Most people experience some kind of back pain as they age. The symptoms and intensity of pain are as varied as the causes. If your pain is considerable enough to interrupt sleep, and home remedies to not alleviate the pain to your satisfaction, it is highly recommended that you turn to a doctor for consultation. The back is a complicated system of interlocking parts. It may not be obvious what is causing your condition.
The most important thing to consider in back pain is severity. At the first inkling of pain, you want to stop whatever activity is causing the pain. Unfortunately a lot of back pain is caused by doing the same thing thousands of times over, and it’s not until years of damage that the pain surfaces. Before you are in a state where you have back pain, start exercising regularly and eat healthfully. Flabby bellies aggravate your pelvis and force your buttocks out, contorting the shape of the spine and putting the weight of the upper body onto the lower back. Get healthy before you are injured; that’s the best medicine.
But if you do have back pain, you may have a number of symptoms: stiffness, achiness or back pain along any part of the spine from the base of the tailbone to the neck. The pain may be in the neck, either sharp shooting pains down the spine or stiffness in the shoulders, a lingering ache in the lower or middle back after excessive standing or sitting, pain in the lower back that radiates through the buttocks into the legs and down to the toes, or pain that is so severe you cannot stand upright without experiencing muscle spasms.
Many forms of pain can be alleviated at home without having to consult a doctor. But if the following conditions occur, do plan a visit to a professional: numbness or tingling in your limbs, which may indicate damage to your spinal cord; sharp, shooting back from your back down your legs, which suggests sciatica; sudden movements, like coughing, sneezing, or even laughing causing severe pain in your back, or an ordeal suggesting problems with your spinal discs. There are other symptoms, such as inflamed glands, a fever, burning urination or blood in your urine, that indicates you may be suffering from a bacterial infection in your back; or if dullness or numbness accompanies one part of your spine when you lay supine, especially if you are over fifty-osteoarthritis is a possibility.
There are literally hundreds of causes of back pain. Some common causes of back pain include strained ligaments, injury to your back (the muscles, skin, or spine, for example); excessive lifting or exercise; disc disorders; pinched, inflamed, or diseased nerves.
Back pain is such a large category that it is hard to sum up. The best thing to do is identify what kind of pain you have. Where exactly it is located, the duration, and quality are important to note. Then, from that information, you can ascertain the cause, and, finally the cure.
Jesse is the co-founder and visionary CEO of The Healthy Back Institute®, the world-leading source of natural back pain solutions. His mission as a former back pain sufferer is to help others live pain free without surgery and pharmaceuticals.
