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For many people with back pain or rheumatoid arthritis, medication can help relieve symptoms and even limit joint damage. But nondrug approaches, such as physical and occupational therapy, are also essential to help reduce pain, improve range of motion, increase strength, and protect joints.

Where you need to go for help
According to Harvard Medical School Rheumatoid Arthritis Report, specially trained clinicians can provide these nondrug treatments. Your primary care doctor or rheumatologist may refer you to a physiatrist, physical therapist, or occupational therapist, for example.  Don't be afraid to question advice. If a health professional recommends an invasive, experimental, or expensive treatment, consider seeking a second opinion from a physician who frequently deals with your specific condition. If you suffer from back pain, you've probably tried one or two ways to ease it. The range of options — from doing nothing at all to having surgery — is quite large. But the abundance of choices also presents a challenge. How do you know which therapy is right for you? Can you create a plan to relieve your back pain yourself? Before you decide on a course of treatment, keep these few things in mind. 

10 tips for back pain relief

•    Whether you're experiencing back pain for the first time or you've suffered a relapse, seek the advice of an experienced, certified, and well-recommended health specialist. That might be an internist, family practitioner, orthopedist, rheumatologist, neurologist or neurosurgeon.
•    Stretching is an excellent thing you can do for your health. These simple, yet effective moves can help you limber up for sports, improve your balance and prevent falls, increase your flexibility, and even help relieve arthritis, back, and knee pain. 
•    For optimal results, you should spend a total of 60 seconds on each stretching exercise. So, if you can hold a particular stretch for 15 seconds, repeating it three more times would be ideal. If you can hold the stretch for 20 seconds, two more repetitions would do the trick.
•    Healthy adults should do flexibility exercises (stretches, yoga, or tai chi) for all major muscle-tendon groups — neck, shoulders, chest, trunk, lower back, hips, legs, and ankles — at least, two to three times a week.
•    Experts now appreciate the central role of exercise to build muscles that support the back. Be an active participant in your care. Learn as much as you can about the risks and benefits of the treatments you are considering.
•    Design your workspace, so you don't have to hunch forward to see your computer monitor or reach way out for your mouse. If you use a laptop or desktop computer, choose a chair with good lumbar support, or place a pillow against the small of your back.

•    Take a high-quality, animal-based omega-3 fat. Omega-3 fats are precursors to mediators of inflammation.
•    Help to relax your muscle and relief pain. When aching, stiff muscles and joints interfere with your daily activates, you can try advanced topical pain relief that lets you sleep through the night. Onecaine by Omiera Lab, a breakthrough roll-on formulation, goes deep to reach the source of pain. Onecaine is not your typical over-the-counter topical pain roll-on. This hard-working formulation eases muscle and nerve pain and tenderness so you can relax comfortably. Onecaine can provide natural temporary relief for pain associated with arthritis, knees, shoulders, neck, lower back, muscles, joints, feet and sciatica.

•    Optimize your production of vitamin D by getting regular, appropriate sun exposure, which will work through a variety of different mechanisms to reduce your pain.
•    How you decide to manage your back pain will ultimately depend on many things. Taking all these factors into account will help you and/ or your physician determine which of the available options are right for you.

Source: Omiera Labs ; http://www.health.harvard.edu/ 

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