Back pain is one of the most common medical problems, affecting 8 out of 10 people at some point during their lives. Back pain is not a diagnosis -- it's a symptom of an underlying condition. Back pain is a common problem often caused by overusing or misusing the muscles of the back. Back pain can be a sign of a serious medical problem, although this is not most frequently the underlying cause. Typical warning signs of a potentially life-threatening problem are bowel and/or bladder incontinence or progressive weakness in the legs.
The Spine
Your spine is a very strong part of your body and is not easily damaged. It is a complex structure consisting of 24 small bones (vertebrae),shock absorbing discs (intervertebral discs) that cushion the bones and allow the spine to bend, ligaments to hold vertebrae and discs together, tendons to connect muscles to vertebrae, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles.
Weight:
If you are overweight you should consider a weight-reducing diet because of the extra strain that your weight puts on your leg joints and back. You will also be advised to stop smoking (as this may be an independent cause of back pain), so you should take extra care to prevent the weight gain that often follows.
Problems During Pregnancy:
Potential causes of back pain or discomfort during pregnancy include hormone changes. Hormones released during pregnancy allow ligaments in the pelvic area to soften and the joints to become looser in preparation for the birthing process of your baby; this shift in joints and loosening of ligaments may affect the support your back normally experiences.
Relief:
Inversion therapy is useful for temporary back relief due to the traction method or spreading of the back vertebrae through (in this case) gravity. The best position for relief when your back hurts is to lie on your back on the floor with pillows under your knees, with your hips and knees bent and your feet on a chair, or just with your hips and knees bent.
Possible treatments:
Treatment options range from basic rest, ice or heat and gradually resuming activity to medication, exercise, physical therapy, chiropractic treatment, acupuncture and surgery. Not all treatments work for all conditions or for all individuals with the same condition, and many find that they need to try several treatment options to determine what works best for them.
Therapy Solutions:
Massage therapy, especially from an experienced therapist, may help. Body Awareness Therapy such as the Feldenkrais Method has been studied in relation to Fibromyalgia and chronic pain and studies have indicated positive effects. In one study, chiropractic manipulation was found to relieve back pain better than a sham therapy in which therapists only imitated chiropractic manipulation.
Benefits of Exercise:
Exercise may be the most effective way to speed recovery from back pain and help strengthen back and abdominal muscles. Continue with normal activities as far as possible. In almost all cases, physical therapy and/or a regular exercise program that includes stretching, strengthening and low impact cardio conditioning will be part of the treatment and rehabilitation program.
Symptoms, Causes & Prevention If you want to relieve back pain then sitting in front of your computer all day is not the way to do it, neither is the decision to get in shape with a vigorous excercise program. Your body cannot take the strain of going from no activity to a major exercise program. If you want to get in shape you must do it slowly by conditioning your muscles to accepting more activity. This can be done with the assistance of a health care provider who can help you develop a program that would relieve back pain.
People between thirty and fifty years old start to realize that they are doing damage to their bodies, especially their backs, by their inactivity. Perhaps it’s an episode of back pain that spurs them on. Or it might be seeing a friend or relative deal with back pain, perhaps even chronic back issues, that makes them realize that without doing something that could be them one day.
No one wants to spend their lives in pain, sitting around with cold packs or hot water bottles while downing anti-inflammatories to try to relieve the ache in their backs. Most people don’t even get to this stage until its too late. They are certain they can cure what ails them instead so they use over the counter pain relievers and the hot or cold treatments. They attempt their own exercise programs, often doing more harm then good, and then waiting for pain relief.
Somewhere around three to six weeks later, when the pain has not improved, they finally agree that they need to see a health care provider who can help them. At this point, since the pain has lasted so long, the medical check-up they will receive will be far more involved. After the initial questions there will be a thorough physical followed by MRI, magnetic resonance imaging, to check the spine. This will look for a herniated or bulging disc. Depending on the results the MRI is frequently followed by an EMG, electromyogram nerve conduction study, because it’s able to detect nerve damage.
Once these tests have been done the heath care provider will use the results to determine the correct treatment plan. If its early in the pain stream then there is little then will be suggested other then rest, hot or cold treatments and the anti-inflammatories. If it’s later then a complete physiotherapy program will be added to the normal treatment so that the exercises can gradually build back strength and help to diminish the pain. Physiotherapy can be done by visits to a physiotherapist regularly who can also use other treatments to help diminish the pain, like ultrasound and electrical stimulation. But it needn’t be done this way.
If your lifestyle makes it difficult to get to a physiotherapist, most of who have hours throughout the day, in evenings and sometimes weekends as well; you can always do your exercises at home. To avoid future back pain you should learn the best ways to sit, lift, sleep or play while preventing back strain.
Both The Doc & Ron Keegan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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