- All right, Brad, the question we have is
if you have back pain, do you have inflammation in the back?
(theme song)
- All's I'm saying,
- (laughs)
- is if it hurts and it's painful when you move,
you probably have inflammation.
- Right? Let's talk about it.
Let's, if you have a really constant, severe pain,
- [Brad] Uh huh.
that's a good chance there is some inflammation in it.
- [Brad] Sure. Yep.
- So a flare up of pain, you know,
if you went out and did something stupid, I mean it's
- [Brad] (laughs)
Yeah went out and cut a tree down in the backyard
and moved all the wood by yourself with poor body mechanics
and then it hurts for the whole night and the next day
- It's just like spraining your ankle.
- Yep.
- You're gonna get swelling in there.
- Yeah.
- If you have trouble sleeping at night,
you know you're laying down, lying down.
- Yep.
- You would think it should not hurt, right?
- (laughs)
- But if you're it is actually
swelling in your back, it may hurt.
- Right. Right.
- Finally, if you have like it hurts
all the time when you're standing or walking, it's
- The chronic
- Yeah.
- situation. Yeah.
- So it doesn't matter what your diagnosis is.
If sciatica, spinal stenosis, spondy
- Spondylolisthesis
- Whatever it is, inflammation is gonna make it worse.
- Right.
- So your first step should be to try to
reduce inflammation.
- Right.
- For at least a five day plan.
- Yeah.
- So.
- Sounds like a reasonable,
- So.
- An exceptional plan, Bob actually.
- So one of the things you actually wanna do is walking.
Walking helps get moving.
- [Brad] Uh huh
And it actually helps the swelling go down.
- [Brad] Right.
- So.
- It's so flared up, that walking makes it worse.
Which I've experienced as well as patients.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- Then we're gonna show you how to settle it
down and then get to walking when you can.
- [Bob] Right. You could try a back brace.
- Sure.
- Might feel better when you walk.
We got a couple here.
Brad, you wanna show yours?
- Yeah. You know, if you don't have one
I don't know if you really want to go out and buy one.
I would try some of these other tools.
- [Bob] Right.
- Um.
- [Bob] They're less expensive.
- So, and these aren't that expensive actually,
you know this one has the elastic. We go to here.
We like the kind that you can keep reasonably loose
and then adjust. Like when you're walking,
you may want to tighten it up and get that
you feel that support.
It should feel like good support
as soon as you tighten it up.
- Right. This one works the same way. This one
- Yep.
- Velcro closure here
and then I can tighten it by.
- [Brad] Oh these things. This one actually is is
- [Bob] Really cinches now.
- [Brad] More supportive than this style,
which I like that one.
- So if this allows you to walk
and you can't walk without it.
- Uh huh
- It's a great thing to do.
- Yeah. Stabilize that pelvis and eventually you take it
off when you can, you don't continue to wear it forever.
- A little less active thing is actually
get a right position and use the ice pack.
- [Brad] So this, this has been my go-to
personally as well with patients that come in
with severe back pain. I'll have 'em lay down.
You can use pillows. This wedge actually works better
for at least 90% of the people I've worked with.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- [Brad] So.
- And I would see.
- And you could do this on your bed or on the floor.
- Yep.
- Cold pack when it's really flared up
for most people is what my go-to or advice is.
Get that underneath there.
Here. And I've done this literally when I'm
out doing yard work, 'cause I'm guilty of that.
I like doing yard work and I break the rules sometimes.
Literally in the middle of the day, I'll go in, lay down
like this with a cold pack for 20 minutes, get up, relax,
and I go back out.
- [Bob] Right.
- And I behave myself though. I won't
- [Bob] Yep.
- do things I shouldn't be doing.
- [Bob] And you're also gonna lie down. (laughs)
- I'm getting to the point in my life
I don't care about that.
- [Bob] Yeah.
- But I know
- [Bob] He, oh, ob.
- you're right. I should.
- And you could do a throwout today by way for 10 minutes.
I mean, if you want you could go longer
but I like to see like, if you're really fired up
do at least twice, maybe
- Yeah.
- four times where you get on the ice pack
and get the legs up.
- Yep. You know, I am so comfortable, Bob, right now.
I think we could finish the video
- All right.
- in this position.
- Get up, Brad.
- It really feels good and I don't
even have any flare up right now.
- All right. What else we gonna talk about?
- Did I say lay?
- Yeah.
- I can't believe that. I thought it
was (mumbles) than that.
- All right. If you're having trouble
at night sleeping
- Uh huh
- because of the flare up or the pain,
you might wanna actually wear the back support
or back brace at night.
- Sure.
- Because whenever you roll over
it's gonna hurt and this'll help stop that.
- Stabilize it. Yeah.
- Give it a try.
So there's, we're not worried about your back in the week
during sleep because
- (laughs) Right.
- you're not working out too much.
So, and a last thing is avoid pain makers for now.
Like, let's say
- [Brad] Where do you get a pain maker?
- There could be a whole list of them, Brad.
- Actually, I guess we've gone over that in previous
- [Bob] Right.
- videos with this series.
- [Bob] You don't want to be riding that snowmobile
- (laughs)
- when your when your back is flared up.
- Right.
- You don't wanna be shoveling snow.
- You're right.
- You might wanna be cutting a lawn.
- Yeah on a riding lawn mower, boy
- Right.
- that can really tear it apart.
- So until your, your life calms down
- Yeah.
- You can re reintroduce the pain makers.
- Right.
- And then at that point, so.
- With good judgment.
- All right. Remember, get that back calmed down.
- That's right. Feel calm and relaxed.
- All right. Take care.
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