Causes of back pain

Introduction

Back pain may be caused by numerous factors, often provoked by everyday lifestyle involving incorrect the body position, straining and overstretching.

Causes of Back Pain

Most often, whenever you feel back pain, it may be caused by overstraining of the back muscles. These muscles are very strong and are backed-up by the strength of our spine, but, nevertheless, sometimes we simply push ourselves too far and cause this type of a condition. This injury, involving ripped or injured muscles, manifests through pain and muscle spasms often followed by swelling.

Other than muscles, ligaments may be injured from overstraining or they may be completely torn from it. Often occurring after certain accidents, these two conditions take long time to heal and require rest and gradual, proper exercise in order to recuperate correctly.

A disk injury presents another type of conditions causing back pain. Namely, this part of our body may be hurt or displaced causing damage to the surrounding organs in many ways. The damage may be done to the surroundings of the disk or to the inside parts of the disk itself, both causing pain and discomfort in our back area. Additionally, a nerve may be pressed by the disk, causing pain and numbness of not only our back, but our legs and lower torso as well.

Often with old age, osteoarthritis may cause our spine to degenerate and deform, narrowing the inside of it where the spinal cord is located. This narrowing applies compression on the nerves causing pain and discomfort in both one’s back and limbs. As a worst case scenario, a surgical treatment is necessary in order to free one of pain.

Osteoarthritis may also cause our vertebra to slip forward on the one beneath it, thus pressing some nerves, damaging the vertebra it pressed on, causing pain in the back, thighs and buttocks. The treatment for this varies from physical exercise to surgical intervention.

Furthermore, ligaments, tendons and tissue surrounding our spine may get inflamed having pain as a result. This may damage the bone and even cause our spine to deform.

Osteoporosis adds on to the list of “backbreaking” problems. Namely, this condition manifests on the health of one’s bones. The bones get weaker and more fragile during old age, and people are often not aware of this condition until too late. Serious damage may be done when these bones break due to decay resulting in serious fractures even causing disability.

Finally, back pain is a common fit of pregnant women. The changes their body experiences during pregnancy often alter it and the weight of the fetus often causes the mother to lose proper posture and cause back damage resulting in pain.

There are numerous other conditions causing back pain and only by acting timely and seeking medical assistance may one be sure to avoid further, possibly irreversible complications.