There Are Many Treatment Options For Your Back Pain

Back pain is one of the most common reasons that people go to the doctor or miss work days.  About four out of five people will have lower back pain disrupt their daily activities at least once during their lives.  Most back pain can be prevented with proper physical exercise and stretching, and if prevention fails, usually simple home management and treatment with help heal the back pain after a few weeks. 

Back pain is most often the cause of strained muscles or ligaments from heavy or improper lifting, or a sudden or awkward movement.  Another cause of back pain may be structural problems such as a bulging or ruptured disk.  Disks are the cushions between the vertebrae in your spine.  Sometimes the soft material inside the disk might bulge or rupture and press on a nerve.  If a bulging or herniated disk presses on a main nerve that travels down your leg, it may cause sciatica, which is a sharp, shooting pain, tingling, or numbness that travels from the lower back and down the large nerve in the back of the leg.  Another structural problem that can cause back pain is arthritis.  Arthritis in the spine can lead to spinal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the space around the spinal cord. 

Any skeletal irregularities, such as a curve in your spine in an abnormal way can cause major back pain.  Scoliosis is a condition in which your spin curves over to one side, and it may cause severe back pain.  Compression fractures of your spine’s vertebrae, also known as osteoporosis, can occur if the bones become brittle and porous, and this may also cause back pain.

There are many risk factors that could increase your chances of developing lower back pain.  They include:

v     Obesity

v     Older age

v     Smoking

v     Physically demanding work, or a very stressful job

v     Anxiety or depression

v     Female gender

You should seek a doctor’s care if improvement of your back pain does not occur after 72 hours of rest or home self care.  If the condition worsens, is constant or intense, especially at night time, spreads down both legs, causes weakness, numbness or tingling in the legs, causes bowel or bladder problems, or is accompanied by any other physical ailments, you should see your doctor immediately.  You should also see your doctor immediately if you are over 50 years of age and are experiencing back pain for the very first time.