Could A Bar Of Soap Ease Your Lower Back Pain?

Do you suffer from lower back pain that keeps you up at night? If so, there's a cheap and easy home remedy that you can try. Many back pain suffers claim to get relief by doing nothing more than sticking any old bar of soap underneath their fitted sheets at night before going to bed. The world of science doesn't yet know exactly how or why this works, but there are a few theories. Here are three of them.

Placebo Effect

One reason placing soap under your sheets might halt lower back pain is that the bar of soap acts as a placebo and you experience a placebo effect. This does not mean that you're crazy, that you're pretending to feel better, or that you never really experienced back spasms at all. Placebos have been shown to cause real physiological effects in study participants. There is a powerful relationship between your mind and your body, and by believing a certain medicine or even a bar of soap might ease your pain, your brain can prompt your body to actually cause the effect you seek from that certain medicine or, in this case, soap.

As many as one of every three people experience a placebo effect upon taking a placebo, so this certainly could explain why so many back pain sufferers believe that placing soap under their bed sheets will cure their discomfort.

Scent Therapy

Another theory as to why the soap trick works is that the soap acts as scent therapy. The use of scents to boost health has been practiced for nearly 6000 years. How can soap act as scent therapy when placed under your sheet? When a back pain sufferer places a bar of soap under their bed sheet and then sleeps in their bed, their nose picks up the pleasant scent of the soap for the entire time they are sleeping. Your nose communicates on a regular basis with the part of your brain that controls mood and emotion, and pleasant scents tend to signal that part of the brain to release chemicals that will boost both emotional and physical health.

If scent therapy really is the reason the soap trick works, your best chance of success is to opt for a bar of soap that smells like vanilla or lavender; both of these scents trigger the brain to release pain-fighting endorphins.

Magnesium Boost

A lack of magnesium in your diet can cause all kinds of problems, including chronic pain. Up to 80 percent of Americans don't get the recommended daily intake of magnesium, and blood tests can't accurately determine how much magnesium you have in your body. What does this information have to do with the soap trick for back pain? It just so happens that many kinds of bar soap contain the ingredient magnesium chloride, which is a salt that is composed of magnesium, sulfur, and oxygen.

Can magnesium be absorbed through your skin? As a matter of fact, it can be. By placing a bar of soap under your bed sheets, your body may just soak up enough magnesium from that soap to correct your magnesium levels and do away with your lower back pain.

Although there is no steadfast research or scientific proof that placing a bar of soap under your bed sheet at night will cure your back pain, it's cheap and easy to do, so it wouldn't hurt to try. While you're waiting for the bar of soap to ease your pain, however, contact a chiropractor, such as those at TLC Chiropractic, and schedule an appointment to be seen. The pain in your lower back could be caused by an irritated nerve, strained muscle, or damaged bone or joint -- all of which should be treated by a trained professional.


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