When to Worry About Your Lower Back Pain?

Chronic Lower Back Pain

Most of us start to worry, and some even experience anxious thoughts when we experience pain in our lower back. This is why it is commonly said that the bark of lower back pain is usually much worse than its bite. It is quite relieving to know that eighty percent of the population experience back pain at some point in their life, so you don’t need to worry to much.

However, the pain can range from mild, little twinges to severe, intense and even crippling pain that can affect every move that you make. Though back pain isn’t an issue of too much concern but the last sentence should have given you a clue, pain can vary in intensity, and there are roughly said two kinds of back pain known as chronic and acute ones.[1]

Acute back pain is something that lasts for a few days, a week or two at most. When you don’t take proper precautions and treat the cause of pain, the pain can become a chronic lower back pain. Better be safe than sorry. Therefore taking preventive measures is ultimately the best option for you if you have waited long enough for the back pain to get worse!

When to Seek Prompt Medical Care?

There are cases of low back pain that have alarming causes, but mostly it’s rare. Back pain can also be a warning sign of cancer, an autoimmune disease or could be associated with spinal cord damage or may other scary culprits that can cost you your life. But how can you say if it’s a fracture, the pain is due to muscle knots or if there are other serious causes like herniated discs or cancer? It’s not always easy.

But there are concise, readable guidelines to guide symptoms that inform you about the “better safe than sorry” investigation with your doctor. Anyone who experiences severe lower back pain with numbness or incontinence around the groin area should seek immediate medical attention. If you don’t know what incontinence and numbness are, then to make it clear incontinence mean a partial or total loss of bowel control or bladder and numbness means when you have no sensitivity to touch.

You should seek prompt medical help if you meet the following criteria:

• Your back pain is not improving and getting worse.
• You have a sudden bladder or bowel dysfunction.
• You have back pain because of serious trauma.
• You experience a progressive weakness in your legs.
• You experience a severe, continuous low back and abdominal pain.
• Your back pain has lasted for more than six weeks.
• You have one of the below ‘red flag’ symptoms.

Red Flag Symptoms of Lower Back Pain:

• Unexplained fever.
• Unexplained weight loss.
• Pain or discomfort upon light tapping of the spine.
• Spine pain when you are over 55 or under 20.
• You use/have previously used drugs.
• You have been diagnosed with HIV.
• You feel generally unwell.
• Difficulty urinating.
• You have symptoms of a family history of autoimmune diseases like joint pain and morning stiffness.

Also, remember that stress and worry are risk factors for lower back pain and can hinder recovery as well as increase the pain. Although most backache or pain is not serious but experiencing the above symptoms can be worrying. The important thing to remember is to seek medical advice if you are concerned about aspects of your health. Ignoring your back pain symptoms are not going to help you in any way as this won’t make them go away or change the eventual diagnosis. The earlier the exact cause of your symptoms is detected and the sooner any potential health problems are addressed, the sooner you receive the correct treatment. 

How to Overcome the Discomfort of Back Pain?

Luckily typical back pain gets better on its own within a few days. However, if you find that you have recurring back pain, there are some things you can do to ease the discomfort, including:

If you introduce yoga or stretching into your fitness regime then you are most likely to have a few symptoms of back pain. And specifically, exercises are the best medicines for back pain.[2] Simple exercises like walking can also be very helpful. On the one hand, where activities are helpful, on the other you should stay away from strenuous activities like gardening and avoid whatever motion caused the pain in the first place.

The people working on a particular desk have to sit for long hours in front of the computer screens holding their neck and head forward while working or cradling a phone to the ear. This can lead to neck strain, sore shoulders and back pain along with strain in the cervical vertebrae.

Sitting for long hours can also lead to herniated disks. To prevent this keep the right amount of curvature in the back as this will take pressure off the nerves and reduce back pain. There’s no particular lower back pain treatment. Specifically, prevention is the best option if want to avoid the root of back pain.

The core for your back that is referred here is the torso that can be defined as the combination of many muscles working together. Many researchers say that if the abdominals are weak, other areas must pick up the slack and when the abdominals get strong, the strain on the lower back gets reduced.

Yes you heard that right. It’s really good if you are pampering your back muscles with a back pain brace and providing them support but using the brace more often can lead your back to be entirely depends on the brace which can reduce your muscle strength.

See that’s really good if you are able to manage your back pain on your own or you are taking the necessary preventives for your back pain but if you are unable to do so then better rush for a specialist who will do all the work for you.

Back pain is incredibly common but you have to discover your back pain causes in order to recover from it. The common causes of back pain include overexertion, sudden movements, heavy or improper lifting or falling. But only a few of us know that back pain can also be a consequence of subtle triggers like your sleeping position or sitting in the same place in the wrong posture for prolonged hours.

This may sound absurd to you, but smoking not only kills you by damaging your lungs, but it can also cause back pain for you. So stop relying on unhealthy habits and start living the healthy way.

How to Know that What Kind of Back Pain is it?

Your spine is elementarily a column of bones that are held together by tendons, ligaments, and muscles. A problem in any part of the spine can cause backbone pain. Some back pains can cause excruciating pain while some can just be mild creating a subtle annoyance. It’s entirely on you that what measures you take for every kind of back pain. The most common types of back pain are:

• Pinched nerve:

This is a condition in which the nerve is pressed right up against the bone leading to acute pain in the concerned place.

In this disorder, one of the soft discs between the vertebrae extends out over the edge causing extreme pain.

This is the common symptom of kidney stone where an individual experiences intense pain in the back due to chronic pain in another part of the body.

This problem arises as the bones rub together and create bone spurs as the discs in the spine have lost their ability to absorb shock.

In this condition, the sciatic nerve which starts in the lower back and runs down the back of each leg becomes pinched and creates lower back pain and sharp pain in one or both of the legs while sitting. The lower back pain remedy is adopting a better sitting posture in your work environment.

This is a disease which arises due to the decreased bone density where bones may become brittle, and weak bones may break or collapse creating compression fractures.

The ill hypes of the modern contemporary world have forced the current generation to get inclined towards the unhealthy culture that will stealthily decrease their tendency to live, grow and prosper. Back pain is one of the familiar issues of the modern world for which youngsters, as well as the geriatric population, keep complaining of. The causes of back pain in the elderly population is justifiable due to their decreased bone mineral density, but in the younger population, back pain is most likely to occur due to the inclination towards an unhealthy lifestyle.

References:

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

2..https://orthoinfo.aaos.org/globalassets/pdfs/2017-rehab_spine.pdf

3..https://uhs.princeton.edu/sites/uhs/files/documents/Lumbar.pdf

4..http://www.backcare.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Excercises-for-Back-Pain-Excercises.pdf

5..https://www.nmortho.com/how-can-i-tell-if-back-pain-is-serious/