides of the jabbing pain.  This ointment helps with the muscle pain due to the spasm that was occurring, secondary to my foolish lifting with my back rather than my legs.

            I like to use skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora,photograph above) when I am suffering from muscle inflammation like strains it works similar to ibuprofen but works more on inhibiting cyclooxygenase 2 (COX 2)  not COX 1 like ibuprofen.  Cyclooxygenase is an enzyme that causes inflammation. COX 2 is the one that is in the inflamed tissue and COX 1 is more in the gastrointestinal tract (Eustice, 2009, para. 1-2).

            Licorice (Glycyrrhiza globra), also known by the Chinese name of Gan Cao, is an excellent anti-inflammatory herb and has been used for thousands of years to treat arthritis.  It works by making the body produce two different steroids, cortisone and aldosterone, which both help to relieve inflammation in the body naturally (Mindell, 1992, p. 126).  Gan Cao should not be taken by people that suffer from hypertension secondary to the release of the aldosterone, that can raise your blood pressure even higher (p. 127)!

            The final thing that I did was the ice and heat application to the painful area.  You should alternate between the two and only leaving them in place for about 20 minutes at a time, as well as making sure that you have a barrier between the skin and the compress to ensure that it does not cause more harm than good.

            I used the herbs for 2 days, the ice and heat for only the first day, and the pain and discomfort was gone by the end of the second day.  I hope that my experience and treatment helps guide you to a natural way of treating your inflamed back muscles.

Sources

Eustice, C. (2009). What you need to know about cyclooxygenase. Retrieved February 25, 2011 from http://osteoarthritis.about.com/od/osteoarthritismedications/a/cyclooxygenase.htm

Mindell,E (1992). Earl Mendell’s herb bible. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster/ Fireside.