The Center for Chiropractic & Decompression NYC

When it comes to back pain, their can be a wide range of causes and symptoms associated with the condition. While low back pain definitely afflicts the elderly and aging, it can also affect a healthy adult or even a teenager or child. It has been stated that as much as 80% of people will suffer with back pain at some point in their lives.

The back is a complicated system of bones and muscles. The spinal column that runs up its center is made of vertebrae divided into different groups. There are the cervical, thoracic, lumbar and root or sacrum groupings of vertebrae, as well as ligaments and tendons that attach the muscles of the back to the spine. Each vertebra in the spinal column is separated from the last by a rounded pad of tissue called fibrocartilage. These are called discs. The lower back or lumbar area of the spine is where low back pain occurs most often.

Depending on how long someone suffers from back pain, their pain may be considered acute or chronic. Low back pain that endures for a few days to a few weeks, or at least less than three months, is considered acute. Chronic back pain, on the other hand, lasts longer than just three months.

Given the tough job the spine and back have to do, it’s no wonder that posture alone can cause low back pain. Things like obesity, weight gain during pregnancy, and a poor physical condition in general make it hard for the back to do its job of keeping the spine straight. Weight loss and healthy living alone can often improve back pain tremendously.

Trauma to the lower back is a serious cause of low back pain that has to be examined as soon as it occurs. Car accidents that whip the body around can cause back pain, as well as people who overstretch when reaching or pick up something too heavy. These things can cause trauma to the back, causing the discs between the vertebrae to bulge. Nerve and muscle tissue can become irritated, bone lesions can occur, and left untreated, these things can become much more serious.

If low back goes untreated and is of a serious nature, it can become something else more serious such as sciatica. Sciatica is caused when herniated or ruptured discs press on the sciatic nerve. This nerve runs down the spinal column to the pelvis and if irritated, can cause shock like or burning back pain. This pain shoots through the buttocks and travels down a leg, going often as far as below the knee.

Americans pay almost fifty billion dollars tending to back pain each year. Men and women experience low back pain in equal numbers, and though old age can cause conditions like osteoporosis that result in back pain, even teenagers can experience it. Gardening, housework, improper posture when lifting things and even something as benign as bad sleeping positions can cause people to experience shooting or stabbing back pains as well as lowered flexibility and an inability to bend or stand up straight.

Whether back pain is a result of trauma or just seems to happen, any kind of low back pain that persists longer than a few days should be treated by a doctor. Back pain that doesn’t heal on its own could become something more serious. Visit a doctor if you have any questions, to avoid an improper diagnosis of something more severe.

Contact us today to schedule a no obligation consultation with one of our Chiropractors.