Posts Tagged ‘Muscle Strains’
Dealing With Lower Back Pain
Four out of every five adult Americans will experience lower back Pain at one time in their lives. Sometimes it’s a mild strain or sprain that goes away after a couple of days. Other times, lower back Pain lasts for weeks or months.
Ironically, a simple muscle spasm can cause more Pain than a herniated disk. In fact, despite the fear of herniated disks, they are the cause of only four percent of back pain cases in the USA each year.
Looking at the causes of lower back Pain
1. Muscle strains from activities including heavy lifting, sports activities, whiplash from a car accident, or twisting.
2. Herniated disk (slipped dieck) resulting in the disk pressing a spinal nerve.
3. Spondylosis, also known as spinal osteoarthritis, is a degenerative disease often found in the elderly. Osteoarthritis results from the breakdown of cartilage in the facet bones of the spine. With no cartilage, stiffness and occurs.
4. Spinal stenosis which is the narrowing of an area of the spine. If a nerve is affected by the narrowing, then pain may occur. Spinal stenosis can ofthen be brought on when walking. Regardless of the symptom, the best plan is to avoid the activity that rings on the pain.
Treating lower back pain
1. Lower back muscle strains: Get ice on the back as soon as possible. Ice your lower back 5 – 6 times per day for 10 -1 5 minutes. Do this for the first 48 hours. If you are not feeling any better, go and see your physician, but usually for a strain, the pain will begin to subside albeit possibly slowly.
Over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicine such as ibuprofen is often recommended by doctors. Call your advice nurse or go and visit your doctor to see what dosage should be taken.
2. Herniated discs: most people recover from herniated discs within a couple of months. At first your doctor will likely treat a herniated disc similarly to a muscle strain in that icing and anti-inflammatory drugs may be involved. In the unlikely event that this dies not solve it, surgery may be an alternative.
3. Osteoarthritis: although this is a degenerative condition, it sounds a lot worse than it is. Treatment may include anti-inflammatory medicine, muscle relaxants, together with exercises to help support the spine. In 75% of cases, this approach will succeed.
4. Spinal stenosis: initially treatment may focus on removing the source of the pain, be that walking, running, etc. Ultimately, surgery may be necessary, and the success rate is high resulting in an increase in mobility and activity level.
Frank Thornton
http://www.articlesbase.com/medicine-articles/dealing-with-lower-back-pain-119605.html
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Upper Back Pain
Upper back pain is not as common as the lower Back Pain. But pain is pain. When the pain process starts, it is unbearable. The two common identified causes of upper Back pain are:
1. Muscular irritation (also known as myofascial pain)
2. Joint dysfunction.
There can be many other causes- injury, accidents, upper disc displacement and many more.
There is a great deal of stability and less motion in the upper back, which is thoracic spine region. So, spinal disorders are not very common. Conditions like herniated disc, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease and spinal disability can cause upper back pain, but such cases are few. This being the case, it is difficult to identify the causes for the upper back pain, precisely. Even an MRI Scan or CT Scan will not be of much help. So, it is not easy for the doctor to find a surgical solution, if the pain persists for a long period.
Modern amenities are not without the accompanying problems. A poor posture over a period of time creates strain in a particular region and that region happens to be your upper back, in case you are a computer operator and work throughout the day in front of your PC. Neck pain and shoulder pain are the comrades -in arms -of the upper back pain.
Here are some more causes of upper back pain:
1. Lack of strength in the particular region.
2. Injuries and damage to the muscles of the region caused through repetitive motions i.e. working in a particular machine in a particular manner. Take for example, hand molding machines. On an average a person does 1500 hand-operated motions in a working schedule of 8 hours.
3. Muscle strains and sports injuries.
Here again. You have to understand your back pain. With the nature of your work known to you, identify the area of your upper back, which is mostly strained. Do such yoga asanas, which help to ease the stress in that area. Do regular oil massage. If this is done in a systematic manner, there would not be any cause for the upper back pain to happen.
Because upper back is a big area, and also ‘muscle junction’, you have to adapt to a system of doing several stretching and strengthening exercises.
If you get the upper back pain, do not panic. Avoid hard medications and painkillers at any cost. Even best of the hospitals, the renowned specialists, have understood the virtue of physio-therapy. Follow it now, for your suffering is due to your past failings and negligence!
Ashish Jain
http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/upper-back-pain-59683.html
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