Tag: lower back pain

Discover The Truth About Severe Lower Back Pain

Discover the Truth about Severe Lower Back Pain

Most people are accustomed to dealing with the occasional aches and pains that spring up in our lower backs from time to time. These minor pains can be caused from a wide variety of things: overdoing it at the gym, not picking up a box properly, sleeping in an odd position, even sitting for an extended length of time. Most of the time, these minor aches and pains can be treated with a heat wrap, some aspirin, and a little TLC. Sometimes, the problem isn’t as easily solved.
Sometimes, you can have severe lower back pain.

Severe lower back pain can be extremely depressing and debilitating. It’s been proven that people that deal with chronic pain are more likely to be suicidal or on antidepressants. People get depressed and upset when they can’t do the things they once enjoyed doing. It can easily color your entirely outlook on life in general.

There are many different causes of severe lower back pain. A slipped disc, pinched nerve, seriously sprained or torn muscle, even muscle spasms can cause pain so bad that all a person wants to do is take a handful of pain medication and curl up in bed. Even though severe back pain can be devastating there is good news. Once what’s causing the pain is identified, a treatment plan can then be put into effect.

Part of determining what’s causing the severe lower back pain is discovering whether it’s a nerve problem or muscle problem. The doctor will ask you to describe your pain. Nerve pain is often described as sharp, stabbing, or shooting. Muscle pain is an ache, throbbing, or tearing pain. While the differences may seem trivial to some, it will make all the difference in any tests the doctor decides to run and in the treatment plan prescribed.

Once it’s established whether it’s a nerve or muscle causing the severe lower back pain, the doctor might order a series of tests. MRIs are often used to identify if a muscle is torn. An EMG can also be performed to determine just how damaged various muscles might be. Nerve conduction studies or nerve biopsies can be done to determine if there is any nerve damage or to help locate where a pinched nerve might be.

As soon as the extent of the injury causing the severe lower back pain is figured out, the doctor can then work with you on a treatment plan. Often, a treatment plan will consist of physical therapy, medication to relieve pain and swelling, possible surgery, and follow-up appointments down the road to see how things are progressing. If, at any time, the treatment plan doesn’t appear to be working as well as it should, you and your doctor can sit down and discuss changes to your overall plan of care.

The truth about severe lower back pain is theres hope. Hope for a treatment. Hope for a cure. Hope that one day, the pain will be gone.

Discover The Truth About Lower Left Back Pain

Many people immediately associate lower left back pain with any muscle strains or injuries to the area. With how common muscle injuries are to the lower back, it’s no wonder that that’s everyone first assumption. The problem is, not all lower back pain is caused by muscle sprains or strains. It can be dangerous and even downright deadly to immediately assume that’s the cause and not seek treatment right away.

Most lower back pain associated in the center of a person’s lower back is probably caused by some sort of strain or inflammation in the area. If you’re having lower left back pain, or even lower right back pain, you seriously need to sit up and take notice. Don’t dismiss it as having slept oddly the night before or being a little stiff after sitting at your desk at work all day.

Back pain that’s located more on one side over the other could signal a potentially life threatening situation known as a kidney infection. Chances are, by the time someone is feeling lower left back pain from a kidney infection, the kidney infection has been going on for awhile. Kidney infections can cause permanent damage to a person’s kidney. In a worst case scenario, a kidney infection can cause a person’s kidney to stop functioning entirely. That can result in the need for dialysis and a potential kidney transplant later than life. Often times, kidney infections are accompanied by a fever. Sometimes, the fever can spike extremely high, very quickly.

Kidney infections can be caused by bladder or urinary tract infections. If you’re prone to them, you really need to immediately seek treatment if you have lower left back pain. Bladder infections can be asymptomatic. That means, you can have one and never know it because you don’t feel it. Bladder infections can cause kidney infections by allowing bacteria to go into the kidneys. That’s why any lower left back pain really should be evaluated by a doctor to see if it’s the beginning stages of a kidney infection.

Another potential cause of lower left back pain could be a pinched nerve. Many nerves branch out over our entire body from the spinal cord. They run through muscle, around blood vessels, even through spaces between our bones and joints. If a muscle becomes inflamed, it can cause nerves to rub up against the bone, effectively causing the nerves to become pinched between the muscle and bone. If bones become misaligned, it can cause nerves to pinch between the bones. Any sharp, stabbing pain in your lower left back needs to be treated by a doctor. There are different treatments for pinched nerves than muscle strains so it’s important you are getting the proper treatment for your lower left back pain if you want to avoid injuries in the future.

As you can see, there are many different causes and treatments for lower left back pain. The important thing is to get proper treatment for your particular injury.

Discover the Truth about Lower Back Pain Causes

When most people think of lower back pain causes, they immediately think of injuries caused by lifting items improperly or sitting at a desk for an extended period of time. Those things certainly cause the majority of the lower back pain that doctors treat every day. However, they aren’t the only causes of lower back pain.

One of the lower back pain causes that is often overlooked is a kidney infection. Obviously, not all lower back pain will be caused by a kidney infection but it should definitely be kept in mind, especially if a person doesn’t recall injuring their back in any way, shape, or form recently. Kidney infections are often accompanied by a fever. Most often, the fever can spike rather high. Kidney infections are a serious emergency and need to be treated right away. If left untreated, permanent kidney damage can result.

Another potential lower back pain cause is having a spine that isn’t aligned properly. Proper alignment of the spine is crucial not for just lower back health but body health in general. Pinched nerves and reduced blood flow can result if a person’s spine is even the tiniest bit out of alignment. Thankfully, a misaligned spine is easy to fix.

A trip to the chiropractor’s is usually all that’s needed to get everything straight again. If the problem is particularly bad or been left untreated for a long time, multiple trips might be needed to get everything perfectly in alignment again. Fortunately, most chiropractor appointments are inexpensive. Even if you don’t have insurance or your insurance doesn’t cover a chiropractor, you should still be able to afford the appointments you’ll need.

A pinched nerve is also one of the lower back pain causes. Pinched nerves can be extremely painful, depending on where the nerve is pinched at. You can get a shooting pain from a pinched nerve when you move certain ways. Occasionally, the pain can even feel like a constant stabbing pain. Either way, a pinched nerve will need to be diagnosed and treated by a doctor.

Obviously, the most common lower back pain causes are muscle injuries of one sort or another. Muscle injuries tend to be throbbing in nature while nerve injuries feel like stabbing, shooting pains. Since muscle injuries to the lower back are fairly common, it’s easy to find products you can purchase over the counter to help ease the aches and pains you may be feeling. Medications, heat wraps, and ice are commonly prescribed. Exercise and stretching can help heal an injured lower back quickly and prevent injuries from happening in the future.

Lower back pain doesn’t need to be a part of life. It can be avoided all together in most instances. All you need to do is listen to what your body is telling you, learn proper lifting techniques, and become familiar with the various lower back pain causes. Being educated about them will help prevent injuries in the future.

Benefits Of Stretching Exercises For Lower Back Pain

Unfortunately, stretching exercises for lower back pain is something that everyone should educate themselves on at some point in their life because odds are, everyone will experience lower back pain at some point in their life. While it’s infinitely better to try to attempt to avoid injuring your back rather than treating an injury later, it’s not always possible to prevent a back injury. Car accidents and the like are often out of our control, after all.

One of the main ways people prefer to treat back injuries is through medication. Medication can be helpful in some ways, yet detrimental in others. If you are experiencing a lot of pain, too much pain to be able to function, pain medication is definitely the way you need to go. If you’re having muscle spasms in your back that is causing the pain, muscle relaxers can be beneficial. The problem with any medication is that they rarely treat the root cause of the problem. They just mask it enough to let us get through each day. Obviously, without fixing the problem itself, a person will continue to have to live with lower back pain.

Fortunately, there are other methods of treating lower back pain. These methods can be far more effective than medication, provided you are dedicated to using them and give them enough of a chance to start working. What are these seemingly miracle cures? Stretching exercises for lower back pain.

There are many benefits to stretching exercises for lower back pain. First, it’s an all natural way to treat the problem. You arent taking any medications or relying out outside interventions to help you with your problem. It’s just you and your body working together to treat your lower back pain. Because it’s all natural, you won’t have any adverse side effects that could prove harmful or even fatal later, like can often be the case with some medications.

Another clear benefit of stretching exercises for lower back pain is it can help prevent future injuries. How many medications can boast that claim? By strengthening your core muscles, you are giving your body the tools it needs to handle the activities and stresses you put upon it on a daily basis. You’re also keeping your muscles limber and flexible which allows them to extend and flex whenever and however you need them to.

Stretching exercises for lower back pain not only helps your lower back but the rest of your body, too. By being active and exercising, you help your entire cardiovascular system. You become more fit and healthy. Being more fit and healthy keeps your immune system going strong which ultimately results in you not getting sick as often or for as long.

It is in everyone’s best interest to stay active and stay healthy through stretching exercises. Not only can stretching exercises for lower back pain help your back, they can help keep you and your entire body healthy, as well.