Belts for Low Back Pain

I just wanted to throw my experience out. Soooo many people are having great results from using waist belts. My dad goes for regular support belt, my husband is into snogg belt and he basically lives in it. I'd only wanna try it for couple of days just to see will it work for me, i don't know what is it, it happened two days ago - i bend down and just cannot bend up. never experience this before. will go for waist belts to see results...

My pain doc lets me have a soft back brace - he calls it a girdle, he-he - when my back is especially bad, but not all the time. Rheumy said no brace because it weakens the muscles.

My belt has velcro in front, looks a bit like Snogg but no brand name, may be softer. I'm not sure what the difference is between that and "regular waist belts."

I think it depends on what it's for. Talk to your doctor!! You don't want to make things worse! I used to have only muscles locking up when I got tired. Lately I hurt right before and after I get out of bed - seems more like spine related. It lessens after I walk around. It could still be spasms because the hands and legs loosen up after moving too.

Frankly, I think a TENS can do about the same thing - stop the pain from cramping muscles. You might want to ask the doc about that and compare.

not many docs do encourage non-traditional treatments, though...

You might want to use caution with wearing a belt/ brace as it can weaken your back. You could also become dependant on this and that would be bad. So use it sparingly for a few hours a day.
It is good your getting relief, but at a costs of having to depend so much on a devise it might make you worse, I would encourage you to seek out physical therapy for core exercises. Core exercises when done correctly under a therapists aid can help you to strenghten your back properly.
Ask your doctor about physical therapy.
Many well wishes...

saw those foam rollers for low back muscle relaxation. do they work?

Wow, I had no idea that there where so many negatives on the use of these common, in the construction industry world, waist belts. More than half the guys on my old crew used the soft waist belts all day long and we never had a complaint. This was back in 1980-1987 when I was a construction Supervisor with over 250 guys to keep track of. I used one myself for easily 15 years and have never had lower back pain. Pay attention next time you are at Home Depot or Sam's Club, I'll bet thet you will notice that the forklift guys are all wearing braces, it's usually a company policy . . . Q

PS: BTW, snogg is British slang for kissing, ie. Snogging, or give me a snogg, baby, lol.

Thanks Susie, that makes sense. I was interpreting it as the belts themselves causing injury. Personally, I was addicted to mine, but I was doing heavy labor. The only back strain I've endured is upper thoracic and it cured itself somehow . . . Q

Wow, I had no idea that there where so many negatives on the use of these common, in the construction industry world, waist belts. More than half the guys on my old crew used the soft waist belts all day long and we never had a complaint. This was back in 1980-1987 when I was a construction Supervisor with over 250 guys to keep track of. I used one myself for easily 15 years and have never had lower back pain. Pay attention next time you are at Home Depot or Sam's Club, I'll bet thet you will notice that the forklift guys are all wearing braces, it's usually a company policy . . . Q

PS: BTW, snogg is British slang for kissing, ie. Snogging, or give me a snogg, baby, lol.
Age 52 at time of Dx
12 core biopsy, all positive
G-9
Age 60 still on Lupron
Underwent Provenge 09/2013--10/1013
P
PSA slowly rose from 4.7 to current 89.9
CP symptoms: osteo-arthritis, fatigue, osteoporosis, full body pain caused by Hormone Therapy
Drug history in profile
Post Edited (quincy17) : 11/22/2014 2:06:14 PM (GMT-7)

Was it really a policy to wear a belt?

Yes, Susie said it as I was meaning it, those home depot guys use it as precaution and they only use it at work not all 24 hours in a day! if they did wear it for a full day then they might even weaken their backs...but usually they limit it to using it at work.
Thanks Susie...

Gina,
There's no weakening of the muscles when you have a good back. Like I said, I wore one for 8 hours a day 5 days a week for almost 15 years with no weakening of my back muscles. If anything, the brace helped prevent me from hurting myself and enabled me to do things that I wouldn't have been able to do without it. It's just not good fot people who have bad backs already to depend on them like I did . . . Q

by the way - is it good to use slings to carry kids while having back pain?

Best thing you can do is to take a list of items you've seen on TV and ask your doctor about them and what he/she would recommend. It's nice to see those TV ad's with people saying they got relief for their pain with these devices, but are they for real or paid to say that. That's one question you need to think about is that sometimes they are paid to say these things and do not have any back pain at all...
It is frustrating to know what could help and then it turns out to have numerous BBB complaints...Maybe do a google search on these products and read reviews with care as some reviewers also get paid.
So the best course of action would be to ask your doctor about these products, but to me if it sounds too good to be true then it's probably a fake and no one here wants to see you waste your monies on something not true...if it worked your doctor would probably recommend it but he might advise caution as well, that's all we are trying to say, please use caution.
Hope this helps and many well wishes to you...just trying to help you...

is it trustable to go for TV drug ads?