Painful lower back

Lower back pain

Problems with the lower back pain are considered to be extremely frequent occurrence and condition, since almost everybody falls under its unpleasant influence at one time or another. Its unpleasant nature can sometimes make it extremely difficult to manage your daily routines, and even those that are recreational in nature. The fact that best presents the gravity of situation is that people in America spend round 50 billion dollars, on a yearly basis, trying to treat this awkward and painful condition. This is the main reason why overall back pain is considered to be the second on the list of most frequent troubling conditions neurological in nature. The first is, of course, reserved for headaches. One positive thing is that many of the instances of pain in the lower region of the back disappear on its own after a couple of days. Those borderline cases, unfortunately, take more time to be remedied and can often initiate much more serious conditions and ailments.

Acute and Chronic Back Pain

When it comes to the former, also commonly referred to as the short-term lower back pain, it has the duration of a few days, all the way to a couple of weeks, in the most extreme cases. The nature of this particular type of pain is, in most cases, mechanical and it results from trauma to this particular section of the back. The common causes of trauma are sports injuries, strenuous work inside and outside the house (e.g. in the garden and alike) or more severe causes such as car accidents. The latter type of back pain is actually determined according to its overall duration, which is to say that the pain present more than three months is regarded as chronic in nature. Given the fact that its nature is progressive one, the main cause is quite often difficult to determine with accuracy.

Culprits

Given the fact that, once people start aging, the overall strength of the bones and the elastic character of the muscles begin to diminish, the discs start losing fluid and flexibility as well, which is exactly why they lose on effectiveness in cushioning the vertebrae. Thus the pain can be initiated when a person in question tends to lift something that is far heavier than usually, or also when there occurs overstretching with sprains and strains, as well as spasms in muscles or back ligaments. People who are at the greatest risk of developing lower back pain are those who are in the period between the 30s and 50s, because the aging that has taken a more rapid pace, as well as because of the lack of physical activities and movement of the person in question.

Diagnosing

Diagnosing of the lower back pain is done by the employment of various techniques and methods such as a thorough physical examination, x-ray, discography, computerised tomography, and magnetic resonance imaging.