Low Back Pain
(Part 1)
Almost every adult will experience low back pain at some point in their lives. This pain can range from mild to severe. It can be short-lived or long-lasting. Leg pain can accompany the back pain in some cases. Regardless of how it happens, low back pain can make some everyday activities difficult to do.
Anatomy
The spine is made up of small bones, called vertebrae, which are stacked on top of one another.
Muscles, ligaments, nerves, and intervertebral disks are additional parts of your spine.
The muscles and ligaments help stabilize the bones while the intervertebral disks provide “cushioning” to the spine so it can tolerate various movements and stress you place on your spine. The nerves that allow communication between your brain and your body are located inside the spine.
Understanding your spine and how it works can help you better understand low back pain. Learn more about spine anatomy: Spine Basics
Description
Back pain differs from one person to the next.
∙ It can come on slowly or suddenly.
- It may be intermittent (happen once in a while) or constant.
- In most cases, it goes away on its own within a few weeks, but it can sometimes be a chronic (long-lasting) problem.
Cause
There are many causes of low back pain. It sometimes occurs after a specific movement such as lifting or bending. Just getting older also plays a role in many back conditions.
As we age, our spines age with us. Aging causes degenerative changes in the spine. These changes can start in our 30s or even younger and can make us prone to back pain, especially if we overdo our activities.
These aging-related changes do not keep most people from leading productive and generally painfree lives. We have all seen the 70-year-old marathon runner who, without a doubt, has degenerative changes in their back.
- Overactivity
One of the more common causes of low back pain is muscle soreness from activity. Muscles and ligament fibers can be overstretched or injured.
This is often brought about by an activity your body is not used to, such as that first softball or golf game of the season, or too much yard work or snow shoveling in one day. We are all familiar with this stiffness and soreness in the low back and other areas of the body that usually goes away within a few days.
- Disk Injury
Some people develop low back pain that does not go away within a few days. This may mean there is an injury to an intervertebral disk.
- Disk tear. Small tears to the outer part of the disk (annulus) sometimes occur with aging. Some people with disk tears have no pain at all. Others can have pain that lasts for weeks, months, or even longer. A small number of people may develop constant pain that lasts for years and is quite disabling. It is not clear why some people have pain and others do not.
- Disk herniation. Another common type of disk injury is a “slipped” or herniated disk.
A disk herniates when its jelly-like center (nucleus) pushes against its annulus. If the disk is very worn or injured, the nucleus may squeeze, or herniate, all the way through. When the herniated disk bulges out toward the spinal canal, it puts pressure on the sensitive spinal nerves, causing pain.
Because a herniated disk in the low back often puts pressure on the nerve root leading to the leg and foot, pain often occurs in the buttockand down the leg. This is called sciatica.
A herniated disk may occur after lifting, pulling, bending, or twisting activities.
- Disk Degeneration
With age, intervertebral disks begin to wear away and shrink. In some cases, they may collapse completely and cause the facet joints — the small joints located between each vertebra on the back of the spine — to rub against one another. Pain and stiffness result. Smoking has also been found to accelerate disk degeneration.
This wear and tear on the facet joints is referred to as osteoarthritis, also known as spondylosis. It can lead to further back problems, including spinal stenosis.(To be continued)