Why Back Pain Hurts You? You May be More at Risk of Other Diseases
Back pain affects up to 90% of Americans at some point in their lives, and for 50% of those people it occurs on more than one occasion. The most common type of back pain is low back pain. In fact low back pain is second only to the common cold as of time lost from work, and more than 40% of Worker’s Compensation claims filed each year are related to back pain in one form or another.
But back pain is not a disease, but instead a symptom of one of a number of underlying problems. In up to 85% of sufferers even the most extensive medical examinations and testing fail to reveal the exact cause of the pain.
Possible Causes of Back Pain
Pain from other organs within the human body can be felt in the lower back. Conditions such as appendicitis, kidney infection, ovarian cysts and abdominal aneurysms can all produce sudden back pain, something that a good doctor should keep in mind when evaluating back pain. This kind of pain is known in medical circles as referred pain.
Another common cause of back pain is nerve root syndrome, when the function of a specific nerve is impaired, often by a herniation or bulging of a disk in the lower back structure. This kind of pain is often a constant and sharp pain, usually accompanied by pain and numbness in the leg that the impinged nerve supplies.
A herniated disk occurs when the spinal discs are damaged or begin to degenerate with age. People can have a herniated disk for many years and feel no pain whatsoever; it is only when the bulging disk hits a surrounding nerve that pain begins.
Other sources of back pain include spinal stenosis, osteoporosis and in rare case, bone cancer.
For those with nerve impingement syndrome, the most commonly diagnosed cause of back pain there is no standard treatment. In as many as 80% of cases the patient improves greatly in a month or two without medical intervention of any kind. However, once a patient has experienced back pain for over a month with no decrease, or even perhaps a worsening of symptoms most doctors consider it chronic rather than acute pain and recommend some form of treatment, ranging from physical therapy and simple home exercise procedures to surgery to remove the herniated disk matter in the hope off freeing the impinged nerve.
September 23rd, 2009 at 2:02 pm
The most common cause of back pain was not mentioned. It is mechanical , which is to say some of the joints in the back are not functioning properly. This can exist without pain for a long time before “sudden” pain strikes just like having a cavity for a long time before a “sudden” tooth ache. It is because the problem is mechanical that “In up to 85% of sufferers even the most extensive medical examinations and testing fail to reveal the exact cause of the pain.” An MRI and most medical testing is not a functional exam and therefore the underlying problem is nor detected. Why is herniated disc surgery known to produce such poor results? When researchers took 100 pain free patients and gave them MRIs 38% had herniated disks. Just because you have one doesn’t mean it’s the cause of your pain. Just working on the muscles will not unlock the joints and contrary to some therapists approach, you can not exercise dysfunction to functional. First the joint dysfunction/fixation/subluxation must be unlocked, then exercise will be beneficial.Trying to do thr exercise first often makes people worse. The most common mistake people make in treating low back pain is to use heat on the spine. If there is inflamation, and there usually is, heat will make the joints swell and although it feels good at the time you will be worse the next day. Stay as active as possible; if you go to bed with your back pain for more than 2 days you will only become stiffer and weaker. When all the MDs could not find the cause of my pains a good chiropractor found and fixed the dysfunction and eliminated the cause of the problem eliminating the headaches and back pain. Ask folks you know who the good ones in your area are.