Lower Back Pain – Causes and Treatment

When you have a deadline to submit your presentation to your boss and you are in the office, late after the working hours sitting on your computer trying to gather some data and suddenly you get a striking pain in the lower back, what are you going to do about it? You cannot give up on the presentation or else you would be fired but you cannot even work on your presentation due to the severe pain. It can be a nightmare, isn’t it?

Rightly said as it is, you better take precaution than cure. But before we can speak about the treatment for lower back pain, we will first consider talking about the lower back pain causes. Lumbar strain, a stretch injury to the ligaments, tendons and muscles of the lower back; is considered one of the most common causes of lower back pain. This usually can happen due to improper sitting posture or sleeping positions. Bone and joint conditions that lead to low back pain include those existing from birth, those that result from wear and tear or injury, and those that are due to inflammation of the joints (arthritis). Other causes of lower back pain include kidney problems, pregnancy, ovary problems, and tumors.

Now speaking about treatments, there are two ways the first being non-surgical and the second being surgical treatment. The best non-surgical treatment for lower back pain is exercise. Here you need to go through a physical therapy, where the therapist will carry out stretching and exercise as guided by your physician. The therapist can also educate you on sitting postures, basic anatomy and instruct you on body mechanics, stretching and exercises. Resting is another way to treat your lower back pain. This will help the injured tissues and even nerve roots to heal over time. However a lot of rest also could be troublesome because it tends to weaken the muscles and in turn affects the support to the lower back. Medicines should only be consumed on your physician’s prescription because sometimes medicines have some unique risks and might possibly have some side-effects.

After trying out all the options available, if the pain does not seem to subside; surgery could be the last and the best option to overcome the chronic pain. Here your physician would suggest you whether you need a minimal invasive surgery or a spinal fusion surgery. Minimal invasive surgery is an operation on the lumbar spine performed using a surgical microscope and microsurgical techniques wherein, a very small incision and will remove only that portion of your ruptured disc which is “pinching” one or more spinal nerve roots; Whereas spinal fusion surgery is categorized based on the approach taken to reach the disc space.