How to deal with Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain is one of the most common diseases that affect everyone. Earlier it was only associated with the elderly, but now due to the popularisation of the 'Work from Home' culture in this post COVID era, it has started to affect everyone.
The Reason for Lower Back Pain
The main reason that everyone, whether young or old, is being affected by Lower Back Pain is the incorrect posture that everyone follows unconsciously. The backbone is supposed to be straight, but when we are working on computers, at home, doing sitting jobs for hours on end, we tend to bend a little. When this bent posture is followed for many days, months or years, it eventually leads to lower back pain.
Symptoms of Lower Back Pain
As opposed to common knowledge, there are other areas also which have pain because of problems in the lower back. They are:
Radiating pain in the groin
Pain in the front area of thigh
Pain in the side of thigh
Pain in knee
Pain in calves
Pain in soles of the feet
Pain in the Lower back region
The reason for such symptoms is easy to understand. There are 5 pairs of nerves in our lower back area, which get compressed due to the abnormal shape of the spine - incorrect posture ofcourse!
These nerves supply sensory and motor signals to these body parts mentioned above, which is now not done properly because the nerves are compressed. This causes inflammation of the muscles where the signal is not reaching completely. Which, in turn, causes pain in those muscles over time.
Treatment of Lower Back pain
Lower Back Pain can be treated temporarily by taking some muscle relaxants. This method is just for short time relief because as the effects of the medicine wear off, the pain will return. The permanent solution for the treatment of lower back pain includes a combination of two therapies. The first is Physiotherapy: Your therapist will know the techniques on how your hyper-curved spine will come back into shape. But major work will be done by you to keep your spine in the correct shape. This will be done by keeping your posture correct and by doing regular exercises to strengthen your spine and back area.
Don't be disheartened when it takes more time than expected. If something wrong took years to produce pain, then it would take a few months if not weeks, to revert back into the original form. Sometimes, if the severity of the problem is less, it can be treated within a few days as well.
The second therapy that is required here is a technique called myo-fascial release. It is a form of Osteopathic treatment. It provides instant relief (a single session sometimes) to the inflamed and swollen muscles which are the reason for the excessive pain.
Both these techniques when working together can prove to be magical for a person suffering from chronic constant lower back pain. The results can be seen in just a single session, which would be further improved with regular therapy and exercises depending upon the seriousness of the problem.
Further, Manipulation and Mobilisation techniques are used to improve movement of the spine. Kinetic chain release is further used to release muscle spasm and tightness.
Why MRI will not detect the problem
MRI or Magnetic Resonance Imaging is used to see any problem or abnormalities in the brain, spinal cord area or any other joints in the body. Sometimes, you have pain in your knee, but the MRI report of the knee shows that everything is normal. That is because the root cause of the pain is not the knee, but the nerves which have been compressed by the abnormally bent spine. The knee will hence, seem perfectly normal in the MRI. But the MRI of your lower back area will show all that you need to know.
The first step should be to self assess your pain. If the pain is just in the knee, it is because of some problem in the knee. But if you also have pain in your lower back along with the knee, then it might be the pain due to compressed nerves. If all the special tests come out to be negative, then it is definitely so.
The misdiagnosis of the problem leads to much unnecessary pain to a person physically, financially and in terms of life! Because every day which is not pain free is a day where you are going through emotional and physical trauma and not living your life to the fullest. Sometimes, it takes years before people find the right approach to treat their problem and they keep taking various medicines and drugs to help them with the pain. I hope this article helps the ones who need it the most.
Keep Happy and Healthy!
Please Like, Share and Subscribe if you like what you read!
This article has been medically reviewed by Dr. Amit Kumar (Osteopath, certified Chiropractor and Physiotherapist) and written by Gitanjali Dass