What are the Types of Low Back Pain
Black and white photo of a muscular man with a backache. Red selective color further illustrates pain. Clipping path included so image can be easily transferred to a different colored background.
Every 8 out of 10 people suffer from lower back pain issues whether it is muscular, chronic, or nonspecific. Whether the pain occurs after coming home from your office after sitting for long, lifting heavyweight, or after a gym session, it becomes very annoying and frustrating to cope up with the pain. If you have had enough with the pain, and need a proper treatment for lower back pain, you must get a complete diagnosis of the type of back pain you have. Lower back pain has different types that can only be determined after a thorough checkup at your GP. However, if you want to know about them otherwise, here are the types of lower back pain.
Causes And Symptoms Of Lower Back Pain
Causes
The lower area of your back is called lumbosacral that is between the bottom of your ribs and the top of your legs. This part is made up mostly from muscles surrounding the spine area. While some chronic back pains can be caused by a past injury, disc gap, or spinal damage, there can be numerous reasons for lower back pain that is non-specific. Your body gets subjected to a lot of forces such as twisting, jolting, dealing with a bad posture chair, lifting heavyweight, bending, and more. Overlapping in the structure of the muscles or any internal injury because of the stiffness of the muscle can cause lower back pain.
Symptoms
An important fact that you need to understand is that it is not only chronic pain that can last for weeks. Chronic pain has different reasons and often require surgeries to get you relaxed from the pain. However, non-specific or general pain n lower back can also cause you a lot of disturbance. Most back pains are mild and last for just some hours. However, if you ignore the early symptoms, the pain can become severe and last for longer. The main symptoms of lower back pain is a sudden pricking sensation in your lower back and buttocks when you sit after standing for too long or stand up after sitting for hours. You will feel relaxed when you lie straight as the pain is eased that way. If your lower back pain has grown serious, you can also feel pain while your cough, sneeze, or even move your back slightly.
Types Of Lower Back Pain
Following are the major types of lower back pain. You need to make sure that you check your symptoms before getting treatment for any of the pain type.
Sciatica-Nerve Root Pain
Nerve root pain that is usually called sciatica or trapped nerve is a form of acute lower back pain where a nerve coming out of the spinal cord is damaged, irritated, or being pressed on. The root of the nerve is usually affected and you feel severe pain that increases with time. The pain often runs down to your buttocks, calf, and foot, and you feel more pain in these parts instead of the lower back. You will feel numbness, irritation, and weakness in your lower body.
Prolapsed Disc
Another type of lower back pain is where the patient feels severe pain because of a prolapsed disc. This is a serious problem that occurs in 9 out of 10 people. While most doctors recommend surgery to treat the slipped disc fast, other treatments are also available. In a prolapsed disc, the harder softer part of the disc covered by the harder part bulges out because of a weakness. This condition can either put more pressure on the root nerves or great a gap between the discs.
Nonspecific Low Back Pain
Nonspecific lower back pain is one of the most common types of back pain that can occur to anyone. This type of pain is easily treatable, and mostly a patient is treated by taking OTC pain killers. The reason why this type is called nonspecific is that the actual reason is usually unknown. You can have this pain if you have slept in a wrong position, stood for too long, sat on an uncomfortable chair, or bent abruptly to lift something heavy. This type of pain can be mild to severe but last for only some hours or days.
Cauda equina Syndrome
This is a rare condition, but a very serious one. Cauda equina Syndrome is a nerve root problem that paves for other serious issues such as bladder weakness, bowel problems, and saddle numbness. In this condition, the bottom-most nerve of the spinal cord is pressed abnormally. Because the patient is most likely to suffer a lot more than just the pain in the lower back area, he will feel weakness in his legs all the time. This condition requires immediate treatment as a slightest negligence or ignorance can result in permanent bladder damage.
