Back Up Your Epidural Steroid Injections with These Healthy Habits

When you have chronic back pain, you might wake up most mornings with a debilitating backache. Or maybe you struggle with always having a stiff back after sitting for long periods of time. 

If this is you, you might be receiving epidural steroid injections to give you much needed relief. This treatment method is able to address many different conditions that cause chronic back pain such as herniated discs, spinal stenosis, bone spurs, scoliosis, or other nerve-related spine injuries.

Epidural steroid injections deliver corticosteroid medication directly to the spine in order to coat irritated nerves and then reduce pain and swelling as a result.

While these injections can do a lot of the heavy lifting for the reduction of chronic back pain, there are some other healthy habits you can be practicing to either further reduce pain or keep that pain from coming back as quickly. 

Our team led by Aditya Patel, MD, at the Sports, Pain and Regenerative Institute located in Fairview and Montclair, New Jersey, takes a look at some of those lifestyle changes you can make in this blog.

Properly fuel your body

Inflammation plays a huge role in chronic back pain, and eating certain foods can fuel that inflammation. Eating a lot of sugars, heavily processed foods, and refined flours found in white bread and rice can increase that inflammation and pain as a result. 

It’s good to eat a diet that’s rich in color and packed full of nutrients. Aim to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables along with other nutrient dense foods such as legumes, whole grains, healthy fats, and lean proteins. To round out your diet, drink plenty of fluids on a regular basis.

Find a workout routine and stick to it

Even when you’re in pain, finding a way to move your body is essential to getting pain relief. You can try to do activities that aren’t too intense such as chair yoga, walking, biking, or swimming. Doing something active on a regular basis will lower inflammation in your body over time and help to reduce your pain. 

Practice good sleep hygiene

It’s absolutely vital that you get a good amount of sleep each night, since that’s when your body is able to heal itself. When you don’t get enough rest, your stress hormones go up, which worsens your pain. 

Make sure that you turn off blue light from your phone or TV for one hour before you go to sleep and aim to fall asleep and wake up at the same time every single day. 

If you’d like to learn more about either our epidural steroid injections for chronic back pain or how to reduce back pain through lifestyle changes, contact our team for more information. You can do this by giving us a call or by using our online scheduler to set up an appointment today.