“Ouch! My back!” you groan as you lunge for your pillbox.

You take your back pain medications in one gulp, and you smile at how quickly it works. Well, wipe that smile off your face. That drug you’re probably thinking is your friend is anything but — here’s why:

1. You may have to try a cocktail of back pain medications before you find one that works. Not all pain relievers work alike. What worked for someone you know may not work for you. What your doctor prescribed may not work for you, even. Your doctor gives you a prescription, you buy it, you take it, and hope for the best. How long can you endure this cycle of trial and error?

On the upside, your constant use of back pain medications means you’re bound to find one that works for you. On the downside, trying one drug after the other will not always be pleasant and may even take a toll on your health.

2. You will have to deal with side effects. Let’s be clear about this: no back pain medication is without side effects. Whether you take an aspirin or NSAIDs (non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs), you can expect the drug to take its toll on your health. You may experience nausea, dizziness, constipation, vomiting, dryness in the mouth, urinary retention, pupil contraction, or even respiratory depression, among others.

You see, unknown to most consumers, pain medications may attack more than pain. It actually inhibits, rather than promotes, your body’s natural defenses against sickness.

3. You may need to rework your budget. Thinking the cost of back pain medications won’t break the bank? Think again, and do the math. Sure, back pain medications aren’t as pricey as surgery. However, if you have to pay for medication three times a week, seven days a week, what you spend on back pain medications is bound to eat away at your savings. In these tough times, who has the resources to make drugs a permanent and hefty fixture of the monthly budget?

4. You could become drug-dependent. If your solution to pain is to pop pain killers the moment you start feeling twinges, don’t be surprised to find yourself becoming more and more reliant on your drug. While it’s true your pain killer can numb the pain, it doesn’t make it go away. You just may find yourself popping more pain killers more often.

5. You are not solving your problem. Do you know how your back pain medications works? They either block the pain signals to your brain or interrupt your brain’s interpretation of these signals. In other words, they make you feel pain-free by making you incapable of feeling pain — for a few hours, anyway. But remember: feeling pain-free and being actually pain-free are two very different things. To get rid of the pain, you will need to find out the cause of the pain and remedy it accordingly.

Medications may help you get through your day, but if you rely on drugs as your only pain treatment, you’re stuck with them for the rest of your life.

Yes, you can reclaim your right to a strong, healthy back; but the answer is not inside your pillbox, and it’s definitely not your back pain medications. Start your journey to being pain-free at the very core of most health issues: your diet. Your back will thank you for it.

Back pain is a problem that far too many American suffer from every year. In fact, some estimates suggest that 8 out of 10 Americans will suffer from some level of back pain at least once in their lives. While this is a devastating number, the one good thing I see in it is that when someone else is suffering from back pain, most people can relate fairly well. Whether it is because of their own personal experience, or because have seen someone very close to them that they know and love go through the agony of severe back pain.

For those people who have significant and recurring or chronic back pain, you know how desperate one becomes to try to find some relief. People resort to massive doses of anti inflammatory medications (NSAIDs - Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drugs) such as Advil or Aleve, even they know that it can be difficult on the kidneys. Or at the next level they start utilizing narcotics to try to deal with the pain. Eventually they may resort to surgical intervention to try to get some pain relief. However, studies indicate that for those who undergo back surgery for pain relief, only about one out of two, 50%, receives any benefit from the surgery.

On top of that, any kind of surgery involves a certain level of risk including complications and infections. When you consider that someone is cutting into your back and working with cutting instruments right next to your spinal cord… well, it’s understandable why surgery isn’t an easy choice.

One option that more and more people of choosing is trying inversion therapy on an inversion table. It is non-invasive, non-addictive (other than possibly being thrilled with the pain relief you may achieve!), virtually no risk and very low cost. Thousands of people have received significant pain reduction using these techniques and products over the years.

Is this inversion table some kind of new-fangled hippie therapy

Hardly. In fact, the idea of naturally decompressing the spine goes back at least as far as Hippocrates (400 BC), the father of medicine. Perhaps you are familiar with the Hippocratic Oath that all doctors take that says, “First, do no harm”. Traction tables or inversion tables seem to fit in quite nicely with that line of thinking…

Inversion therapy came onto the scene in the US back in the 1960’s through a Dr. Martin from California who developed a system called the “Gravity Guidance System” (OK, OK, I see why you might think this is some kind of ‘hippie therapy’… but read on). Over the ensuing decades more and more people were drawn to it, though traditional medical community couldn’t seem to make up their mind about what kind of position to take on it.

Eventually, ‘medicine’ decided that inversion therapy could, indeed, be a successful treatment for pain. They realized that any fears they had about possible problems had been greatly exaggerated. I have to think it took a lot for them to admit that this ‘thing’ could quite possibly, in fact, do some good for many, many people suffering and in pain.

Today there are many different products from many different manufacturers out there for someone to choose from. The price point is not terribly high, and in fact, used models are often not too difficult to find for a very good price. Whether new or used, you can probably find something for between $100 and $300. Compared to kidney problems, narcotics, surgical risks and the debilitating nature of constant back pain, many find this to be a small price to pay for possible pain relief, even if it is only temporary.