Back pain and sciatica are treatable! Back pain and sciatica sufferers are not doomed to the surgeon's blade. A bad back can be dealt with effectively, without surgical intervention, if proper bad back strategies are implemented early and followed consistently.

Have you ever gotten out of bed and felt that nagging feeling in your back, a kind of stiffness that doesn't seem to want to go away with normal movement? Have you ever started to bend over and felt that twinge in the lower back, perhaps radiating down the leg? Have you ever bent over to pick up a child, a pet, even a package and felt a blast of pain? Has your back pain and sciatica ever gotten so bad you had to stop what you were doing and rest?

If you have answered yes to any of the questions above, you are in good company. Unfortunately, back pain and sciatica are a pain complex suffered my literally millions of Americans every year. In fact, almost half a million people are operated on every year for what most people refer to as a bad back. Severe and chronic pain may be caused by many things but is often the result of the stress, strain, and trauma we impose on our muscles, connective tissue (tendons and ligaments), discs, and even the vertebrae themselves. While it is true that many back injuries are the result of significant trauma and disease, the majority of back pain and sciatica results from normal, day-to-day activities. The activities resulting in back strain and injury may be as mundane as working around the garden, sweeping the driveway or raking leaves, shoveling snow (always a good one), lifting laundry or grocery bags, household chores, and picking up children or grandchildren.

Often, simple adjustments to movement and behavior, properly and consistently implemented, go a long way towards preventing or at least minimizing back strain and its consequences. A few bad back strategies in particular are quite effective in minimizing the consequences of back stress and strain: first and foremost, be aware of body position while engaged in activities that may impact the back, particularly the lower back; next, maintain good posture through exercise, conscious thought, and eventually, habit; third, make sure to stretch often, usually as part of a total exercise program; along with the third bad back strategy, integrate a consistent, individualized, and professionally supervised exercise program into your life; next, make sure to always know your limits; and, always listen to that still, small voice in your head, if it says you're pushing it, you probably are; finally, lose weight. Significantly, added weight may have more of a negative impact on back health that any single factor. If you are carrying extra weight, you are placing incredible stress and strain on you back. The combination or all of these strategies, tied to an intelligent weight loss and exercise program, will do wonders, often alleviating, then eliminating, back pain and sciatica

Ultimately, a medical consultation may be the wisest strategy, particularly if your back pain and sciatica continue for more than a few days. Do not wait for it to worsen! If you have engaged in an exercise program and are losing weight, you should begin to experience relief quickly. You will be amazed at how soon after beginning an intelligent, focused, and individualized exercise program you start feeling real relief. If you do not, see your physician and he or she will recommend a good orthopedic surgeon or neurologist. Don't wait until you are disabled to get help, it is not necessary and the damage may be irreversible without surgery.

Bad back strategies are easy to implement and, from personal experience, are easily made habits, allowing you to significantly minimize, and ultimate eliminate, your pain. After years of pain and surgeries, weight loss and exercise, along with the other strategies mentioned above, allowed me to re-enter life as a participant and not just as a spectator, miserable, depressed, and disabled. It is not easy and it takes conscious effort but it is doable and the results are amazing! So remember, posture, positioning, lifting, exercise, and weight loss. If you follow these five bad back strategies you will alleviate, and eventually eliminate your back pain and sciatica.