Home remedies · Back, muscles & joints
No home remedy here replaces treatment, and none is talked down. What has done good for generations does good — even if no one ever measured it. Where something is well studied, it says so. Where it is only experience, it says that too.
With back and joint pain keep moving within the pain-free range, keep everyday life going, avoid bed rest.
Cartilage and discs live on movement, muscles waste quickly at rest. Bed rest demonstrably prolongs low back pain.
Moving does not replace assessment when strength, sensation or bladder function are affected.
With paralysis, numbness in the saddle area, bladder or bowel disturbance go to hospital at once — that is an emergency, not a case for patience.
Have it assessed rather than treated at home: back pain with numbness in the saddle area, disturbed bladder or bowel function, weakness or fever. A joint that cannot bear weight after an injury, or is deformed. A one-sided swollen, warm leg.