Lower Back Pain - Some Common Causes Identified

While causes of lower back pain are many, the intensity of lower back pain depends on the state of mind and it becomes chronic only if you allow it to reach that stage. Identifying the real cause of your lower back pain is the first step towards living a life from lower back pain.

Muscle strain, muscle injury, overuse and injury to the discs and ligaments supporting the spine, are all responsible for lower back pain. The view of experts is that spinal structure is affected by muscle strain and can become imbalanced over a period of time. Ever present tension in the various constituents of the back, namely the muscles, discs, bones, and ligaments is the key cause of recurring injury. If one cause is already present, it is likely to create other conditions conducive to damaging the lower back pain, also known as the lumbosacral area. For example, a patient's walk will automatically become modified by strained muscles, to avoid or accommodate pain. In this manner, other muscles that are not usually utilised in a particular activity are used to perform it and consequently they also get injured. Similar examples of injury to lower back pain abound.

Lower back pain is also due to several spinal diseases. Some of these are joint inflammation, arthritis, tumours of the spine, growths in the spine and Paget's disease that results in abnormal growth of bones and affects the spine, chest, legs, skull, and pelvis. In Scheuermann's disease, curvature of either the spine or chest region occurs due to deformities in the vertebrae. Aortic aneurysm, pelvic inflammatory disease, peptic ulcers, gall bladder disease, kidney stones, pancreatitis, urinary tract infections, as well as prostate disease are all among the known reasons for lower back pain.

Other reasons include overuse of or injury to ligaments, facet joints, the sacroiliac joints and muscles. Pressure exerted on nerve roots located in the spinal cord, and compression fracture of the spine, are other reasons. Compression fractures occur in men after corticosteroid use for a long time, post-menopausal women or in women with osteoporosis.

Pressure is exerted on nerve roots due to a number of reasons like a herniated disc, caused by vibration, repetitive motion or heavy strain exerted suddenly. Ageing causes Osteoarthritis that goes on to set off lower back pain by impacting the small facet joints. More reason for lower back pain are:

spinal fracture as a result of a bicycle or automobile accident that exerts a massive force

direct hit to the spine

compression of the spine because of falling on the head or bottom

spinal deformities, like scoliosis and kyphosis

To identify the right reason for lower back pain, it is important to consult a doctor or your family physician, and begin the appropriate treatment for lower back pain. Freeing yourself of lower back pain becomes easy with the right diagnosis and your doctor can definitely help in attaining a life unencumbered by back pain.