Dealing With Lower Back Pain By Frank Thornton At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Four out of every five adult Americans will experience lower back pain at one time in their lives. Sometimes it’s a mild strain or sprain that goes away after a couple of days. Other times, lower back pain lasts for weeks or months.

Ironically, a simple muscle spasm can cause more pain than a herniated disk. In fact, despite the fear of herniated disks, they are the cause of only four percent of back pain cases in the USA each year.
Looking at the causes of lower back pain

1. Muscle strains from activities including heavy lifting, sports activities, whiplash from a car accident, or twisting.

2. Herniated disk (slipped dieck) resulting in the disk pressing a spinal nerve.

3. Spondylosis, also known as spinal osteoarthritis, is a degenerative disease often found in the elderly. Osteoarthritis results from the breakdown of cartilage in the facet bones of the spine. With no cartilage, stiffness and occurs.

4. Spinal stenosis which is the narrowing of an area of the spine. If a nerve is affected by the narrowing, then pain may occur. Spinal stenosis can ofthen be brought on when walking. Regardless of the symptom, the best plan is to avoid the activity that rings on the pain.

Treating lower back pain

1. Lower back muscle strains: Get ice on the back as soon as possible. Ice your lower back 5 – 6 times per day for 10 -1 5 minutes. Do this for the first 48 hours. If you are not feeling any better, go and see your physician, but usually for a strain, the pain will begin to subside albeit possibly slowly.

Over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicine such as ibuprofen is often recommended by doctors. Call your advice nurse or go and visit your doctor to see what dosage should be taken.

2. Herniated discs: most people recover from herniated discs within a couple of months. At first your doctor will likely treat a herniated disc similarly to a muscle strain in that icing and anti-inflammatory drugs may be involved. In the unlikely event that this dies not solve it, surgery may be an alternative.

3. Osteoarthritis: although this is a degenerative condition, it sounds a lot worse than it is. Treatment may include anti-inflammatory medicine, muscle relaxants, together with exercises to help support the spine. In 75% of cases, this approach will succeed.

4. Spinal stenosis: initially treatment may focus on removing the source of the pain, be that walking, running, etc. Ultimately, surgery may be necessary, and the success rate is high resulting in an increase in mobility and activity level.

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