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Lower back pain is the most frequent type of pain in bone, muscle and joint problems. The most frequent lower back pain reason is tension in muscle and ligament because of the compulsion. Other frequent lower back pain reasons are can be named as osteoarthritis, disc problems, and some constructive problems. Mechanical type and lower back pain that caused from compulsion can be decreased by using medicine, physical therapy and rest. Keeping the weight under control and active life style can help to reduce the risk of having lower back pains.
What is lower back pain?
Lower back pain can be caused by a lot of different kinds of compulsions, traumas or diseases. Severity of pain can be low, middle or high. Sometimes, it can make impossible to walk, sit, work, sleep or other daily activities. Generally, lower back pain can get under control and decreased by resting, painkillers and physical therapy. Also, spinal injections applied to lower back can help to get rid of pain too. In some situations, lower back pain can need operation if it causes to pain in lower back and movement restriction.
Every 5 person out of 4 has lower back pain in any era of their life. Lower back pain is the most frequent reason to consult to physician.
The reasons below is the most frequent causes of lower back pain;
Age: Lower back pain is more frequent after age of 30. There is corrosion in disc tissues that represents like pillow between the lower back vertebra when people growing old. Those corrosions causes lower back pain by causing weakening of discs, decreasing the height and flexibility.
Weight: Overweight people has more chance to have lower back pain. Overweight causes increasing the pressure in dics and joints. At the same time, overweight people are generally not active physically and there is more chance to have other health problems too. All of them can cause lower back pain.
Profession and Life Style: Bending and carrying heavy weights can cause lower back pain.
Constitutive Problems: Scoliosis (spine curvature) and change in spine configuration (eg. Lower back eluxation) can cause lower back pain.
General Health Condition: Weak abdominal muscles causes weakness in support of spine. There is more chance to people who smokes and alcoholic to have lower back pain.
Diseases: If there is osteoarthritis history in family, there is higher chance to have lower back pain. People who has cancer also has higher risk to have lower back pain.
Mental Health: In physocologic problems like depression, anxiety, there is more frequent to have lower back pain.
How lower back pain starts?
Soft Tissue Tension: This is the most frequent reason of lower back pain. Muscles and ligaments of lower back area can be damaged very easily while carrying heavy weight. Sometimes, those tensions can happen while sneezing, coughing, leaning and turning.
Fractures: Spine fractures can happen after high energy traumas like felling from height or traffic accident. Besides, without high energy trauma, spine fractures can happen in old people who has osteolysis.
Disc Problems: Injury, tears, abrasions and herniated discs can cause pain. On the other hand, as a result of the pressure of the herniated disc tissue on the nerve root, symptoms such as pain, numbness and weakness spreading to the leg may occur.
Lumbar calcification: Calcification of the waist causes chronic low back pain and difficulty in movement.
Lumbar shift: It is the displacement of one of the lumbar vertebrae on the other in a way that disrupts the alignment. This can cause both back and leg pain.
Structural problems: Spinal canal stenosis can cause compression of nerve fibers and severe sciatic pain. Canal stenosis due to scoliosis can also cause pain, stiffness in the spine and difficulty in movement.
Rheumatic diseases: Rheumatological diseases such as ankylosing spondylitis, especially those involving the spine, cause limitation of movement and pain in the spine.
Other diseases: Spinal tumors, infections, cancer metastases cause low back pain. Conditions such as kidney stones or enlargement of the aorta in the abdomen also cause pain reflected in the lower back.
The questions that physician is asking to the patient during examinations are advisor for diagnosis. Therefore, it is important to answer those questions completely and truly. Some investigations are needed in the light of the patient story and examinations. The physician may need results of blood and urine tests. Some genetic tests like ankylosing spondylitis in blood test can be done for the reasons of lower back pain like ankylosing spondylitis. Urine tests can be needed for determining the problems of kidney and urinary tract disorders.
X-Ray: X-Rays are using for imaging bone structure in lower back area.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): Magnetic waves are using for imaging bone, muscle, disc and other soft tissues. MRI doesn’t include radiation.
Electromyography (EMG): EMG is electrophysiologic technique for determining the level of nerve damage by examining the electrical activities of muscle and nerves.
Lower back pain, which is frequently seen and depends on the compulsion, generally gets better with resting, painkillers and muscle relievers. In those kind of pains, patients generally goes back to their normal life after resting for some days. Active life causes faster healing by supplying a lot of blood flow to the area which has pain. The other treatments for lower back pain is depending on the detected reason of the pain.
Medicine Treatment: Physician can prescribe painkiller pills and injections for lower back pain. Additionally, muscle reliever medicines can be suggested too. Muscle relievers relaxing pain and difficulty of movement by detaching muscle spasm.
Physical Therapy: Physical therapy and exercises leads to increase of support in lumbar muscles. Also, flexibility of lower back is increased and thus, protection for new compulsions that can happen.
Manual Therapy: Manual therapy and manipulation relases the muscle spasm, decreases the pain and correcting the spine order. But correct diagnosis and clinic should be used in correct situations, or else some undesirable problems can happen. Massage treatment helps to reduce the pain and regaining function loss.