It is difficult to find an adult who at least once did not feel pain in the lower back, and some of these painful sensations do not leave day or night, disrupting the quality of life and forcing them to swallow whole armfuls of pain pills. It is regrettable, but most of those who suffer from chronic lower back pain do nothing to treat it, believing that it is impossible to cure such a pathology, and it is not necessary.
How wrong they are! After all, there is an effective treatment for back pain. And for this you do not need to look for famous doctors and modern clinics at all. It will be enough just to be patient, set a goal and start daily therapeutic procedures. Of course, this is not a quick process, but the result in the form of the absence of severe back pain will certainly please you.
So, let's look at the main causes of lumbar pain and methods of dealing with them.
Why does your lower back hurt?
There is a whole carriage and a small cart that causes pain in the lumbar region. They can be divided into two parts - primary and secondary pain syndromes.
Primary back pain
With primary pain syndrome in the lower back, pathological changes primarily develop in the very tissues of the spine - these are degenerative-dystrophic disorders that begin in the intervertebral discs, gradually affecting the vertebrae and surrounding soft tissues. Probably everyone knows such diseases as osteochondrosis, spondyloarthrosis and spondylosis. These pathologies develop gradually, accompanied by chronic pain syndrome, and with the development of complications (compression of nerve roots, protrusion or hernia of the intervertebral disc, compression of the spinal cord), an attack of acute pain develops, which requires urgent medical attention.
Degenerative-dystrophic changes in 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 internal organs:
- congenital or acquired pathology of the musculoskeletal system - pathological bends of the spinal column, flat feet, etc. ;
- rheumatological and systemic diseases (ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, deforming osteoarthritis, reactive arthritis, systemic scleroderma, vasculitis, lupus erythematosus, etc. );
- metabolic pathology and endocrinological diseases in which the normal structure of bone tissue is disrupted - osteoporosis, hyperparathyroidism, osteomalacia;
- malignant and benign neoplastic lesions of the vertebrae and surrounding tissues (myeloma, lymphomas, osteosarcomas, metastatic tumors);
- traumatic damage to the tissues of the spine (stretching of muscles, ligaments, compression and other vertebral fractures);
- inflammatory lesions of the muscles of the lower back - myositis;
- gynecological diseases;
- pathology of the urinary tract (pyelonephritis, urolithiasis, etc. );
- diseases of the abdominal organs (acute appendicitis, pancreatitis, intestinal lesions).
This article deals with the treatment of primary back pain, which occurs in most cases. But before proceeding with therapeutic measures, it is imperative to visit a doctor to rule out more serious causes of lower back pain.
Basic principles of lumbar pain management
If you are looking for an answer to the question of how to treat low back pain, then the first answer is that the treatment should be comprehensive, injections and pills alone, most likely, will not be able to help you. Basically, medicines are used for exacerbation of the disease, and after the pain has been arrested, they begin more active actions, for example, remedial gymnastics, physiotherapy, massage, manual treatment, traditional medicine, etc.
Conservative therapy
Drug treatment
If the lower back hurts badly, then you cannot do without medication. In the treatment of back pain, several groups of medications are used. The main ones are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which also have powerful analgesic effects. These drugs are used both internally (injections, tablets) and locally (plasters, ointments, creams, gels). It is necessary to clarify that drugs from the NSAID group, although they perfectly eliminate the symptoms of the disease, do not affect its course, it is impossible to treat osteochondrosis with anti-inflammatory drugs alone.
Pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs work well to eliminate pain, but they will not address the underlying cause.
Muscle relaxants must be included in the complex of drug therapy. These drugs eliminate the pathological spasm of the skeletal muscles of the lumbar region (pathogenetic treatment of lower back pain), which greatly relieves pain.
A good helper in the treatment of back pain caused by pinching or inflammation of the spinal nerve roots are B vitamins, which strengthen and help restore damaged areas of nerve tissue.
In order to establish nutrition and metabolic processes in the affected tissues of the spine, antiplatelet agents, nicotinic acid are used.
If the pain is very severe, then local anesthetics are used for regional blockades, which allows you to temporarily relieve pain while measures are taken to eliminate its cause.
Physiotherapy
Exercise therapy is prescribed only after the pain subsides, with exacerbation it is contraindicated. The key to success is the regularity of training. Exercises to strengthen your back muscles should be done every day. It is ideal if such a complex is selected for you by a certified physiotherapist and will teach you all the subtleties of performing exercises.
As a last resort, you can learn it yourself (you can find a large number of videos with specific examples of movements). The main thing to be guided by when doing gymnastics is the absence of pain. If the movement causes you pain in the lower back, then reduce its amplitude or completely abandon it. Doing this at home can help you gradually strengthen your spinal muscles and relieve pain.
Massage
The health benefits of back massage can hardly be overestimated. The main thing is that it is done correctly and competently. And for this, first of all, you need to find a good, experienced and certified massage therapist.
Massage activates blood circulation processes in damaged tissues, contributes to their nutrition and elimination of toxic substances. Massage, as well as exercise therapy, is carried out only outside the exacerbation of the disease.
Physiotherapy procedures
The treatment and prevention of low back pain involves a wide variety of physiotherapy treatments. All of them are aimed at preventing degenerative processes in the spine and renewing damaged structures.
Most often used in the treatment of low back pain:
- magnetotherapy;
- laser treatment;
- ultrasound therapy;
- electrophoresis;
- thermal procedures;
- balneotherapy;
- mud wraps;
- paraffin and ozokerite applications.
Surgery
Operations for osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine are performed only in extreme cases, since such manipulations have a very high risk. Operate only on patients with intervertebral hernias that cause constant pain or patients with signs of spinal cord compression.
There are many methods of such operations - from open neurosurgical surgery to remove a diseased disc to endoscopic and robotic interventions with replacement of a damaged disc with artificial or bioengineered prostheses.
Unconventional treatments
Acupuncture
Treatment with needle pricks has been used since ancient times to combat various ailments. Modern acupuncture is an effective alternative treatment for back pain. In addition, conventional acupuncture today is supplemented by the introduction of various biologically active substances at 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 in the treatment of osteochondrosis and its consequences. The bottom line is manual action on the spinal column, reposition of the displaced vertebrae, release of nerves from compression and, as a result, elimination of pain. But it should be noted that these are rather dangerous methods of treatment and only a certified chiropractor should perform such techniques.
Folk recipes
Perhaps, the treatment of low back pain with folk remedies is very popular among the population due to its simplicity, naturalness and availability of ingredients for recipes, great experience in their use and effectiveness. There are many recipes for alternative treatment, consider the most popular.
Horse chestnut ointment is prepared as follows. Grind the chestnut herb into a powder and add to the fat and camphor oil in equal proportions. You can lubricate or apply a compress with such an ointment 2 times a day until the pain subsides.
Mix the grated radish or horseradish with sour cream or heavy cream and apply to the sore lower back in the form of a compress. Wrap yourself in a woolen shawl and go to bed. Repeat this procedure until the pain subsides.
For the next recipe, you will need dried burdock leaves. Soak them in boiling water and put them on the back, 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. You need to mix cologne, for example, triple, a bottle of iodine solution, valerian tincture and dried red pepper. Then you need to rub the sore spot well with the mixture and wrap it with a warm cloth overnight.
Folk recipes relieve back pain well, but their use is allowed only with the approval of a doctor.
There are more than a dozen, and maybe more than one hundred, recipes for traditional medicine. But in each case, before using them, you need to consult a doctor - if this particular recipe is contraindicated for you.
If you have lower back pain and you don’t know where to start treating it, then first of all visit a doctor who will establish the true cause of the pain. Only after this, through joint efforts (yours and your specialist's), can you win over the disease and pain.