Causes of low back pain and methods of treating them

low back pain

It is very difficult to find an adult who has at least once felt no pain in the lower back, and some of these painful sensations do not leave day or night, disrupting their quality of life and forcing them to swallow a whole bunch of pills. pain relief. It's unfortunate, but most people with chronic low back pain do nothing to treat it and believe it's incurable, an illness, and it's unnecessary.

How wrong they are! After all, there is an effective treatment for back pain. And for this you do not need to look for famous doctors and modern clinics. Just be patient, set goals and start daily treatments. Of course, this is not a quick process, but the results in the form of no serious back pain are sure to please.

So, let's take a look at the main causes of low back pain and how to treat them.

Why does your lower back hurt?

There are also horse-drawn carriages carrying small goods that cause pain in the lower back. They can be divided into two parts - primary and secondary pain syndromes.

Primary back pain

With primary pain syndrome in the lower back, pathological changes mainly develop in the tissues of the spine itself - these are degenerative-dystrophic disorders that begin in the intervertebral discs, gradually affecting the vertebraeand surrounding soft tissues. Surely everyone knows diseases such as cervical spondylosis, cervical spondylosis. These pathologies develop gradually, accompanied by a chronic pain syndrome and with the development of complications (nerve root compression, disc protrusion or herniation, spinal cord compression), an acute paindevelop, need urgent medical attention.

Degenerative-dystrophic changes in the spine and their consequences are responsible for low back pain in more than 90% of cases.

Secondary back pain

Secondary back pain can be caused not only by musculoskeletal diseases, but also by pathologies of internal organs:

  • congenital or acquired pathologies of the musculoskeletal system - pathologies of spinal curvature, flat feet, etc. ;
  • rheumatic and systemic diseases (ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteochondrosis, reactive arthritis, systemic scleroderma, vasculitis, lupus erythematosus, etc. );
  • metabolic and endocrine pathologies in which the normal structure of bone tissue is disrupted - osteoporosis, hyperparathyroidism, osteomalacia;
  • malignant and benign cancerous lesions of the vertebrae and surrounding tissues (myeloma, lymphoma, osteosarcoma, metastatic tumor);
  • traumatic damage to the tissues of the spine (stretching muscles, ligaments, compression and other vertebral fractures);
  • inflammatory lesions of the muscles of the lower back - myositis;
  • gynaecological disease;
  • pathology of the urinary tract (pyelonephritis, urolithiasis, etc. );
  • diseases of the abdominal organs (acute appendicitis, pancreatitis, intestinal lesions).

This article deals with the treatment of primary low back pain, which occurs in most cases. But before proceeding with treatment measures, it is imperative to see a doctor to rule out more serious causes of low back pain.

Basic principles of low back pain management

If you are looking for the answer to the question of how to cure low back pain, then the first answer is that the treatment must be comprehensive, just injections and pills, most likely will not help you. Basically, drugs are used to aggravate the disease, and after the pain has started, they start more active activities, for example gymnastics, physical therapy, massage, conditioningmanual therapy, traditional medicine, etc. v.

Conservative therapy

Medicines for treatment

If your lower back is in severe pain, you can't go without medication. In the treatment of back pain, several groups of drugs are used. They are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which also have strong pain-relieving effects. These drugs are used both internally (injections, tablets) and locally (topical, ointments, creams, gels). It should be clarified that drugs of the NSAID group, although they completely eliminate the symptoms of the disease but do not affect the course of the disease, cannot treat osteonecrosis with anti-inflammatory drugs alone.

Pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs work well for pain relief, but they won't address the underlying cause.

Muscle relaxants must be included in the drug treatment complex. These drugs eliminate pathological spasms of the musculoskeletal muscles of the lumbar region (pathological treatment of lower back pain), which greatly relieve pain.

Effective support in the treatment of back pain caused by compression or inflammation of spinal nerve roots are B vitamins, which help strengthen and help restore damaged areas of nerve tissue.

To establish nutrition and metabolism in the affected tissues of the spine, an antiplatelet agent, nicotinic acid is used.

If the pain is very severe, a local anesthetic is used to block off the area, allowing you to temporarily relieve the pain while measures are taken to eliminate its cause.

Physical therapy

Exercise therapy is prescribed only after the pain subsides, contraindicated with exacerbations. The key to success is regularity of training. Back strengthening exercises should be done daily. It would be ideal if such a complex was chosen for you by a certified physiotherapist and would teach you all the subtleties of performing the exercises.

As a last resort, you can educate yourself (you can find a large number of videos with specific examples of movements). The main thing that should be guided when doing gymnastics is painlessness. If the movement causes you pain in your lower back, reduce the amplitude of the movement or give it up altogether. Performing this method at home can help you gradually strengthen your spinal muscles and reduce pain.

Massage

The health benefits of back massage can hardly be overestimated. The main thing is that it is done correctly and competently. And for this, first of all, you need to find a good, experienced and certified massage therapist.

Massage activates blood circulation in damaged tissues, contributes to the supply of nutrition and the removal of harmful substances. Massage, as well as exercise therapy, is performed only outside the exacerbation of the disease.

Physiotherapy procedures

The treatment and prevention of low back pain includes a variety of physical therapy treatments. All are aimed at stopping the degenerative process in the spine and renewing damaged structures.

Commonly used in the treatment of low back pain:

  • acupuncture therapy;
  • laser treatment;
  • therapeutic ultrasound;
  • electrophoresis;
  • thermal process;
  • therapeutic therapy;
  • mud wrap;
  • paraffin and ozokerite applications.

Surgery

Lumbar osteotomy is performed only in severe cases, as such manipulations carry very high risks. Only performed on patients with disc herniation causing constant pain or patients with signs of spinal cord compression.

There are many such surgical approaches – from open neurosurgery to remove diseased discs to endoscopic and robotic interventions to replace damaged discs with artificial prostheses or bioengineering. .

Unique treatment

Acupuncture

Needle therapy has been used since ancient times to combat various diseases. Modern acupuncture is an effective alternative treatment for back pain. In addition, today's conventional acupuncture is supplemented by the introduction of various biologically active substances into the puncture site, by the action of a magnet or a laser, which further increases the effectiveness of the technique.

Acupuncture for back pain

Manual therapy

It is widely used in the treatment of osteonecrosis and its consequences. The key point is manual action on the spine, setting the displaced vertebrae, freeing the nerves from compression and thus, eliminating the pain. But it should be noted that these are quite dangerous treatments and only a certified chiropractor should perform these techniques.

Folk recipes

Perhaps, treating low back pain with folk remedies is very popular due to its simplicity, nature, available materials, experience in use and effectiveness. There are many formulations for alternative treatment, consider the most common.

Horse chestnut ointment is prepared as follows. Grind the chestnut herb into a powder and add it to the fat and camphor oil in equal proportions. You can lubricate or apply such ointment 2 times a day until the pain subsides.

Mix grated radish or horseradish with sour cream or heavy cream and apply it to the painful lower back in the form of a gauze. Wrap yourself in a woolen scarf and go to sleep. Repeat this procedure until the pain subsides.

For the next recipe, you will need dried burdock leaves. Soak them in boiling water and place them on your back, wrapped in a warm towel. Keep the compress for at least 1 hour.

Massage can help relieve back pain. To do this, you need to make the following mixture. You need to mix with perfume, for example triple perfume, a bottle of iodine solution, valerian tincture and dried red pepper. After that, you need to rub the painful area with the mixture and wrap it with a warm towel overnight.

Herbs to treat low back pain

Folk recipes help relieve back pain very well, but are only allowed to be used with the consent of the doctor.

There are more than a dozen, and possibly more than a hundred, recipes for traditional medicine. But in each case, before using them, you need to consult a doctor - if this particular formulation is contraindicated for you.

If you have lower back pain and don't know where to begin treatment, see your doctor first to determine the actual cause of the pain. Only after this, through the joint effort (of you and your therapist), will you be able to defeat disease and pain.