Lower Lumbar inflammation

Hassena
Hassena Posts: 345 ✭✭✭
edited October 2020 in General Health

Hey ya'll, my not so old man has pretty much no cartilage in his lower lumbar region. So the body being brilliant is using the muscles to hold it together. The muscles are over compensating. This has been going on for years. The muscle pain, inflammation is very intense. I've created several massage oils and sprays for him. He's interested in natural healing, but not as committed as I. He'll take copious amounts of Tylenol and sometimes Rx pills. That's likely part of the problem too.

Stretching, yoga poses are painful. I'm hopeful that eventually he will be able to stretch for health. You could visibly look at this back and see he difference in muscles.

I'm curious if you have any suggestions? I realize a lot of changes need to be made. I'm looking for someone's experience for muscle/back pain. Everything I'm attempting is from my medical herbalists books.

Thanks for reading. :)

Comments

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My husband fractured a few lumbar vertebrae when the small airplane he was in crashed. A couple of discs in his spine were totally flattened. He lifts free weights three times a week to strengthen the muscles supporting the spine.

    He continues to do normal activities including heavy lifting-- his only problems occur when getting up and down from a flat position, and also if he has to stand in one place for too long. He also needs a firm mattress for sleeping.

  • Hassena
    Hassena Posts: 345 ✭✭✭

    Glad he is ok! Wow an airplane crash could have been many things.

    My husband has been talking about lifting free weights. Perhaps it's time we make space in our little home for this too.

    Did your husband experience any muscle inflammation? are there any herbs that were used topically?

    We've found that a mist of cooling herbs, like peppermint and camphor crystals to be helpful.

    thank you.

  • shllnzl
    shllnzl Posts: 1,820 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Hassena My husband is just now getting mildly receptive to herbal use, so no. He may have used some aspirin or ibuprophen.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    I make a joint and muscle salve using 50% cayenne oil and 50% cottonwood bud oil that several of my clients have found very effective. Cayenne brings circulation to the area and the cottonwood bud in anti-inflammatory. If you are using cooling ingredients like peppermint or camphor and they are working, then this one might not be the best. Some people like heat and some find the cooling sensation works better. Other topicals that you could try are turmeric salve or CBD salve.

  • DeeperEating
    DeeperEating Posts: 63 ✭✭✭

    While I still have plenty of disc in my lower back I have suffered from a disc dis-alignment. I treated it with a muscle pain salve similar to what @torey described above (I got it from a friend and am not sure of all of the ingredients), took an oral turmeric supplement, and worked with a chiropractor. The Chiro gave me several new exercises to do at home and gave me LOTS of really good information about what yoga poses would be helpful and which would be harmful. This was very good for me since yoga is a regular part of my routine. I ended up doing modifications or something different for more than 50% of the normal poses! I also learned that a lot of back stabilization starts/happens in your hips, so that is an important area to make sure you are including in back stabilization work.

    I know it's not for everyone, but I really do recommend working with a chiro or physical therapist of some kind to properly build the muscles in the area. There were tons of stretches and exercises that I'd never been introduced to before that helped a lot. And overall the problem was corrected in about 6 weeks and 10 sessions, with one follow-up session 6 weeks after to assess that things were still looking good. I've found if I keep up on those stretches and exercises I don't have any pain. I've been pain free for months now and knew exactly what to do when I had a pain flare-up last time (because I stopped keeping up with my routine and was sitting a lot).

    One last thing I will say is that the chiro needed the inflammation to be very minimal before the loosening stuff he wanted to do would work, so he did ask me to take ibuprofen two hours before each of our first 3 sessions. I did that, but didn't have to take more for our later sessions once the most acute tightness and pain was gone. If I had been able to fully rest instead I would not have had to take the meds, but sadly my life didn't work that way at the time.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    Sometimes a massage therapist can be useful to help ease the muscles and get rid of tension knots before and after a chiropractic treatment. Check with your chiropractor to see if that is something they would advise.

  • Hassena
    Hassena Posts: 345 ✭✭✭

    Awesome! Thanks for the tips. I will be passing this along. :)


    @torey, it's interesting to see how someone people feel better with warming herbs and other do better with cooling herbs.