With all the discomfort you’re feeling, we want to help you relieve the pain as much as possible. If traditional medicinal treatments aren’t enough for your spinal stenosis condition, then taking a natural or holistic approach may be an alternative solution.
Chiropractic treatments, biofeedback, Feldenkrais, and even homeotherapy are some of the many natural treatments you can try to relieve back pain. Is reversing spinal stenosis naturally even possible? Let’s find out.
6 Natural Ways to Relieve Spinal Stenosis Naturally Without Surgery
Inversion Therapy
Inversion therapy is a technique where one is suspended upside down to relieve back pain and stretch the spine.
Currently, FDA only approves the use of Teeter inversion tables as a medical device for inversion therapy.
Using inversion therapy can help treat the following conditions [R]:
- Degenerative disc disease
- Herniated disc
- Spinal stenosis
- Spinal curvature
- Degenerative joint disease
- Back pain
- Muscle tension
How It Helps
As our bodies age, gravity causes the joints, bones, and muscles to compress the spine, which leads to chronic back pain.
Inversion therapy works by reversing the effects of gravity on your body to stretch the spine and relieve back pain.
This also relieves the pressure on your spinal discs and nerves, which allows the spinal discs to rehydrate and rejuvenate.
The following video can help you learn more about how inversion therapy decompresses your spinal cord.
Chiropractic Treatment
For a technique that’s been known as “getting your back cracked,” chiropractic care has come a long way to treat pain and improve one’s range of motion. Chiropractic treatment is an advanced form of physical therapy that helps manage nerve pain, heal the body and spinal manipulation. [R]
How It Helps
Depending on your spinal stenosis pain, chiropractic treatment may help your spinal cord and lower back through several techniques performed by a licensed chiropractor.
Also known as spinal manipulative therapy, chiropractic practices involve using hands or a device and applying force to a joint in your spine.
A chiropractic treatment plan has also been known to treat other conditions such as neck pain, sciatica, headaches, and low back pain.
However, there are some limitations and risks worth noting. Patients reported mild side effects, mostly muscle soreness, post-treatment.
Fortunately, studies have shown that 67 percent in the U.S. use chiropractic techniques to treat a specific health condition, while 53 percent use them for wellness. [R]
All in all, if you plan to choose a chiropractic treatment plan, be sure to seek medical advice from a spinal stenosis specific chiropractor.
Choosing a general chiropractor may lead to unsatisfied results, so it’s crucial to seek proper medical advice from someone who specializes or deeply understands lumbar spinal stenosis.
Active Release Technique
Active release technique is a form of massage technique that combines manipulation and movement to target isolated or specific body areas.
How It Helps
The Active Release Technique or ART treats the body’s soft tissues to promote healthier blood flow and faster injury healing.
When muscles and connective tissues are injured, this forms a dense collection of scar tissue known as adhesions.
These adhesions can entrap nerves causing pain, stiffness, and limited motion. ART works by breaking these adhesions to relieve back pain and allows the muscles and joints to move freely. ART is highly beneficial if you experience low back pain and neck pain.
Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a mind-body technique that improves physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing using auditory and visual feedback. More importantly, biofeedback alters physiological activity to improve performance and health.
How It Helps
The way it works is by a biofeedback specialist attaching electrodes to your skin. As a result, the tiny sensors measure the processes you want to control and display numbers on a monitor.
Unlike most of the natural treatments mentioned here for treating spinal stenosis, biofeedback teaches you how to control or regulate innate processes, such as blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle tension.
Through this treatment, you’ll be able to reduce pain sensations, allowing you to relax and reduce back pain in the process.
However, using biofeedback is a way for patients to manage the symptoms associated with their condition. In the case of spinal stenosis, it’s not considered to be a cure but serves as pain management for your lumbar spine.
Feldenkrais
Feldenkrais is a form of retraining your body’s movements.
There are 2 modes to retrain your body: Awareness Through Movement (ATM) or Functional Integration (FI). Between the 2 modes, Functional Integration is a one-on-one session known to show dramatic improvements and perhaps, better suited to people who have spinal stenosis.
How It Helps
Feldenkrais is nearly similar to yoga and tai chi since it’s one of the few ways people explore their posture, movement, and breathing.
This type of treatment is useful for rehabilitating a wide range of injuries and illnesses.
It’s worth noting, though, that Feldenkrais is not a workout session. The primary goal of Feldenkrais is to improve one’s range of motion and flexibility. For people with spinal stenosis, you can use Feldenkrais to retrain your body in a way your spinal cord flexes and extends.
Homeotherapy & Acupuncture
Among all the treatments mentioned here, homeotherapy is a safer, less expensive, and non-invasive treatment that can help back pain conditions. Similarly, acupuncture is an Eastern medicine practice where one’s skin or tissues are pricked with needles to relieve pain and treat mental, physical, and emotional conditions.
How It Helps
Homeopathy is based on the belief the body can cure itself by using natural substances (plants & minerals) to stimulate the healing process. [R]
Some herbs worth mentioning include:
- Maritime Pine Bark – boosts the immune system and speeds up the restoration of one’s spinal canal.
- Hypericum – helps repair damaged nerves while managing nerve pain.
- Devils Claw – Mostly used for pain management control.
- Elecampane – Supports bone healing and connective tissue along with normalizing other tissues.
- Horsetail – Help the Central Nervous System (CNS) builds up the myelin sheath and repairs the spinal channel.
Overall, homeotherapy can help reverse the narrowing of the spinal canal and stimulate your nerves’ efficiency to reduce pain.
As for acupuncture, the use of hair-thin needles targets acupuncture points, which in turn stimulate the central nervous system, releasing chemicals to the brain, muscles, and spinal cord.
These biochemical changes help stimulate the body’s natural healing abilities and promote improved emotional and physical wellbeing. If you want to learn more about acupuncture, the following video may help.
Daily Health Tips You Can Do Regularly to Treat Spinal Stenosis & Back Pain
Spinal stenosis is a serious & painful condition.
Patients who exhibit neck or back pain symptoms cannot rely on physical therapy alone.
Like any other illness or injury, patients must also integrate various lifestyle practices to manage symptoms better as they age. Below, we’ll share vital tips you should include along with the treatments you choose for spinal stenosis.
Exercise
This isn’t the first time you’ve heard this advice from a doctor.
Even after successful surgery, doctors will always advise patients to include an exercise program to reduce the symptoms, effects, and pain.
In this case, for something as delicate as your spinal canal & nerves, exercise goes a long way in helping you manage your nerves, spinal canal, and back.
Here are a few reasons why staying active can help your spinal stenosis:
- Strengthens the muscle surrounding your spine, which helps take the pressure off your bones and back.
- Stabilizes your weight. Excess weight can lead to worse back pain.
- Regulates and increases blood flow to your back, bringing oxygen and washing away toxic metabolites.
- Helps maintain the flexibility of your spinal structure. Adequate flexibility for your bones and spinal vertebrae are crucial in preventing any muscle that pulls and torques the spine. Without proper flexibility, this can worsen the effects of spinal stenosis.
To help you get started, here are 5 exercises you can do as suggested by Doctor Jo.
Supplements & Proper Nutrition
Just like how fitness junkies say you should never skip leg day, the same is true for doctors who say you should take your vitamins.
The field of medicine has expanded phenomenally over the last decade, and it’s not just vaccines and surgery that you should take note of.
Supplements and proper nutrition are vital to your health & wellbeing overall. Certain herbs & supplements can relieve the pain and even greatly reduce muscle aches and tension in your spinal vertebrae for a patient with spinal stenosis.
Some of these supplements include Willow Bark Extract, glucosamine, Bosweilla, Devil’s claw, and even Curcumin or Omega 3 fish oil for its anti-inflammatory properties. Magnesium glycinate and Epsom bath salts can also greatly reduce aches and back pain.
Mind-Body Medicine
This can be thought of as a practice similar to meditation, tai chi, or yoga.
After all, chronic illnesses are also largely influenced by psychological factors, which can worsen the symptoms.
A study showed the benefits of using a mindfulness approach towards self-regulating chronic pain where patients revealed reduced pain, medication use, and discomfort. [R] This short clip can help you understand more about mind-body medicine.
What Is the Best Natural Way to Treat Spinal Stenosis?
Before we can arrive at an answer, we must first understand the causes.
Causes of Spinal Stenosis
With so many ways to treat spinal stenosis, seeking advice from your doctor and choosing the best way to treat spinal stenosis depends on its causes.
This is why an accurate diagnosis is crucial to the medication and solution you will need to take. Some may require physical therapy, while psychological factors may greatly influence some, and so on.
If the diagnosis is inaccurate, you might take the wrong medication, leading to more pain.
That said, here are a few causes worth mentioning:
- Bone overgrowth
- Osteoarthritis
- Paget’s disease (rare)
- Tumor
- Spinal injury
- Herniated disks
To read more about each cause, the following link might help. [R]
Is There Really a Way of Reversing Spinal Stenosis Naturally?
So far, there is yet to be a cure for spinal stenosis.
However, the natural ways & tips we mentioned above combined with any prescribed medication/s can greatly reduce the pain.
It’s possible to resort to surgery, with decompression fusion being the most recent surgery of choice.
Furthermore, make sure you get proper rest and use different ways to reduce stress.
Even though there is no cure right now, don’t let this stress work you to the bone. Combining holistic and traditional medical practices have more benefits than you think. Perhaps Glory’s story will inspire you how she healed from spinal stenosis naturally!
