The Mind-Body Hack for Conquering Lower Back Pain

The Mind-Body Hack for Conquering Lower Back Pain

How to Use Placebos to Cure Your Lower Back Pain

Living with chronic lower back pain can start to feel familiar, even normal. You get used to the daily aches, the stiffness, the challenges with certain movements or activities. And you learn to rely on the usual treatments – painkillers to take the edge off, physical therapy and stretches, maybe regular massages. It’s not pleasant, but it’s your normal.

But is it all necessary? Is there a way to manage lower back pain that doesn’t involve medication or therapy or surgery?

Discovering The Power of a Pill That Does Nothing

That’s when I came across some intriguing research on the placebo effect — the phenomenon where a person’s physical symptoms can improve simply based on belief. Believe a treatment will work and it will work (even if that “treatment” is just a sugar pill). Because the mind, as it turns out, can influence the body and determine how we experience pain.

In fact, physicians today have slowed way down on prescribing pills and tests and procedures for your lower back pain. Instead, they just want you to believe. To believe you will get better. To believe you can get lower back pain relief.

Some techniques to practice a strong conviction that you’re healing include positive self-talk and reframing the pain. But a simpler one is to just take a placebo. One study on chronic low back pain showed significant reductions in both pain and disability in patients given an open-label placebo. So even if you know it’s a placebo, you will still feel better than without taking it.

Prescribing a Juice Blend as Your Placebo

Take the following prescription for lower back pain relief: Lower Back Pain Relief Juice!

11 oz (330 ml) coconut water (tap water is fine here, too)
2 Tablespoons ginger (about a thumb-sized knob)
2 full ribs (4 halves) celery
1 slice lemon, peeled
1 cup (30 g), spinach
1 cup (165 g) pineapple chunks (fresh or frozen)
4 cubes ice

Make the recipe above every morning for 30 days. Do not skip a dose and complete the entire 30 days. Continue normal physical activity with caution.

Sip on your fresh juice blend whenever pain hits and tell yourself that it was already getting better. With each gulp, notice the pain slowly but undeniably declining. Feel the range of motion coming back.

It will work because the ingredients are all anti-inflammatory. But it will also work because you believe it will.

Sticking With The Plan Throughout the Bumps

Do not expect smooth sailing the whole time. Like any rehabilitation journey, this is going to be a challenge.

You’ll face plenty of skepticism from your friends and family when sharing your mind-body approach to treating your lower back pain. And you’ll harbor some doubts yourself. The moment when the pain still flares up will have you question it all. In these cases, introduce some some positive self-talk and healing visualizations. Replacing thoughts such as “my back is messed up” with “my back is healing” can do wonders for making your pain go away.

The placebo effect is real, and it’s a potent weapon in the battle against lower back pain. You should feel empowered by your ability to believe. And of course, the anti-inflammatory Lower Back Pain Relief Juice you’re drinking can be a key part of your placebo arsenal as you transition into a pain-free lifestyle. Lean into that mind body connection and be hopeful in the days ahead.