Get your health back on track with home remedies for back pain

If you're experiencing acute back pain, a short period of bed rest is okay, but more than a couple of days will do you more harm than good. Here are a few tips for a return to pain-free living.

• Get some gentle exercise (e.g., bicycling or swimming) to improve circulation and prevent further problems.
• Apply heat to a sore back. Good choices include hay flower wraps warmed over steam; compresses with rosemary or thyme tea; warmed cherry-pit or spelt bags; heat packs (available in pharmacies); or infrared light treatment. (Note: the benefits of cherry-pit bags were discovered during the manufacture of Kirsch liqueur. Workers found that if they put the leftover cherry pits in bags and warmed them, the soothing heat relieved their aches and pains.)
• Relax tense muscles and promote circulation with moor mud and sulfur baths.
• Take hot oil baths with rosemary or thyme extracts to soothe pain, followed by massages with hand-warmed tulipwood oil.
• Bathe in a natural hot spring. It can be equally as good for your psyche as for your back.
• Rub your back with spirits of lemon balm. To prepare, steep 200 grams (seven ounces) of fresh lemon balm leaves for ten days in one tightly sealed quart/litre of rubbing alcohol in a warm place. Strain and dilute with water in a 4:1 proportion.
• Fight pain with St. John's wort oil: ask a friend or significant other to gently massage your back using a small amount of oil.
• Try a hot wheat pack. Boil about one kilogram (two pounds) of wheat grains until soft. Put the hot mix into a linen bag, and let it rest on your sore back for 15 minutes.
• Take a therapeutic seawater bath. Widely accepted in Europe since the 19th century, thalassotherapy is a treatment whose main components are algae, littoral deposits and sea salt. It is available in health food stores and pharmacies.
• Place a thick cushion under your legs at night so that your thighs point straight up and your knees are bent at a right angle in order to take strain off your spinal column.