Chronic back pain is a common condition. The latest research suggests that chronic back pain impacts 3-4% of adults under 45 while approximately 7% of adults over this age experience recurring pain in their back. While chronic back pain can be caused by something serious, it may also be benign.
Identifying Issues With Chronic Back Pain
If you are not sure what is causing your chronic back pain, you should consider arranging an appointment with a healthcare professional. Specialists in dealing with chronic back pain can help you identify the cause as well as provide the right treatment option that you need. There are lots of treatments available for chronic back pain from lifestyle changes to medicine and physical therapy. Getting the right support will dramatically improve your quality of life and could lead to significant reductions in your levels of pain as well as frequency.
Causes Of Chronic Back Pain
There are various causes of chronic back pain that you should be aware of. The first is poor posture. Issues with posture will put more pressure on key areas of the back and this can lead to tension as well as pain over time. To improve your posture, you should consider changing your environment. This could include investing in furniture for your office space or changing your sleep environment. A firmer mattress can provide the support that your back needs.
Aging can also result in chronic back pain. As you age, your body does change. You might experience reduced muscle strength and changes to the space between discs in your spine. This is why it’s important to ensure that you are stretching regularly to keep your muscles and areas like your back in the right condition for longer. Low-impact exercises such as yoga can also provide benefits for the health of your back as well as various other parts of your body.
Alternatively, you could be struggling with back pain due to an issue with muscle reconditioning. This occurs when your muscles begin to lose stability and strength. That can lead to problems with degradation and tearing over time. Again, this can be linked to age. However, it may also be due to inactivity. This is why you need to make sure that you are working to keep the muscles in your back active.
Is It An Emergency?
In most cases, back pain will not be an emergency situation. It’s also worth noting that the bark is often worse than the bite. You can have severe pain and it could be a minor issue. However, there are signs that you should take your pain more seriously. This includes:
- Sharp pain instead of a dull ache
- Weakness in legs
- Issues with incontinence
- Numbness or pins and needles in your glutes or groin
Issues like this may suggest nerve compression, a spine infection, a stroke or another serious spinal condition. If you suspect a problem like this, you must treat the situation as an emergency.
We hope this helps you understand the common causes of chronic back pain, how to identify an issue like this and why it is important to get the right treatment.
