Low back pain: why and what to do?

Muscle fatigue at the end of the day is a completely natural process, especially if the day was associated with heavy physical labor. Most often, the lower back, arm and leg muscles hurt from fatigue. But there comes a time when a person begins to notice that the lower back hurts even at rest, while walking the pain intensifies and radiates to the arm, then to the leg. It becomes increasingly difficult to bend over, it is almost impossible to relax the back muscles, even when lying down. The pain intensifies, forcing you to think about it every minute throughout the day, then stops completely, which leads to oblivion of the recent painful process.

This is how, most often, many diseases begin and progress, which for a long time manifest themselves only in the form of back pain. Until the pain becomes constant and intense, a person does not pay attention to it, continuing his usual activities. Meanwhile, a tragedy is played out inside the body, which is then learned about "suddenly" and diagnostics, long-term treatment, elimination of complications and gradual rehabilitation begin.

Do you have lower back pain? What could it be?

When the lower back hurts, it is very difficult to establish the true cause that causes such a symptom, especially based only on the patient's complaints. It is necessary to know what kind of lifestyle a person leads, what he is prone to, what chronic diseases he has, what medications he takes, whether there is a genetic predisposition to endocrine and other types of diseases. To establish an accurate diagnosis, it is necessary to analyze a number of special instrumental studies, to trace the cause-and-effect analogies of these results and the available data obtained during the patient survey.

There are frequent cases when lower back pain indicated a whole complex of diseases and it was not a question of one diagnosis, but of a complex list of diagnoses reflecting multiple disorders in all organs and systems of the body. Such results are quite common when a patient consults a doctor with only one complaint of lower back pain.

It is not always possible to consider pain as a natural manifestation, of course, there are such situations, for example, a wound, a burn, a bruise, which will naturally be accompanied by pain, but it is impossible to ignore, even in situations with examples, painful sensations for a long time. Any pain, sooner or later, leads to the detection of serious damage to internal organs by pathogenic microflora or inflammatory processes, destructive degenerations. The most common causes leading to the appearance of pain in the lower back are problematic organs of the abdominal cavity, pelvis and diseases of the back itself. Let's name all the probable causes, following the course of the location of the organs, moving from top to bottom:

• problems with the respiratory system. With pulmonary pleurisy, the lower back often hurts. The pain is associated with the fact that the fluid accumulating in the pleural area of the lungs leads to their enlargement, they begin to press on the underlying organs, the muscular frame experiences tension, which spreads to the muscles of the lower back. Long-term hypertonicity causes severe muscle pain;
• diseases of the digestive organs, in particular, ulcers of the duodenum and stomach. Ulcers not only in the acute stage of inflammation cause lumbar pain, but also in a state of remission, they can manifest themselves as constant cramping pains in the affected organ and aching pains in the lower back;
• many endocrine diseases do not manifest themselves for a long time in any way, except for pain in the lower back. This "secrecy" greatly complicates the diagnosis of this type of disease, because even medical professionals do not always succeed in linking lower back pain with the endocrine system. A similar picture is often observed when secondary osteoporosis is detected;
• inflammatory processes in the pancreas. The development of pancreatitis leads to the appearance of sharp and acute pain in the left side, in the hypochondrium, with irradiation to the lower back or girdle-like pain;
• if your lower back hurts, you should also pay attention to your liver. The development of gallstone disease occurs with pronounced symptoms, including pain, localized in the lower back;
• inflammatory and infectious lesions of the urinary system. Here are all kinds of kidney diseases, kidney stones and cystitis, in men prostatitis should not be excluded;
• acute and chronic processes in the organs of the reproductive system. In women, lumbar pain can often signal the presence of endometritis and adhesions in the pelvis, abdominal cavity, fibroids and other benign neoplasms on the uterus and in its cavity, ovarian cysts cause nagging pain in the side and lower back;
• Tumors localized in different parts of the body also become the cause of back pain.

The list provided includes only the most common diseases that have lumbar pain in their symptom complex. However, these are far from all the reasons why the lower back may hurt. The back, as a shield of our body, also has many structural components, entirely or partially consisting of muscles. Even problems with cartilage tissue can cause intense pain. Let's now consider the causes of back pain associated with the musculoskeletal system of the lumbar region:

• fatigue or strain of the lower back muscles (as a result of a natural process);
• herniated disc;
• the presence of osteochondrosis and osteoarthritis in the lumbar and lumbosacral regions;
• lumbar muscle strain;
• spinal injury.

After reviewing the above lists of probable causes of lower back pain, it becomes obvious that independent attempts to get rid of unpleasant sensations in the back simply do not make sense.

What to do if your lower back hurts?

It is becoming a commonplace to say that a detailed diagnosis is necessary before starting any treatment. Many people, despite everything, continue to act independently, choosing methods of treating a sore back based on the principle of "if it helped him, it will help me too." Once again, I would like to ask you to pay attention to the list of reasons given above, it clearly shows that treatment is impossible until the cause is established.

You cannot apply hot or warming compresses if your lower back hurts, in order to relieve the pain, the cause of this pain may be an inflammatory process, for example, in the kidneys, but the patient does not know about it. Another thing if we are talking about lumbar myositis. Here the hot effect of the compress will be very useful.

One person received relief from a short-term use of a vodka compress, while another took strong painkillers for a long time, but the pain still intensified and his legs became “wool-like” after each attack.

If, for some reason, there is no trust in the treatment method of modern medicine, it is worth contacting a specialized clinic at least for diagnostic purposes. Modern diagnostic devices are capable of detecting all disorders that exist in the body in a short time. With the support of laboratory research methods, including genetic analysis, the diagnosis is made without error.

To select the most optimal method or course of treatment, having the results of the examination in hand, you can visit several specialists in different clinics and medical centers. Having thus received multiple opinions regarding the existing diagnosis, recommendations for treatment, you can see an objective picture of how exactly and why the lower back hurts, understand the mechanisms of pathology development and choose the most suitable specialist who inspires confidence in you, with whom the success of treatment will be guaranteed.

Until diagnostic measures have been taken, it is not worth using traditional medicine methods or experimenting with your own medicinal recipes. Using inappropriate medications can not only provoke the development of side effects, but also "blur" the picture of the real cause, which can further complicate the process of making a correct diagnosis.

It is important to remember the omen - if your lower back hurts, it means a visit to the doctor is just around the corner.