An Overview of Back Pain

Wednesday, February 10, 2010 @ 05:02 AM
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Lower back forms an association amid the upper and lower parts of the body. Lower back pain usually affects the area underneath your ribs and above the legs. As it is responsible for carrying most of your body’s weight, it could easily be hurt or damaged due to lifting, twisting, or even bending in some awkward position.

There could possibly be a number of reasons for back pain. It may also be caused due to overwork, stress, or even an injury. Age is also an important factor contributing to back pain because as you get older your muscles and bones tend to become weak and thus become vulnerable to damage or injury. Also, as you grow older the spongy disk amid the bones of the spine becomes unable to provide the required cushion between the bones, and thus the bones become even more exposed to injuries.

Being in depression or stress for a long period of time can also make you suffer from chronic back pains.

In most cases, it is the strained muscles that really causes the back pain, but back pain due to strained muscles can easily be treated and usually does not lasts long provided the patients undergoes and follows regular treatment.

Another common reason of back pain is a ruptured intervertebral disc or herniated disc. The treatment for back pain due to herniated disc depends of the position and situation of the individual patient.

A damage to the intervertebral disc results in discogenic back pain. A Discogram is usually required to diagnose this type of lower back pain.

Age factor also makes people to suffer from lower back pain. Spinal stenosis is the main reason of back pain in people with relatively old age. Apart from that, arthritis is also another cause of back pain in people with old age. Due to arthritis, the spinal canal becomes constricted which usually results in the form of back pain in older people. Also, lumbar spine arthritis causes difficulty in moving and in dealing with your back pain.

Apart from the mentioned causes of back pain, some other causes of back pain are osteoporosis and spondylolisthesis. Osteoporosis causes bones to become weak and fragile. Moreover, it is also related to compression fractures of the vertebral column which lead to lower back pain. In case of spondylolisthesis, the vertebral column becomes unbalanced and starts to slip or slide from its actual position. This usually can lead to severe back problems.

In order to avoid back pain from occurring, you must always sit in chairs which have straight backs or contain a low back support. You must also keep your knees slightly raised than the level of your hips. When you need to move around, your must move your whole body rather than just twisting your waist. You can also support your back by putting a small pillow behind your lower back in case you are supposed to sit continuously for a longer period of time.

People mostly recover from back pain in few weeks by just avoiding stress on their spine. However, you must at once seek your doctor whenever you get to suffer from back pain and not take it lightly in any case.

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