Best Ways to Treat Chronic Lower Back Pain Without Surgery

Chronic Lower Back Pain

The pain developed in the back can be very painful when it becomes chronic. A study has shown that chronic lower back pain every year affects millions of people. When there is no biological reason for continuous pain, it will be described as chronic.  Imagine, you put your hand on a red-hot iron, imagine the pain that you will feel. When you feel the pain, it is because your brain is telling you that if you don’t take your hand off from the iron, it will burn.

Such a condition is treated as pain lasting for more than three to six months even if you have been through different therapies and medication. But you can deal with the condition when you know your back and how it works, informing your physician about the symptoms and by knowing causes behind severe lower back pain. This article will help you in understanding all the aspects of lower back pain.

Understanding the Back of the Body

The back of the human is made up of muscles, ligaments, bones, and tendons. Besides, it is laced with arteries, veins, and capillaries from the heart and nerves which are coming from the spinal cord. The back provides required support to the body for movements, playing sports, walking, dancing, etc.

With all these complicated movements, one should think that doing them will cause more risk than not doing them. Often, people face injuries while doing activities like overreaching a bit, bending over to pick something up, or even a sneeze. If you do any kind of movements which is not natural, it may react causing chronic lower back pain.[1]

What is Chronic Back Pain?

Chronic back pain can be termed as the worst type of back pain you can suffer from. It can stay for months, years, or even for the lifetime. Such a condition develops by two different things. First one is a psychological problem that can be a very hard to diagnose. The doctor may report a crooked spine, but the treatments never resolve the pain. The second cause can be a physical condition which is not able to identify easily.

There are many things which can cause the chronic back condition. With all the nerves and muscles in the back, it will be very difficult for the doctor to identify which is causing the problem. Chronic back issues can severely affect your lifestyle. Such a condition can prevent you from working and doing your daily activities. This is why it's so crucial to find a suitable lower back pain treatment for your particular case of chronic pain.

Areas and Types of Chronic Lower Back Issue

Pain is the reaction of the body, which needs the brain’s attention. The lower back pain can be dull, sharp, throbbing and aching. You may feel the pain in the cervical, or neck region, the thoracic - mid-back area or in the lower back area. The weight of the upper body part rests on the lumbar, and it is the area of the body which supports activities like sitting and bending. This is an area where the chronic back pain lies.

Causes of Chronic Lower Back or Lumbar Pain

There are a lot of things which can lead to chronic lower back pain. However, the common causes are:

• Injuries to the back muscle or bone after accidents, and fractures to the spine.
• Living an inactive lifestyle which can lead to the overweight condition. When you gain too much weight, it will put a lot of pressure on the spine.
• If you have osteoporosis. Talking about this, it is a condition which is characterized by a decrease in the density of bones. It makes the bone weak and brittle. You will not be able to detect the symptom till you suffer from a bone fracture.
• The spinal stenosis, a different form of arthritis can develop spaces in the narrow spine down, which can put a lot of heavy pressure on the spine and nerves. Such a condition leads to acute back pain.
• Another form of arthritis called osteoarthritis, which generally occurs in the lower back can be a factor which creates back pain. Osteoarthritis causes inflammation in the joints of bone and destroys the cartilage between the bone joints.
• Ankylosing spondylitis, a form of arthritis where the vertebrae of the spine fuse together which make the spine stiff, causing pain.
• Sometimes prolonged anxiety, and emotional distress conditions can lead to severe lower back pain. The reason behind this is, when you are stressed, your back muscles contract and gets tighten. Sustained tightening of these muscles causes the pain.
• Sciatica, a condition when pain occurs due to sciatic nerve’s irritation. The irritation mostly arises due to a slipped disc.
• The herniated disk can also be a reason for the chronic lower back issue. It is a condition where the inner gel portion of a disc escapes the surrounding tissue and bulges.
• The spinal cord abscess happens after the infection in the spine. It is full of pus and dead cells and can be very painful. This can be a dangerous condition if not treated on time it can be life-threatening.

Symptoms of Chronic Lumbar Pain

The symptoms of lower back pain include:

• Dull or severe pain in the back area.
• You may feel stabbing intermittent pains.
• The pain starts from the lower back will spread to the legs.
• Stiffness in back.

Low Back Pain Diagnosis

Most of the physician do a physical examination and go through the past medical condition while diagnosing the condition. These help them to suggest an effective lower back pain treatment. Scans are not always required for diagnosis.[2]

If you have chronic back pain and if the physician finds some other underlying cause, then he/she may prescribe you some tests like:

• Bone scans.
• MRI and CT scan.
• X-rays.
• EMG- Electromyography.
• Urine or blood tests.

If the doctor fails to detect the primary cause of pain, the best option may be to work with your doctor on reducing the pain with some nonsurgical treatments.

Treat Your Chronic Back Pain Without Any Surgery

Most of the doctors have stated that exercise is a major foundation of chronic back pain treatment. This is the first treatment that you can try to get relief from chronic back pain. But do this under your physician guidance. But remember a particular form of exercise will not work perfectly for everyone. The exercise and therapy program should be designed in such a way that it can match with your specific requirement and condition. However, to achieve the success, you have to practice the exercise regularly.[3] Physical therapy may include:

• Posture maintaining and retaining exercise.
• Testing the limits of pain margin.
• Some flexibility and stretching exercises.
• Aerobic exercises.
• Exercise for strengthening the core.

Severe lower back pain can affect you emotionally as well as physically. It can lead to stress and frustration. To manage such frustration and depression, you can take help of a rehabilitation psychologist. The professionals will teach you meditation, tai chi, yoga and some other relaxation techniques through which you can enhance your focusing ability.

There are some types of diets which are highly inflammatory, such as processed foods, foods with Tran’s fats and refined sugars. If you have low back pain, then consult with a doctor and check if the diet system you follow could be contributing to the back pain. The doctor will help you in making necessary changes in your diet plan. Besides, try to maintain a good body weight to prevent back pain resulting from pressure on the spine.

During chronic pain, you need to understand your limitation and adapt. Doctors have advised to always listen to your body and learn to keep yourself active. Completely avoiding the activities can worsen the condition. Another thing that you should do is give up smoking. It has proved that nicotine is a cause of pain and it slows down the process of healing.

You can go for different kinds of injection-based treatments like nerve blocks, epidural steroid injections, nerve ablations and more to treat your chronic lower back pain. But this kind of treatment is useful when the actual cause of lower back pain is known. The injection can lower or stop the pain for a limited period. However, this is not suitable as a long-term treatment option.

This lower back pain treatment includes TENS - Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation therapy. This therapy reduces the back pain through low-voltage electric stimulation. It directly affects the sensory nervous system.

Medications like muscle relaxants, anti-inflammatory medicines and analgesics help to control the chronic back pain. However, some of them can develop various side effects if used for a longer period.

These are some effective treatment which you can consider as lower back pain treatment options and you can bring your life back on its track.

References

1..https://uhs.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/LowBackPain.pdf

2..https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/articles-and-answers/ask-the-expert/treat-chronic-back-pain-no-surgery

3..https://mydoctor.kaiserpermanente.org/ncal/Images/Low_Back_Pain_Exercises_tcm75-575264.pdf

4..https://www.spine-health.com/treatment/pain-management/pain-management-chronic-back-pain