It is difficult to find an adult who at least once has not felt pain in the lower back and some of these painful sensations do not go away day or night, disrupting the quality of life and forcing them to swallowarm pain pills. It is unfortunate, but most of those who suffer from chronic 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 at all for famous doctors and modern clinics. 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 satisfy you.
So let's look at the main causes of low back pain and methods of treating them.
Why does your lower back hurt?
There is a whole cart 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 develop mainly in the spinal tissues themselves - these are degenerative-dystrophic disorders that begin in the intervertebral discs, gradually affecting the vertebrae and surrounding soft tissues. Probably everyone knows diseases such as osteochondrosis, spondyloarthritis and spondylosis. These pathologies develop gradually, accompanied by chronic pain syndrome, and with the development of complications (compression of nerve roots, elongation or hernia of the intervertebral disc, compression of the spinal cord), an acute pain attack 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 curves of the spine, 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, lymphoma, osteosarcoma, metastatic tumors);
- traumatic spinal cord injury (stretching of muscles, ligaments, compression and other vertebral fractures);
- Inflammatory lesions of the muscles of the lower back - myositis;
- gynecological diseases;
- urinary tract pathology (pyelonephritis, urolithiasis, etc. );
- diseases of the abdominal organs (acute appendicitis, pancreatitis, intestinal lesions).
This article addresses the treatment of primary back pain, which occurs in most cases. But before proceeding with therapeutic measures, it is necessary to visit a doctor to rule out the most serious causes of 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, only injections and pills, most likely, will not help you. Basically, medications are used to make the disease worse and after the pain stops, more active actions begin, for example, improvement gymnastics, physiotherapy, massage, manual treatment, traditional medicine, etc.
Conservative therapy
Drug treatment
If your lower back hurts a lot, then you can not do without medication. Several groups of medications are used to treat back pain. The most important are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which also have strong 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 group NSAIDs, although they perfectly eliminate the symptoms of the disease, do not affect its course, it is impossible to treat osteochondrosis only with anti-inflammatory drugs.
Pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medications work well for pain relief, but they will not treat the underlying cause.
Muscle relaxants should 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 back pain), which greatly relieves the pain.
A good helper in treating back pain caused by tightness or inflammation of the nerve roots of the spine are B vitamins, which strengthen and help restore damaged areas of nerve tissue.
To establish nutritional and metabolic processes in the affected tissues of the spine, antiplatelet agents, nicotinic acid are used.
If the pain is very strong, then local anesthetics are used for regional blockages, which allows you to temporarily relieve the pain while measures are taken to eliminate its cause.
Physiotherapy
Exercise therapy is prescribed only after the pain subsides, with worsening it is contraindicated. The key to success is regularity of training. Exercises to strengthen the back muscles should be done daily. It is ideal if such a complex is chosen for you by a certified physiotherapist and will teach you all the details of performing the 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 when doing gymnastics is the absence of pain. If the movement causes you pain in the lower back, then reduce its amplitude or abandon it completely. Doing this at home can help you gradually strengthen your spine muscles and relieve pain.
Massage
The health benefits of back massage can hardly be overstated. The main thing is to do it correctly and competently. And for that, first of all, you need to find a good, experienced and certified massage therapist.
Massage activates the circulatory processes in damaged tissues, contributes to their nutrition and elimination of toxic substances. Massage, as well as exercise therapy, are performed only outside the aggravation of the disease.
Physiotherapy procedures
Treatment and prevention of low back pain includes a wide variety of physiotherapy treatments. All of them are aimed at preventing degenerative processes in the spine and renovating damaged structures.
Most often used in the treatment of low back pain:
- magnetotherapy;
- laser treatment;
- ultrasound therapy;
- electrophoresis;
- thermal procedures;
- balneotherapy;
- clay coils;
- paraffin and ozokerite applications.
Surgery
Operations for lumbar spine osteochondrosis are performed only in extreme cases, as such manipulations have a very high risk. Surgery only in patients with intervertebral hernias that cause persistent 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 by replacing a damaged disc with artificial or bioengineered prostheses.
Unconventional treatments
Acupuncture
Needle piercing treatment has been used since ancient times to fight various diseases. Modern acupuncture is an effective alternative treatment for back pain. In addition, conventional acupuncture today is complemented by the introduction of various biologically active substances into the drilling site, by the action of a magnet or laser, which further enhances the effectiveness of the technique.
Manual therapy
It is widely used in the treatment of osteochondrosis and its consequences. Ultimately it is the manual action on the spine, the placement of the displaced vertebrae, the release of the nerves from compression and, as a result, the elimination of pain. But it should be noted that these are quite dangerous methods of treatment and only a certified chiropractor should perform such techniques.
Popular recipes
Perhaps, the treatment of back pain with folk remedies is very popular among the population due to the simplicity, naturalness and availability of ingredients for prescriptions, extensive 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 grass into a powder and add the fat and camphor oil in equal proportions. You can apply or apply a compress with such an ointment 2 times a day until the pain subsides.
Mix the radish or horseradish with sour cream or thick cream and apply to the lower back of the injured in the form of a compress. Cover yourself with a woolen scarf 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 place them on the back, wrap them in a warm cloth. Hold the compress for at least 1 hour.
Rubbing can help with back pain. To do this, you need to do the following mixing. You need to mix the cologne, for example, triple, a bottle of iodine solution, valerian solution and dried red pepper. You should then rub the sore spot well with the mixture and wrap it in a warm cloth overnight.
Popular recipes well relieve back pain, but their use is allowed only with the approval of the doctor.
There are more than a dozen, and perhaps more than a hundred, prescriptions for traditional medicine. But in any case, before using them, you should consult a doctor - if this particular prescription is contraindicated for you.
If you have pain in the lower back and do not know where to start treating it, then first visit a doctor who will determine the true cause of the pain. Only then, with joint efforts (yours and your specialist's), will you be able to overcome illness and pain.