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HWN Suggests

If You Have Lower Back Pain, Don't Reach For A Pill

The next time you experience a flare-up of low back pain or develop a backache after playing tennis or lifting some heavy books, you may want to reconsider reaching for ibuprofen or a muscle relaxant. While it’s quite tempting to reach for a pill as a “quick fix,” there are alternative approaches that might work just as well, if not better.

This shift in management is now supported by new guidelines released earlier this week by the American College of Physicians (ACP), which recommend avoiding pills and using other modalities such as massage, heat, acupuncture, exercise, yoga or physical therapy as the primary approach to patients with low back pain lasting less than 12 weeks' duration.

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