Back pain is a very common and sometimes debilitating problem that thousands of people suffer from each year. Fortunately, a majority of patients experience relief within a few days to weeks. Muscle and ligamentous injury are often the main causes of pain. I often see patients who have had back pain of longer duration, caused by a variety of conditions, such as degenerative facet joints, herniated or dehydrated intervertebral discs. These conditions may lead to back pain in a way similar to how arthritis affects other major joints, such as hips or knees. In certain situations, enlargement of the facet joints or discs can put enough pressure on the nerve roots to cause radiating leg pain. A thorough examination combined with imaging studies, such as x-ray or MRI, can usually reveal the exact cause of the pain. It is important to rule out less common causes of pain like fractures, tumors, infection, or metabolic disorders.
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There are many causes of back pain. Most times doctors cannot determine the exact cause, and fortunately most times it does not matter. There are only a few rare exceptions that must be looked for. Unless you have one of these less common causes, an exact diagnosis is not necessary. Most conditions respond to the same treatments, so we usually proceed directly to the treatment (an appropriate exercise program). Most patients are better in less time than it would take to make an exact diagnosis, and many times an exact diagnosis cannot be found.
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Lower back pain is very common. Eighty to 90% of adults will suffer back pain at some point in their life. Most causes of lower back pain can be treated successfully through non-surgical means. The causes of back pain include muscle strain, arthritic processes in the spine, disc herniations, fractures, spinal stenosis (a narrowing of the space around the nerves), infections, inflammatory diseases and very rarely neoplastic processes.
It’s also important for patients to understand that anxiety, depression or other psychological distresses can amplify or prolong the symptoms related to common causes of back problems.
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Lifting, back injuries.
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Almost everyone experiences back pain at some point in their lives. Fortunately, most back pain improves with time. The most common cause of back pain is pulled or strained muscles. Other more serious, but less common, causes include infection, tumors, broken bones, disc herniations (discs that have ruptured and are placing pressure on the nerves of the spine), and disc degeneration. If your back pain does not subside within a few weeks, you should have your medical doctor examine you to determine the exact cause of your pain.
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Back pain is one of the most common ailments known to man. Eighty percent of the adult population will be required to take time off work because of significant back pain. The causes of back pain are many. Wear and tear conditions such as degenerative arthritis as well as degenerative discs are some of the most common causes that orthopaedic spine doctors see on a regular basis. Muscle pulls and tears are also frequent, but they are usually very short lived¾their duration frequently lasting less than a week. When the pain lasts for longer than a week, it is more frequent that the degenerative problems such as arthritis and/or degenerative disc disease are the culprit. Uncommon causes of pain of very long-standing duration are infection and/or tumors. A very effective means of looking at the spine on radiology studies now, such as MRI can make certain that a person doesn't have these problems very quickly.
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There are several common causes of back pain, which can involve many of the anatomical structures of the spine. Patients can strain their back muscles, which can lead to back pain. In addition, patients can develop degenerative arthritis in the discs or in the bones that comprise the structure of the back. Another common cause is a disc herniation where the disc may protrude outwards against the nerve, which can lead to back and leg pain.
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Back pain afflicts 80% of the population at some point in their lives. Common causes of back pain include muscle strains, injury to or inflammation within the discs, and arthritis of the facet joints. Muscle strains occur when the activity exceeds the physical capabilities of the muscles. Disc and facet pain may occur as part of the degenerative process when one of these motion segments is overstressed or overused. Inflammation develops resulting in the symptom of back pain.
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The most common cause of back pain is muscle tension or spasm. This is generally caused by fatigue or overload of the back muscles associated with poor posture.
Other causes are post traumatic in nature, where there are a range of injuries to soft tissue structures supporting the spine, including ligaments and intervertebral discs.
A third cause are degenerative changes. These are injuries of the spine due to the wear and tear and degeneration of tissues. Other more serious causes include tumors and infections, which could have as their only initial symptom back pain.
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Muscle strain, degenerative disc, inflamed facet joints.
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I divided the causes of back pain into two parts. One is purely muscular, like a muscular sprain and I will try to treat it conservatively. But if the pain does not go away, then we start looking into other reasons and that can include a host of causes within the spine itself. For instance, arthritis, infection, tumor, disc herniations, disc disease. So what I tell my patients is that if the pain does not get any better within a week or two weeks on just rest, then we should start looking further into the problem.
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Muscle and ligament sprains, degenerative disc disease, and facet degeneration are all common causes of back pain.
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The most common causes of back pain are those due to muscular pain, disc pain, or arthritis. Most muscular pain is due to deconditioning and/or acute strain. Most disc pain is secondary to either disc degeneration, i.e., a disc that loses its elasticity and becomes thinner, or a disc that herniates. Most discs that herniate create a nerve entrapment, which causes sciatica. Finally, the spine can have arthritis. In arthritis of joints of the spine, the facet joints lose their cartilage and grow bone spurs.
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Back pain is usually due to a simple strain of the lumbar muscles and ligaments. This, however, will usually resolve within about three weeks. Other common causes include degeneration of the discs, as well as disc herniations or other causes of pinched nerves, such as spinal stenosis. Not only the discs themselves, however, can be a source of pain. The facet joint, muscles and ligaments can also be involved in creating pain.
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There are multiple causes of back pain. These include muscle sprains or pulls, muscle spasms, arthritis, herniated discs, degenerated discs, degenerated joints and slippage of the joints. The most common causes I see in my practice are degenerated and herniated discs. Herniated discs can result in back pain by causing an inflammatory reaction that is painful and by compressing nerves that run in the spine and come out into the arms and legs. Compression of these nerves can result in both pain in the back as well as pain into the extremity that the nerve is running into.
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The most common cause of back pain is musculoskeletal in origin. That is pain generated from the muscles, tendons and ligaments that support the skeletal spine. This ailment is commonly called a "back strain". The next most common cause is skeletal in nature, concerning either the disc or facet joints. These ailments are commonly called "discogenic pain," "degenerative disc disease", or "arthritis of the spine". However, there are many other categories of ailments: trauma, tumor/cancer, infection, congenital, hereditary, neuromuscular and psychogenic.
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In my practice, the most common causes of Low Back Pain (LBP) are injuries to the discs, facet joints, or soft tissues such as the muscles or ligaments. Soft tissue injuries typically resolve rapidly within 4-6 weeks, while those involving the facet joints or discs can be much more difficult to treat.
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There are a variety of causes of back pain. Degeneration of the spinal joints or discs is one of the most common causes of back pain. Muscle strain and trauma are also causes. Other medical conditions need to be considered such as kidney or bowel problems.
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Most people experience back pain at some time in their life. The most common causes of back pain are muscular injury and arthritis of the spine. Muscular injury can be a consequence of a specific event or simply from deconditioning of the muscles that support the trunk. Arthritis is a consequence of aging, genetics, and wear and tear on the joints and discs of the spine. Wear and tear alone can cause back pain or may also cause leg pain if nerve compromise develops. There are many less common causes of back pain, including disc herniation, certain deformities, fractures, infections, tumors, and systemic disorders.
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Back pain can be caused by injury or damage to any of the structures of the back. These include muscles and tendons, discs, bones, joints or nerves. Soft tissue problems involving the muscles and tendons are by far the most common and are often referred to as sprain-strain. However, the other structures of the spine can also be involved, leading to more serious forms of back pain. The two most common mechanisms of development of back pain are injury or degeneration. Injury, often referred to as "trauma", damages the back by causing a stretch, tear or break in a tissue. Degeneration is the "wear and tear" changes of the spine that can result in impaired function of the spine, causing pain.
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There are numerous causes of back pain, including muscle strain, trauma, arthritis, disc herniation, muscle spasm, facet joint pain and the cumulative effect of poor body mechanics.
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There are two kinds of low back pain. One is called "referred back pain" and the other "primary back pain." Primary back pain is usually caused by injuries to the spinal disc, such as chronic wear and tear, causing instability or irritation to the spinal nerve and structures around the area or by direct pressure over the nerves from a herniated disc. Low back pain causes differ among age groups and in adults age 25 to 50. The most important cause appears to be disc injuries. In the pediatric population and the elderly, you have to rule out other causes like tumors, infection, and other referred pain from organs in the posterior aspect of the abdomen, including, but not limited to, great vessels, aorta like aneurysm, pancreatitis, kidney problems, stones, and infections.
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The most basic answer to this question is the fact we have an upright stance. We are the only animals on earth who walk upright on two limbs. A close second to us might be considered the kangaroo who supports a large proportion of their weight on their large tails. Gorillas and chimpanzees actually spend the vast majority of their time on four limbs. Because of our upright stance, this forces a curvature to occur in the spine producing a lordosis, or curvature, which is convex to the front and concave to the back. This results in an extensive amount of compressive force on the lower five lumbar discs. The end result is the fact the only thing more common than back pain is sin. The discs wear out causing bulging and herniations, which produce back pain and/or radiating leg pain. In addition, the facet joints, or stabilizing joints, located posterior in the spine become arthritic. Facet arthritis is a very common cause of back pain.
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Back pain is not always the result of an accident or injury, but often times back pain is due to long-term repetitive faulty habits such as poor posture, improper body mechanics and decline in physical fitness.
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Muscular back strains are the most common cause for back pain in patients younger than 50. For the over 60 age group, degenerative changes in the joints of the spine are often a source of pain.
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