It is difficult to imagine a person over the age of 30 who has never experienced lower back discomfort and pain.In addition to a lack of physical activity, spending more and more time in a sitting position can also cause problems for our spines.This is a good thing when the pain is isolated, brief, disappears quickly, and leaves no trace.It gets worse when the pain gets worse, becomes unbearable, and doesn't go away for a long time.This signal should be taken seriously.Often, this is a signal from the body that it is suffering from a serious illness that requires attention, effort, and even financial expense.
To avoid such incidents, you need to understand the factors and causes of diseases that may trigger such pain.
We hope our popular articles help you avoid serious incidents with your lower back and help you maintain your ability to work long-term.
Risk factors for low back pain
If you experience lower back pain, that area of your body may be affected by one or more of the following factors:
- Chronic lack of physical activity;
- Excessive physical activity after a long rest;
- Sedentary work for long periods of time;
- nutritional errors;
- Long-term static, monotonous load and vibration of the spine;
- weightlifting;
- Professional sports (wrestling, boxing, weightlifting);
- Smoking and drinking.
Any of these factors can be eliminated, or their effects can be significantly reduced, which will give you a chance of avoiding the development of chronic low back pain.
Causes of low back pain
Causes of low back pain are generally divided into secondary and primary.
Main causes of low back pain
In fact, they are pathological processes predetermined by musculoskeletal changes.In low back pain practices, they are more common than secondary causes of low back pain.Generally, the main cause is understood to be one of several degenerative dystrophic processes:
- osteochondrosis,Caused by dystrophic changes in the bony and cartilaginous structures of the lumbar vertebrae.Sometimes, the process affects the disc and adjacent vertebrae;
- Spondyloarthropathy.This pathology affects the joints responsible for spinal movement in the lower back.
Secondary causes of low back pain
- Deterioration of the bone structural condition due to metabolic disorders of the lumbar spine (osteoporosis, etc.);
- Neoplastic processes in the vertebrae or paravertebral space.Often, low back pain leads to distant metastases;
- curvature of the spine;
- Infectious diseases of the body (tuberculosis, brucellosis);
- non-infectious inflammatory processes (rheumatoid arthritis, Reiter syndrome);
- Traumatic lesions of the lumbar vertebrae, including fractures;
- Stomach and intestinal disorders;
- Diseases of pelvic organs and systems (renal colic, sexually transmitted infections, adnexitis, ureaplasmosis);
- Spinal circulation stroke disorder.
Causes of Chronic and Acute Low Back Pain
Back pain in the lower back can be acute or chronic.These two factors should be distinguished because the presence of one or the other will determine the treatment strategy for the underlying disease.In some cases, this can even prevent the development of complications and chronification of the disease (transition to a chronic form).
Causes of chronic low back pain
- Behetru's disease (ankylosing spondylitis);
- Spondylosis deformans.Usually its symptoms are monotonous pain;
- Tumors and their metastasis.Perform a differential diagnosis in order to exclude neoplastic processes from the list of causes of chronic low back pain and to exclude lymphoma, multiple myeloma, cancerous lesions in different parts of the body;
- Tumor formation in the spinal cord (directly in the spinal cord and in the space between the dura mater and spinal cord);
- osteomyelitis.Usually the symptom is persistent pain in the lower back.
- In addition, a tuberculin test may be performed to rule out the causative agent of tuberculosis in the patient (to rule out spinal tuberculosis).
To confirm the diagnosis, additional studies in the form of radiography, myelography, and biopsy may be performed.
Causes of acute low back pain
- Tear or stretch of muscles along the lumbar column;
- spinal fractures;
- Intervertebral disc displacement;
- Facet syndrome (damage to nerve roots in places anatomically not covered by the bony structures of the spine);
- epidural abscess;
- Hip arthrosis (a rare pathology characterized by severe pain).Therefore, hip arthritis does not cause lower back pain, but it can cause excruciating pain that radiates down the legs.
Low back pain treatment
The presence of low back pain, regardless of location or intensity, should be reason to seek qualified medical help.Severe pain syndrome should be a reason to call a doctor at home or seek an ambulance.
The best solution is a course of treatment in the hospital.
Low back pain can have a variety of causes, often not related to spinal injury, so in order to differentiate between these causes, you may need help from a specialist, such as:
- gynecologist;
- gastroenterologist;
- infectious disease specialist;
- Pulmonologist;
- urologist;
- nephrologist;
- Cardiologists and proctologists.
It is important to remember that getting professional medical advice as soon as possible will help you avoid complications.You should not self-medicate and should only use folk remedies to treat lumbar pain with the advice of a surgeon, orthopedist, or chiropractor.