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Acute back pain - first aid.

Acute back pain can indicate a variety of problems, and not all of them are related to the spine.

In any case, unbearable pain in the back, regardless of whether it lasts continuously or rolls in paroxysms, requires calling an ambulance doctor, and only after that they begin to provide first aid to alleviate the condition of the pain sufferer in order to gain time before the arrival of a medical specialist and clarification of the diagnosis of the disease that caused an attack of acute pain in the back.

Usually an acute piercing back pain forces the victim to take a forced body position, which is not always convenient for the victim himself, and may not bring the expected relief in a long period of time, but only at the time of an attack of back pain. In this regard, the first action that must be taken before the ambulance arrives is to choose and accept the position of the body that will bring relief (even temporary).

The body's own weight is always a big load on the back and on the spine, but due to the fact that the causes of pain are not known, and the cause of pain can be diseases of internal organs, and not only problems in the spinal column and adjacent tissues, then the specific first aid for acute back pain does not consist in taking painkillers, which can distort the clinical manifestations of the disease for the doctor and direct him towards the wrong treatment.

The first rule when providing first aid for acute back pain is to arrange the victim to bed rest or lay him on a flat surface if an attack of pain occurs outside the home.

The second rule of helping with acute back pain is not to take any medication or apply any warming compresses, heating pads or pepper patches to the intended site of pain.

The third rule when helping with back pain is to redistribute the load by transferring it from the back to the limbs and abdomen. This literally means that, as usual, we tend to lean on the spinal column, without using our arms and legs. But to relieve pain from the back area, you will have to make arms and legs support for the body, while kneeling or leaning on your hands in any position of the body and relieve the pain at the same time - it is quite appropriate in this situation.

It often happens that a painful symptom in the back finds a person alone, and one has to provide first aid for back pain to oneself. In this case, at first, a forced uncomfortable posture is taken, then gradually the arms and legs are placed so that you can move to a chair or sofa (bed, chair, carpet on the floor and even a bench, if a pain attack occurs on the street, and there is no way to move to comfortable conditions).

Usually a painful attack instinctively forces a person to bend, and in a bent position of the body it is difficult to move to convenient places to wait for an ambulance. Do not strive to unbend, but use the palms of the hands, elbows, feet and knees for support - in this case, the main thing is not to maintain a decent posture, but to overcome the temporary pain symptom in any way and take a pose that relaxes the muscles in the area of the pain focus.

There are two body positions in which the back muscles (deep and superficial) relax:

lie on your back with your legs raised to a height of more than 20-30 cm (for example, put your feet on the armrests of the sofa, on the headboard, on the wall adjacent to the horizontal surface of the bed, sofa, floor).
lie on your stomach, putting a roller under it (a pillow, a rolled (or crumpled) blanket, a rolled (crumpled) towel, a rolled (crumpled) outerwear, bags are suitable for a roller. In this position, the curvature of the spine changes and the tension of the muscles adjacent to the spinal column (deep and superficial) decreases.

If you help yourself at home, you will certainly have to move closer to the phone on which the ambulance is called, which means that one way or another you will have to get up. For such a case, first aid for an acute pain symptom in the back is to create an opportunity to get out of bed or from a chair, to get up from the floor. In this case, they slide from a chair or sofa (bed, bench), moving with support on the elbows and / or hands, first to the edge of the chair, bed (sofa, bench), and only then, without unbending the back, they transfer the support to their feet and this maintain balance with support on hands or elbows. You can move around the room on all fours or in a half-squat, but the spine and back muscles are not categorically involved. On the street, if you cannot get your own phone, you need to ask passers-by to call an ambulance.