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What Causes Lower Back Pain?

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According to estimates, 80% of Americans will experience lower back pain at one point in their lives.

Unfortunately, knowing you are in good company does not make low back pain less uncomfortable or disruptive. Back pain can get so bad for some people that it significantly affects their quality of life and day to day functioning.

What are the causes of lower back pain? Read more on that here.

1. Deformity

Curvature of the spine can include kyphosis, lordosis or scoliosis. If a deformity is associated with the breakdown of discs, stenosis, facet joints and sacroiliac joints, it can also cause lower back pain.

2. Osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis results from the wear and tear of facet joints and discs. This can cause instability, pain, inflammation and stenosis to some degree. Osteoarthritis can occur on multiple levels of the lower spine.

Spinal osteoarthritis is also known as degenerative joint disease. It’s associated with ageing and is slowly progressive.

3. Pregnancy

Many women will experience some back pain during pregnancy. This pain is linked to multiple factors of pregnancy.

The first is weight gain. Women add weight during pregnancy, and the weight of the baby and the uterus adds more pressure to the nerves and blood vessels surrounding the pelvis and the back. This can cause discomfort.

Other causes are changes in posture as a pregnant woman tries to adjust to the shifting centre of gravity, muscle separation and hormonal changes that occur in pregnancy.

4. Spinal stenosis

The pain from spinal stenosis comes from narrowing of the spinal canal where nerve roots sit. This narrowing can be foramina, central or both.

It can also happen at one or more levels of the lower back.

5. Stains

Ligaments and muscles in the lower back can tear or stretch from excess activity. These symptoms include pain in the lower back and even muscle spasms.

Once you identify the source of the strain, avoid it and rest the back, the lower back pain should subside.

6. Bulging or ruptured discs

Discs function as cushions between the vertebrae (bones) in your spine. However, there is soft material inside the disc that can rupture or bulge and press on a nerve. This can cause lower back pain.

However, many people can have a ruptured disc without causing back pain. Often, disc diseases are identified when an individual goes in for an x-ray for something else.

7. Health conditions

Certain health conditions will have back pain as a symptom. Examples of these include;

Fibromyalgia is a condition that causes long-term tenderness and pain in the joints, muscles, and tendons.

Spondylosis: this is a degenerative disorder that can cause the loss of normal spinal function and structure. This condition is typically linked to age but its rate of progression.

Conclusion

If you suffer from back pain, you will be happy to know that you have several options to consider.

These include medication, surgery, physiotherapy and chiropractic care. Any of these options can help you regain control of your health.

5 Ways Chiropractic Care Can Improve Your Health

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Many people dealing with certain types of chronic pain are keen on exploring treatment options that do not involve taking oral pills everyday or every other time.

One go-to alternative is chiropractic care. Chiropractic care has numerous positive outcomes for patients.

Here are five ways your health could benefit from it.

1. Can Help Minimize Scoliosis Symptoms

Scoliosis is an abnormal curving of the spine. A normal spine has a curve at the shoulder and the lower back. People with scoliosis have a c-shaped back or a back that’s curved from side to side.

Chiropractic care can help improve the Cobb angle of people with scoliosis. The Cobb angle is a measurement of the degree of the side-to-side deformity present.

While the deformation is unlikely to be cured, some studies have shown some notable improvements.

2. Eases Headache Symptoms

Chiropractic care that involves spinal manipulation is especially useful for headaches that originate from the neck. The same is true for tension headaches.

This is because a back misalignment is known to cause muscle tension and pain, resulting in migraine and tension headaches. Headaches are second to back pain when it comes to the most common conditions chiropractors treat.

Chiropractic care can help prevent headaches or minimize the symptoms to allow one to enjoy a better quality of life.

3. Reduce Inflammation

Inflammation is the main cause of pain, tension and joint problems. So much so that it has been directly linked to numerous diseases, including cancer, chronic pain and heart disease.

Chiropractic adjustments are also known to lessen inflammation. The results of these include chronic lower back relief and reduced joint pain and muscle tension.

Reduced inflammation in the body can also reduce an individual’s risk of contracting diseases and conditions associated with high inflammation in the body.

4. Sciatica

Sciatica refers to pain that radiates along the path of the sciatic nerve. This type of pain branches from your lower back, through your buttocks and hips and down each leg. This is typically experienced in one side of the body and is caused by a pressurized or damaged sciatic nerve.

Because sciatica can be painful, it can easily lead to over medication.

What chiropractic care does for sciatica is relieve pressure on the sciatic nerve that’s causing sciatica.

Research has shown that patients getting chiropractic care for sciatica experience less pain and have a reduced number of pain days. Both outcomes help improve their quality of life.

5. It Helps With Neck and Lower Back Pain

Most patients that go to a chiropractor often need help with neck and lower back pain.

Medication and surgery are other treatments offered for neck and back pain. However, these can be dangerous, ineffective and can get quite expensive.

A chiropractic adjustment is often a good place to start when evaluating one’s options for chronic neck and back pain treatments. Not only is this effective, but it’s also non-invasive and more affordable compared to the other alternatives.