20 Christmas Gift Ideas for Your Loved Ones With Chronic Back Pain

People with chronic back pain in Australia

Many people around Australia live with chronic back pain. Something is considered chronic when it lasts more than six months without respite from symptoms, although chronic pain can be the lasting effect of an acute injury. Chronic back pain is one of the leading causes of disability around the world and can have sufferers’ quality of life severely impacted. There are innumerable causes of chronic back pain, but luckily, there are many interventions that can be useful for alleviating or curing the pain.

The experience and symptoms of chronic back pain can vary depending on the syndrome or injury. They may include aching, stabbing, burning or sharp pains anywhere along the back. The pain can also radiate down the outside of the legs.

Causes of chronic back pain

Common and treatable causes of chronic back pain can include:

Osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is common in older age and involves the weakening of the bones all over the body. This increases the risk of someone developing minor or major fractures in old age. If the spine’s vertebrae develop minor fractures because of this, it can lead to chronic back pain.

Ruptured or bulging discs

Between our spine’s vertebrae sit soft, cushioned discs that provide cushioning between the bones. Sometimes, through injury caused by exercise or trauma to the spine, these discs can bulge or rupture, pressing on nerves in the spine and causing chronic pain.

Arthritis

Arthritis is a condition that commonly affects joints in the hips, knees, hands, and back. Arthritis causes painful swelling in these joints and limits mobility in these areas. Many older Australians are diagnosed with arthritis, and in age, it can be a common cause of back pain.

Pain in response to injury

Injuries that may be a result of unsafe lifting, exercise, motor vehicle accidents or other accidents may involve persisting back pain months after the trauma. While the initial injury may heal, residual inflammation and pain signals in the area commonly persist for a long time after the initial healing process. It is not uncommon for chronic pain to be a result of this and can involve a myriad of treatments to begin to alleviate the pain.

Muscle or ligament strain

Overuse of the muscles in the back, which may involve a physically demanding job, or incorrectly performed exercises, over multiple months or years, can result in persistent muscular or ligament pain.

When to see a doctor for chronic back pain

It’s important to see a GP if your back pain has been persisting for many months and doesn’t seem to be alleviating with simple pain relief or non-pharmacological interventions at home.

If your back pain is impacting your day-to-day activities or having an effect on your emotional or mental health, you should seek medical attention. It’s also important to get it checked out if it is affecting the bladder, bowel, or sexual activity, as well as if the pain is consistently spreading down one or both legs or is accompanied by numbness or tingling.

If you are experiencing back pain as a chronic disability and have access to funding to assist you with living through the disability – or have funds available to access private care – then the dedicated care team at Homage can assist you with the activities of daily living. The kind of help available can involve providing accompaniment or transport to medical appointments, helping you with tasks around the home, or providing assistance for personal care activities like washing or showering.

With Christmas around the corner, we’ve compiled a list of gifts you can offer your loved ones who are suffering from chronic back pain. The team at Homage can also assist you with accompaniment for shopping if you need an extra pair of hands to get it all completed if your disability or pain makes it tricky to independently complete these tasks.

20 gift ideas for people with chronic back pain

A heat pack

Heat is an excellent way to alleviate back pain. Heat works by opening up the blood vessels and delivering more oxygen to areas that are painful. You can buy heat packs that are heat-able in the microwave, or hot water bottles that keep boiling water inside an insulated rubber pack. You can even buy some nifty ones that fit snugly around your neck to alleviate upper back pain.

Acupressure mat

Acupressure mats are the new big thing in de-stressing and alleviating back pain. Imagine a yoga mat covered with little spikes, all packed in tight together, that you can lie on. The spikes are mildly uncomfortable at first but work in similar ways to heat packs – they stimulate the skin and nerves, promoting blood flow to the area, and thus alleviating pain.

Spike massage ball

Physios are big fans of these! They are tennis ball-sized and covered in many little spikes, much like the acupressure mat. A physiotherapist or osteopath may be able to teach you how to roll onto it in a way that works to loosen muscles in the back if the cause of the back pain is muscular or exercise induced.

A yoga class

Yoga is a fantastic exercise for promoting holistic mental and physical wellness. By stretching out your muscles through relaxing poses, you are physically promoting healing and flexibility in joints and muscles and connecting mindfully with your body. There is lots of new research coming out about the emotional and mental impact on one’s perception of pain, and it’s looking like people who experience healthier psychological states experience pain less severely.

A mindfulness class

In a similar vein to a yoga class, learning mindfulness and meditation can be extremely helpful in managing chronic pain. Learning how to moderate your emotional and mental state can have an amazing impact on one’s perception and experience of your physical body.

A breathwork class

Just like mindfulness, some believe breathwork can also be healing for chronic physical ailments. While this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, breathwork has been used by many cultures dating back thousands of years to achieve better physical and emotional states. Breathwork and mindfulness courses and classes are becoming more popular in many cities.

A massage voucher

Remedial Massage can be a game changer for chronic back pain. Professionals are apt at digging into certain muscle groups and pressure points to relieve tightness and soreness.

A massage gun

If someone is less inclined to receive a physical massage and would rather manage their pain from the comfort of their own home, a massage gun – that works by delivering vibrations to a specific muscle group – can be a great gift idea – especially for pesky upper back or neck pain.

A book on healing back pain

“Healing Back Pain – the Mind/Body Connection” By John E. Sarno has been touted as a game-changer for some. There are many schools of thought that different areas of the body harbour and hold the experiences of different emotions in the brain. While many causes of back pain have a direct link to injury or disease, some readers of the book report that it was life-changing for the information provided about the mind/body connection and utilising this to alleviate chronic pain.

Sauna therapy session

Just like a heat pack or hot water bottle, experiencing the heat of a sauna can be super relieving for pain, especially back pain caused by inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. Infra-red sauna sessions can be purchased and are touted as being amazing for alleviating chronic pain.

An orthopaedic pillow

There are special kinds of pillows designed to mould to someone’s body for use during sleep or rest, in order to take the pressure off painful areas of the body. There are many types of pillows that can be utilised to find the most comfortable position to take pressure off back pain.

Reformer pilates class

Exercise is an amazing tool to improve general well-being and muscle mass, and reformer Pilates is a low-impact way to improve muscle strength, flexibility and mobility. If you are impacted by your pain in a way that limits your mobility, finding an injury-sensitive reformer Pilates class – which utilises special exercise machines to reduce the impact on joints – can be amazing for reducing pain and improving overall well-being.

Essential oils

Essential oils aren’t just used to jazz up the scent of your living spaces – although that’s a fun use for them, too – many actually have anti-inflammatory properties. Tea-tree oil and peppermint oil can be useful for rubbing into sore backs and alleviating some of the pain caused by inflammation.

A subscription to a mindful app

As we’ve mentioned the interaction between emotional states and the perception of pain, making sure you have a grounding or meditation process can be helpful in mitigating pain symptoms too. Apps like Insight Timer and Smiling Mind have subscription-based options for plenty of calming meditations available.

A notebook for journaling

Journaling can be a great aid in sifting through emotions and events of the day. This can make your emotional resilience stronger, and it can be therapeutic to write about the effect of pain on your life in order to sift through the heavy emotions.

Weighted heating blanket

Weighted blankets can be amazing for alleviating anxiety and useful for a grounding practice. You can source heated options, too, which provide pain relief through the heat.

A neck massager

Much like a targeted muscle massage gun, you can also find specific massage packs that sit snug around the neck and target that frustrating upper bag and neck pain.

Epsom salts

Epsom salt baths can be invaluable for relaxing tense muscles after a workout or exercise, but they can also alleviate the pain associated with a tense back or neck if the pain is a result of overuse, heavy lifting, or work that involves heavy physical activity.

Acupuncture

Acupuncture has been used for centuries to alleviate an array of medical conditions and symptoms. It involves inserting fine needles into specific areas of the body that may target specific muscle groups to promote blood flow and healing. In terms of ancient Chinese medicine, though, acupuncture focuses on inserting fine needles into specific areas of the body using the meridian lines of the body as guides for healing. These meridian lines are thought to track the flow of energy – or ‘chi’ – throughout the body, and specific targeting of parts of these tracks is thought to have a beneficial impact on seemingly unrelated areas of pain or inflammation.

Hydrotherapy session

Hydrotherapy – a type of exercise of physiotherapy done in the water – is an amazing low-impact way to heal pain or tension in the body. This is most useful when the pain is precipitated by conditions such as arthritis or injury.