Pain Relief

Pain relief comes in several forms.  The most basic methods of relieving the pain you feel are listed here in this section.  These are the first things that you should be doing to improve your situation and to ultimately heal.  Later we will talk more about treatments that go above and beyond.  For now and always first, do these things to get the healing process started.

Rest

There are many ways that you can treat the pain in your back caused by a herniated disc.  The very first and most obvious solution is the most important as well.  Your body needs rest and time to heal.

It is never easy to hear that you need to lie down and allow the body time, but it is in fact the best solution for reducing pain as well as reducing the healing time of the body.  Rest following any injury of the back or when pain is evident for most movements that you have.

Stay laying down as much as possible, or slightly elevate your head.  Do not crunch the back.  Instead, a short period of rest, often just one to two days can greatly improve your pain tolerance and reduce the degree of injury you have. 

After this period of time, the next step is to provide your body with a slow maneuver back into your daily activities.  IF you have been resting for a full day, do not assume that the next day you can be back at 100 percent. 

Instead, gradually ease into activities as you feel the ability to do so.  This will allow your body to adjust and continue to repair itself without further damaging the injured area.

Rest itself will not take all of the pain away, but it will lessen it considerably.  Pain is your body's indication to you that the movement you are making is not okay and for that reason you should not continue to move in that direction. 

When a feeling of pain strikes when you move, stop moving in that direction and rest that injured area.  The shooting pain in the area will subside while the body's natural healing processes get to work.