One of the most troubling things about lower back pain is that the scale of the problem is just growing and growing. Why this is happening nobody knows for sure but doctors think that the increasing numbers of sufferers reflect the fact that as a society we exercise less and eat more than we ever have before.
Sorting out the cause of lower back pain is not always easy because from the anatomy point of view there are lots of different tissues that can act as pain triggers. For example, the muscles of the back, the lumbar facet joints, the lumbar discs and the nerve roots emerging from the spinal cord can all be the source of severe pain or dysfunction. Each has it's own pattern of symptoms and each produces a typical set of signs that your doctor or therapist can pick up on examination.
Nerve root irritation will usually provoke minor levels of back pain but severe pains down the leg - often with numb feelings or pins and needles in the foot.
Lumbar facet joint pain is more often a reason for back pain and if there is leg pain present then it's usually felt like a dull ache in the buttock or upper thigh region. The lumbar facet joints tend to trigger symptoms that are one sided and localized near to the joint that's causing the problem. Doctors can often pick up local spasm in the region and an x-ray or scan can help to confirm the diagnosis.
But what about treatment? Who do you turn to when you are struggling to deal with daily life as your lower back collapses into vice like agony? Is it possible to make a sensible decision between a chiropractor or an osteopath? A spinal surgeon or a physical therapist? An acupuncturist or a reflexologist?
For most of us the choice of treatment can seem like a puzzling maze at best - or a pin ball machine at worst, as the "flippers" and "bumpers" of each pain episode push us from one expert to another without ever finding a key to unlock the issue and prevent it coming back. Back pain can really take over your life if you don't properly get to grips with it when it first begins.
Now, of course, a short article like this can never hope to provide all the answers you might need - but the main message to take away is that it's not difficult to educate yourself about back pain and about what causes it. Once you have a proper handle on that then you'll have the power to make some proper choices about treatment and you'll stand an excellent chance of getting your life back to normal more quickly.
Don't let lower back pain defeat you - learn the basics and you'll be pain free again in no time.
No comments:
Post a Comment