A modern person who has passed the age limit by the age of 25 will regularly begin to experience lower back pain, which varies in frequency and intensity. Over time, the frequency of unpleasant symptoms increases, the sensations of pain increase. The duration of the exacerbation is getting longer. This is a clinical picture of the development of lumbar osteochondrosis - a disease in which the cartilage tissue of the intervertebral discs is gradually destroyed. They become thinner, deform, their lead sets in. In more advanced cases, without proper treatment, the lower back pain becomes unbearable and interferes with normal movements. A lumbar disc herniation is usually diagnosed at this stage.
This is a kind of retaliation by a person for upright posture and vertical posture. When moving into an upright position, the center of gravity that we have in the lumbar area shifts. This means that all of your body weight while walking, running, jumping, torso flexing, and other movements puts pressure on the lumbar vertebrae. With an insufficiently developed muscle frame of the back and abdominal press, there is the destruction of intervertebral discs, the appearance of osteophytes and other pathological formations. And these are common causes of back pain.
Other causes of back pain
In addition to osteochondrosis and its complications, there are other causes of low back pain. First, various injuries should be ruled out, which can compromise the integrity of the cartilage lining as well as the vertebral bodies. These can be vertebral fractures, fractures of the spinous processes, compression fractures of the spine with displacement of the spinal cord structures.
Lumbar spine injuries can be caused by frontal and tangential impacts, falls from a great height, and traffic accidents. Athletes who are professionally involved in weightlifting apply for an appointment, often with injuries.
In women, back pain can be caused by pelvic inflammatory disease. Adnexitis is leading among them. Second is cystic ovarian disease, which causes pulling and aching pain in the lower back that worsens at certain stages of the menstrual cycle. After the age of 45, it is not uncommon for lower back pain in women to be caused by tumor processes - uterine fibroids, oncological neoplasms of the ovaries and cervix.
In both sexes, there are causes of low back pain such as inguinal hernia and kidney disease: pyelonephritis, polycystic, amyloidosis, glomerulonephritis. To exclude kidney pathology, it is necessary to consult a nephrologist and pass urine tests according to Nechiporenko according to Zimnitsky. Helps differentiate the diagnosis from kidney ultrasound.
In some cases, the cause of upper lumbar pain is intercostal neuralgia or shingles. The first condition can be distinguished by palpation of the intercostal spaces. As a rule, with intercostal neuralgia, this leads to a sharp increase in pain and is characterized by unilateral localization. With shingles, visible rashes in the form of small blisters filled with a clear liquid.
More dangerous causes of back pain can be tuberculosis and sarcomas. These diseases leave little chance of a cure. Sometimes they are disguised as ankylosing spondylitis in the early stages, which also includes stiffness of movement and severe pain in the lower back in the morning. Then all symptoms go away.
The lower back hurts: what to do?
If there is pain in the lower back - what to do in this case, what doctor to turn to? You can make an appointment with a therapist who, after a careful examination, will make the initial diagnosis and prescribe further examinations. Mandatory are: general urinalysis, general blood test, ultrasound of the kidneys and urinary tract, exclusion of tumor processes in the abdominal cavity. Then a consultation can be arranged with a neurologist, a gynecologist (for women) and a doctor. X-ray and tomographic examination methods can be used to clarify the localization of the destructive process in the spine.
Prescribing treatment depends on the diagnosis. With osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine, full treatment is possible only with manual therapy methods. In the initial stage, the pain is relieved with the help of traction, osteopathy and therapeutic massage. Then the doctors try to restore the structure of the cartilage. To improve the regeneration processes, foot reflexology, acupuncture and the introduction of minimal doses of medication into biologically active points of the human body can be used.
After the restoration of physiological mobility, the complex of rehabilitation treatment should be continued. It includes physiotherapy and massage. You should also listen to the recommendations of experts on the organization of nutrition, work and rest, the organization of your place of work and sleep. In some cases it may be necessary to temporarily use an orthosis to support the spine.