“Back Pain Remedies: Minerals”

This back pain remedy goes hand in hand with the previous one: water. As you’ve read, water is critical for normal bodily functions. But water alone is useless. Your body needs the proper amount of minerals to be present in your body’s water. We call these minerals “electrolytes.”

Your body functions much like a liquid electrical system. Minerals, which are basically very small particles of metal, help conduct electrical impulses from your brain to the muscles via nerves.

Muscles stay in a state of relative relaxation until Calcium is removed from receptors, which then makes the muscle contract. Therefore, if your intake of minerals is low, your muscles will have a tendency to be tighter. And if your electrolytes dip too low, your muscles will go into spasm.

How do we lose minerals?

• Inadequate nutrition
• Hot weather
• Muscular exertion; sports, work, etc
• Medications that cause you to lose potassium or other minerals

How do you get enough electrolytes?

• Diet with variety of foods
• Nutritional supplementation with basic multivitamin and mineral
• Electrolyte drink, powder or pill during times of sports, work, hot weather, etc.

Signs of low electrolytes
Small muscle twitching in eye lid and toes
Foot and leg cramps, usually at night
Back or neck spasm
Fatigue
If severe, irregular heart beats, lethargy and mental confusion

So if you want to do your part in treating your lower back pain, drink plenty of water and make sure you’re getting enough minerals into your body.