Causes of Chronic Lower Back Pain

There are several causes of chronic lower back pain, but they can be classified into two main groups: Chronic it’s been going on for quite a while, or acute. Should the pain be classified as acute, it is fairly recent.

Lower back pain can render someone pretty much useless because of everything that we rely on our lower back for. Think about it bending over to pick things up, squatting to get into a car to drive and much more.

When the muscles in your lower back are the problem, making sure that they are strong enough to keep your spine in line correctly will help. Muscles that are too tight will pull the spine out of place and can cause more problems such as the pelvis going out of place.

Loosening the muscles that hold the spine together so that they aren’t too tight can be achieved through a number of different methods. Some people choose to use ice, or heat. Others will alternate the two, and yet others opt to use a muscle relaxant that a doctor will prescribe for them.

Stretching the muscles out, carefully, and with the supervision of a trained professional will help as well. Quite often you will be given instructions to do some of the stretches with heat, and before you get up to move around.

Arthritis, another one of the several causes of chronic lower back pain, creates pain when the bones in the back especially the lower back area become stiff. Normally, dealing with arthritis is done with heat and anti-inflammatory medicatoin, as well as painkillers when needed.

When using the medications available to treat arthritis in the lower back, doctors must consider other issues that their patient has. Are there other back problems in addition to the lower back? If so, then how are they being treated, and how will the meds that are being considered affect the other treatments?

When dealing with the causes of chronic lower back pain, both the patient and the medical professionals involved must communicate with each other. The patient must explain all of the current symptoms, and what could have possibly caused them.

For example, perhaps the patient was in a car accident seven years ago, and now the chronic pain in their lower back is too much to bear. The doctor may have done some scans to look for any previous injuries, but if they are not told about the accidents, the incorrect testing may be done. As a result the injuries might not be found.

The end result would be the patient going through more unnecessary pain than they should have to, and extra testing as well. Accidents can cause the vertebrae in your spine to collapse, break or completely degenerate sometimes trapping nerves in them at the same time.

All of these issues can eventually cause wear and tear on your joints, as well as truly mess up your posture. So when dealing with the causes of chronic lower back pain, remember that some strategic planning and good communication with medical professionals will go a long way.