It’s hard to find an adult who hasn’t felt lower back pain at least once, and some of those painful feelings don’t go away day and night, disrupting their quality of life and forcing them to swallow a whole handful of painkillers. It is unfortunate, but most people with chronic low back pain do nothing to treat it, as such a pathology cannot and should not be cured.
how wrong they are! After all, there is an effective treatment for back pain. And you don’t have to look for famous doctors and modern clinics at all for that. It will be enough to be patient, set a goal and start daily therapeutic procedures. Of course, this is not a quick process, but the result of not having a severe back pain is certainly a pleasure.
So let’s look at the main causes and treatments for lumbar pain.
Why does my waist hurt?
There is an entire carriage and a small carriage that causes pain in the lumbar region. It can be divided into two parts - primary and secondary pain syndromes.
Primary back pain
With primary pain syndrome in the lower back, pathological changes develop primarily in the tissues of the spine — these are degenerative-dystrophic disorders that begin in the intervertebral discs and gradually affect the vertebrae and surrounding soft tissues. Probably everyone is familiar with diseases like osteochondrosis, spondyloarthrosis and spondylosis. These pathologies develop gradually, accompanied by chronic pain syndrome, and with the development of complications (compression of the nerve roots, protrusion or injury of the intervertebral disc, compression of the spinal cord), an attack of acute pain develops, requiring urgent medical attention. .
Degenerative-dystrophic lesions of the spine and their consequences are the cause of low back pain in more than 90% of cases.
Secondary back pain
Secondary back pain can be caused not only by diseases of the musculoskeletal system, but also by pathology of the internal organs:
- congenital or acquired pathology of the musculoskeletal system - abnormal bending of the spine, flat legs, etc. ;
- rheumatological and systemic diseases (ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, deforming osteoarthritis, reactive arthritis, systemic scleroderma, vasculitis, erythematosus, etc. );
- metabolic pathology and endocrinological diseases in which the normal structure of bone tissue is impaired - osteoporosis, hyperparathyroidism, osteomalacia;
- malignant and benign tumors of the vertebrae and surrounding tissues (myeloma, lymphomas, osteosarcomas, metastatic tumors);
- traumatic damage to spinal tissues (stretching of muscles, ligaments, compression and other vertebral fractures);
- inflammatory changes in the muscles of the lower back - myositis;
- gynecological diseases;
- urinary tract pathology (pyelonephritis, urolithiasis, etc. );
- diseases of the abdominal organs (acute appendicitis, inflammation of the pancreas, intestinal lesions).
This article covers the treatment of primary back pain in most cases. But before continuing therapeutic measures, it is imperative to consult a doctor to rule out more serious causes of low back pain.
Principles of treatment of lumbar pain
If you are looking for an answer to the question of how to treat low back pain, the first answer is that treatment should be comprehensive, injections and tablets alone are unlikely to help. Basically, the drugs are used to make the disease worse and after the pain has stopped, they start more active activities, such as physiotherapy, physiotherapy, massage, manual treatment, traditional medicine, and so on.
Conservative therapy
Drug treatment
If your lower back hurts a lot, you can’t do without the medication. Several classes of drugs are used to treat back pain. The main ones are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which also have a strong analgesic effect. These medicines are used both internally (injections, tablets) and topically (patches, ointments, creams, gels). It should be clarified that drugs from the NSAID group, although they completely eliminate the symptoms of the disease, do not affect its course, it is impossible to treat osteochondrosis with anti-inflammatory agents alone.
Painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs work well to relieve pain, but do not solve the cause.
Muscle relaxants should be included in the drug therapy complex. These drugs eliminate the abnormal spasm of the skeletal muscle of the lumbar region (pathogenetic treatment of low back pain), which greatly relieves pain.
B vitamins are good companions in the treatment of back pain caused by pinching or inflammation of the nerve roots in the spinal cord, which strengthen and help repair damaged areas of nerve tissue.
In order to establish nutrition and metabolic processes, antiplatelet agents, nicotinic acid, are used in the affected tissues of the spine.
If the pain is very severe, local anesthetics are used for regional blockades, allowing the pain to be temporarily relieved while measures are taken to eliminate its cause.
Physiotherapy
Practical therapy is prescribed only after pain relief and is contraindicated in case of exacerbation. The key to success is regular training. Exercises to strengthen your back muscles should be done every day. Ideally, such a complex will be selected for you by a certified physiotherapist and will teach you all the subtleties of performing the exercises.
As a last resort, you can learn for yourself (you can find a large number of videos with specific motion examples). The most important thing during gymnastics is the lack of pain. If the movement causes pain in the lower back, reduce its amplitude or leave it altogether. If you do this at home, you can gradually strengthen your spine muscles and relieve the pain.
Massage
The health benefits of back massage can hardly be overestimated. The point is to do it right and competently. To do this, you need to find a good, experienced and qualified masseur.
Massage activates the circulatory processes in the damaged tissues, contributes to their nutrition and the removal of toxic substances. Massage as well as gymnastics are performed only when the disease worsens.
Physiotherapy procedures
The treatment and prevention of low back pain includes a wide range of physiotherapy treatments. Each is aimed at preventing degenerative processes in the spine and rebuilding damaged structures.
Most commonly used to treat low back pain:
- magnetotherapy;
- laser treatment;
- ultrasound therapy;
- electrophoresis;
- thermal processes;
- balneotherapy;
- mud wraps;
- paraffin and ozokerite applications.
Surgery
Surgery for osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine is performed only in extreme cases, as such manipulations involve a very high risk. Only patients with intervertebral hernia or signs of spinal cord compression should be operated on.
There are a number of methods for such operations - from open neurosurgery to remove a patient’s disc to endoscopic and robotic procedures, in which the damaged disc is replaced with artificial or bioengineering prostheses.
Unusual treatments
Acupuncture
Needle piercing has been used since ancient times to combat various ailments. Modern acupuncture is an effective alternative to back pain. In addition, traditional acupuncture today is supplemented by the delivery of various biologically active substances to the puncture site by the action of a magnet or laser, which further increases the effectiveness of the technique.
Manual therapy
It is widely used to treat osteochondrosis and its consequences. The point is to manually intervene in the spine, adjust the displaced vertebrae, free the nerves from compression, and as a result, eliminate the pain. But it should be noted that these are quite dangerous treatment methods and only a qualified chiropractor can perform such techniques.
Folk recipes
Perhaps the treatment of lower back pain with folk remedies is very popular among the population because of its simplicity, naturalness, and availability of ingredients for prescriptions, as well as the great experience and effectiveness gained in using them. There are many recipes for alternative treatments, consider the most popular.
Horse chestnut ointment is prepared as follows. The chestnut is ground to a powder and added in equal proportions to the fat and camphor oil. You can lubricate or compress it with such an ointment twice a day until the pain goes away.
Mix the grated radish or horseradish with sour cream or hard cream and apply as a compress to the lower back. Wrap yourself in a woolen cloth and lie down. Repeat this procedure until the pain subsides.
You will need dried burdock leaves for the next recipe. Soak them in boiling water and place on their backs, wrap them in a warm cloth. Keep the compress for at least 1 hour.
Rubbing can help with back pain. To do this, you need to make the following mixture. Mix the cologne, such as threesome, a bottle of iodine solution, valerian tincture, and dried red pepper. Then rub the sore area thoroughly with the mixture and wrap it in a warm cloth overnight.
Folk recipes are good for relieving back pain, but their use is only allowed with the approval of a doctor.
There are more than a dozen and perhaps more than a hundred prescriptions for traditional medicine. But in any case, consult your doctor before using them - if this prescription is contraindicated for you.
If you have low back pain and do not know where to start treatment, see your doctor first to find out the real cause of the pain. Only then, with a joint effort (you and your professional) will you be able to overcome the illness and pain.