Occasional or permanent back pain affects about 80% of the world’s population. The problem is more common in women. The symptom is called lumbodinia. This is so often due to the constant high stress on the lumbar spine. It experiences a pressure of 50 kg (lying down) to 220 kg if the person is sitting reclining. The problem indicates a lifestyle bias or a serious illness. It gets worse with age and can lead to patient disability.
Physiological causes of pain
Discomfort in the form of pain is the body’s defensive reaction. It thus responds to various "abnormal" processes from within, which doctors call pathologies. The body aches in an awkward position even after physical exertion, telling the brain that it is difficult for it to perform tasks.
Uncomfortable position
Lumbar pain is accompanied by long-lasting discomfort. The problem worries drivers and office workers because they spend a lot of time sitting, when the lower back is exposed to maximum stress. The person's back hurts from fatigue. If something works for a long time in a bent position.
Your back hurts after sleeping if your sleeping area is poorly equipped. For example, the surface of the bed is too hard or soft to provide adequate support to the spine and quality muscle relaxation.
Increased loads
Muscles and ligaments can hurt the back. They support the spine in a stable position and are subjected to stress with intense physical effort. The conditions for the appearance of pain are created by sudden movements, followed by muscle tension in the lumbar region. This happens if a person carries weights, pulls heavy objects, lifts them up and down (bending "in half").
Muscles can also strain during sports. If a person exercises a lot, his ligaments need time to recover. If there is no good rest, they wear out or become inflamed, which the nervous system signals with pain.
Women's back pain
The problem of lumbar pain is very common among women, because a beautiful half of humanity regularly experiences them under certain conditions. Menstrual abdominal pain is often accompanied by discomfort in the lower back and lower back. This is not related to increased stress, but is a consequence of the production of prostaglandins (pain mediators). Before and during menstruation, the synthesis of mediators triggers hormonal changes
in the female body.
The lower back in girls hurts while giving birth to a child (in 95% of pregnant women). Not only does the spine experience great stress outside of pregnancy. The pressure on the lower back increases many times as the woman's weight increases. An additional burden is created by the pregnant belly. It pulls the future mother's body forward, changing the axial load distribution. As a result, a woman's gait changes, low back pain occurs, the intensity of which increases according to the duration of the pregnancy. Loads increase in any position of the future mother, so a good rest, lying on a quality mattress is extremely important for alleviating the female condition.
Hypodynamics
Discomfort often occurs in people who do not play sports at all or lift heavy objects. The reason for this is the weakening of the muscular apparatus. The back muscles must be strong in order to properly support the spine and relieve stress from it. If this does not happen, the bone and cartilage tissue wears out faster, which is accompanied by pain.
Structural abnormalities
The spine is made up of the skeleton of bone tissue - the vertebrae. Between them are soft "layers" of cartilage tissue - spinal discs. The vertebrae provide strength and stability, the cartilage - flexibility and elasticity of the spine. The main structural elements in the middle are hollow. The canal is filled with the spinal cord. All components are surrounded by blood vessels, nerve fibers. Pathologies of any element of the lumbar spine cause lumbodinia.
Osteochondrosis
The disease develops when the intervertebral cartilaginous discs wear out. Due to heavy loads, the lumbar discs are very often damaged. The most common causes of severe lower back pain are bulges and hernias (damage and bulging of the contents) in which the nerve roots of the spine are pinched. Osteochondrosis affects people over the age of 35. The disease is especially common in the elderly.
Trauma
The lumbar spine is considered the strongest because it forms the main "axis" for the entire human body. However, falls and sudden movements of the vertebrae of this section are most often injured. Most fractures and bruises of the spine are localized in the lower back.
Vascular damage
The vessels provide nourishment to all tissues of the spine. If their lumen narrows or overlaps, trophic processes in the spine worsen radically. As a result, inflammation occurs which is always manifested by pain.
Capturing nerves
Nerve fibers can be damaged due to any damage to cartilage and vertebrae, in case of infectious diseases. Any pathology of the nerves is accompanied by sharp shooting and sometimes unbearable back pain.
Diseases
Osteoporosis leads to calcium leaching and bone fragility. If the spinal tissue is depleted, there is an increased risk of serious back injuries. In addition, osteoporosis can change the shape of the bones of the spine and increase the pressure on the nerve roots.
Another cause of pain is tumors on the vertebrae. The most common type is hemangioma. These benign neoplasms develop asymptomatically for a long time, but when the tumor becomes too large and extends beyond the vertebrae, the patient feels severe pain.
Inflammatory processes
Arthritis can affect any joint in the body. Inflammation leads to joint damage and pain. It can be caused by advanced and chronic infectious diseases. Another cause of arthritis is autoimmune connective tissue damage.
Internal problems
The lower back can hurt not only due to spinal pathologies. Painful sensations associated with pathologies of internal organs or some systemic diseases may be felt in the lumbar region.
Internal organs
Back pain is associated with kidney damage. Renal colic is accompanied by sharp and sharp pain on one or both sides of the back. It is more often felt just below the ribs on the back of the body.
Lumbar discomfort often occurs in the background of intestinal diseases, with inflammation of the pelvic organs (bladder, prostate - in men, ovaries and uterus - in women).
Systemic pathologies
Psoriasis and ankylosing spondylitis lead to lumbar pain. In these diseases, the structure of the connective tissue (cartilage) is broken. It loses elasticity, so it often becomes inflamed. Over time, significant disorders in the work of the joints occur, and the nerve endings are under permanent compression (damaged). In ankylosing spondylitis, the intervertebral spaces "harden".
Lower back pain can cause herpes zoster. The rash with this disease occurs on the shoulder blades, ribs, but most often - on the lateral surfaces of the trunk in the lumbar region. The first pains appear before significant changes in the skin. When a blistering rash appears, the discomfort intensifies, complemented by itching. Even after the spots completely disappear, the person still has severe pain along the inflamed nerves. They can bother the patient for several months.
Tumors
Malignant lesions of the spinal cord and bones do not initially change the patient's condition. As the tumor grows and atypical cells spread in the structure of organs and tissues, changes occur in which the nerves are affected. This is manifested by severe pain. Discomfort in the lower part of the back is felt not only with lesions of the lumbar spine, but also if the tumor grows in the internal organs, which innervate the nerve ganglia from this department.
Nervous disorders
Lower back pain can be phantom (in other words, invented by the patient himself). This occurs in psychoneurotic disorders. The psyche does not work properly in the background of shocks, stresses, long-term psycho-emotional stress. Discomfort can arise if a person instills a disease in himself, suffers from overwork. Such signs appear for the first time after depression or nervous breakdown and can torment the patient for many years.
How to get rid of lumbar pain
If unpleasant sensations appear in the lower back, the patient should rest completely, reduce the intensity of the load. As a rule, after a good rest, the discomfort subsides or disappears completely. This is a typical symptom of pain caused by an incorrect lifestyle, poor quality rest. If the pain persists, you should consider visiting a doctor.
The nature of back pain is diagnosed by traumatologists, vertebrologists, orthopedists. You can contact any of the listed experts. At the first consultation, the doctor will talk to the patient, examine him, perform several tests (check the sensitivity of the nerves, the condition of the muscles). If the diagnosis cannot be made on the basis of the information received, an additional examination will be scheduled. An X-ray is prescribed to assess the condition of the bone tissue. The structure of cartilage, nerves, the condition of blood vessels and the spinal cord can be assessed using MRI. If the doctor suspects a systemic disease, the patient is prescribed laboratory diagnostics (general and biochemical blood and urine tests). Only after making the correct diagnosis, the specialist will prescribe treatment.
Drug therapy
The list of medications depends entirely on the diagnosis. To quickly eliminate the symptoms, the patient will be prescribed a short course of pain relief (usually from the group taking NSAIDs). With severe inflammatory and autoimmune changes, glucocorticoid drugs are prescribed. For cartilage diseases, chondroprotectors are recommended in injections or tablets. If the problem is in the muscles, muscle relaxants are recommended. To restore the work of nerve endings, B vitamins are prescribed.
The main treatment focuses on the cause of the pain. If it is caused by diseases of the internal organs, drug therapy will correct disorders of the kidneys, gastrointestinal tract and genitals. The symptoms will disappear as the underlying disease is eliminated. With unbearable pain, nerves are blocked (analgesics are injected directly into the nerve root zones).
To enhance the effect of injections or tablets, external painkillers (patches, ointments, gels) may be prescribed. Such drugs can be used alone, with recurrent lower back pain in the background of tension or increased stress. To ease the condition, you can use a pepper or menthol patch. They are also allowed to be used without a prescription.
Procedures
Specialists may recommend special treatments for low back pain. These include acupuncture, physiotherapy with electric currents, ultrasound, therapeutic ultraviolet rays. In some cases, physiotherapy exercises and massage are shown. If the vertebrae are displaced, the help of a chiropractor may be needed to put the bone back in place. Any procedure must be chosen together with the doctor. It is forbidden to undergo treatment in which they act directly on the spine, without a diagnosis of the disease. In this case, the procedures can be not only useless, but also harmful to the patient.
To prevent back pain, you need to monitor the health of your spine from an early age. It is important to load the back properly (lift objects by squatting, not bending, push heavy objects and not pull them towards you). You should engage in moderate physical activity and choose exercises with a trainer. It is also important to treat infectious diseases in a timely manner, avoid stress, take any medications reasonably and according to the doctor's prescriptions.