For those that sit on one spot for extended periods, play sports or engage in some type of dangerous activities, or for several other reasons. No matter the reason, if you’re suffering from lower back pain, you’re not alone.
If you ask most doctors, they can attest to the fact that several people miss work due to back pain. What is surprising is that this problem is not limited to adults alone as school age children have been reported to suffer from it too.
If this problem is so widespread, how do people get it and where does it come from? Before we go further, let’s get to know more about back pain.
Back pain vary in intensity. It can range from a dull pain that you can barely notice or it could be a constant ache you just can’t seem to ignore.
Some back pains may come in form of an unexpected sharp pain and in other cases, it’ll be a shooting pain.
Here are the types of back pain we have:
Types of Back Pain
Short term back pain or Acute back pain as some may call it can last for some days. In more severe cases, it can go on for weeks.
If you make self-care a priority, this pain can disappear on its own without any residual function loss. On the other hand, there are cases where lower back pain doesn’t disappear until after a few months.
On the other hand, chronic back pain, last for longer periods and could span for 12 weeks and sometimes longer. This type of pain can continue even if you’ve treated the underlying cause or the initial injury.
Causes of Lower Back Pain
Majority of severe low back pain problems are often mechanical. Let’s explain what that means – this is a disruption has occurred in the way the back components move and fit together (i.e. nerves, intervertebral discs, muscle, and the spine).
There are several mechanical causes of lower back pain and they are:
Congenital
- Irregularities in the skeleton like Scoliosis – a spine curvature, lordosis – a lower back with an irregularly exaggerated arch, kyphosis – a spine with a disproportionate outward arch together with other spine congenital anomalies.
- Spina bifida: thisis when the spinal cord doesn’t develop as it should, or the incomplete development of its protective covering. It can lead to problems like paralysis, abnormal sensations and vertebra malformation.
Injuries
- Another cause of lower back problems are sprains (torn or overstretched ligaments), spasms (unexpected contraction of muscle groups or a muscle) and strains (muscle or tendon tears).
- Lower back pain can also result from traumatic injuries like car accidents, playing sports or an injury to the tendon, ligaments or the muscles. This will cause severe pains and may lead to the rupturing or herniation of disc or spine compression.
Degenerative Problems The degeneration of the intervertebral discs take place the moment there’s a wear down of the rubbery discs due to aging. This makes them lose softening ability and could cause lower back problems of varying degrees.
