Lower back pain is one of the most common reasons people in the US go to the doctor. And treatments can include physical therapy, addictive opioids, and even surgery.

But according to new clinical treatment guidelines published Monday by the American College of Physicians (ACP), the best treatment is time and the continuation of normal routines. If needed, people can try whatever alternative therapies they want—yoga, acupuncture, tai chi, spinal manipulation. If they really want to pop a pill, they should go with ibuprofen, naproxen, or muscle relaxants. (Acetaminophen, like Tylenol, really won’t do anything, though. And opioids should only be used as a last, desperate option.)

“Physicians should reassure their patients that acute and sub-acute low back pain usually improves over time regardless of treatment,” Dr. Nitin Damle, president of the ACP, said in a press release. “Physicians should avoid prescribing unnecessary tests and costly and potentially harmful drugs, especially narcotics, for these patients.”

Really, doctors mostly don’t need to be involved at all, Dr. Rick Deyo, an author of the new guidelines and a spine researcher at the Oregon Health and Science University, told the New York Times. For those with acute back pain—which is pain lasting four weeks or less and doesn’t radiate down a leg—a doctor’s visit is not necessary. Those with chronic pain—12 weeks or more—should also start with the same non-invasive remedies before seeking more serious treatments.

“For acute back pain, the analogy is to the common cold,” Dr. Deyo said. “It is very common and very annoying when it happens. But most of the time it will not result in anything major or serious.”

Moreover, invasive treatments can cause real problems. These include finding things in scans that look like abnormalities that really have nothing to do with the pain, getting patients hooked on powerful prescription drugs, or taking on the risks of invasive surgeries.

Patients want cures, and doctors and insurance companies are primed to try shots, pills, and advanced treatments. But we should all stop “medicalizing” this problem, Dr. James Weinstein, a back pain specialist and chief executive of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health System told the Times. “I know your back hurts, but go run, be active, instead of taking a pill.”