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Back pain is not an uncommon complaint. In fact, four out of five adults will experience symptoms of lower back pain at least once in their lifetime. A complex structure, the back is made up of 33 vertebrae, more than 30 muscles, ligaments, multiple joints, and inter-vertebrae dics. With all of those muscles, joints, and discs, it’s not surprising there are many ways in which these elements can become injured or affected.

Muscular strain is the most common cause of back pain. When an unexpected force, twist, or pull is applied to one or several muscles in the back, tears occur in the muscle. These muscle tears cause the pain felt in the back. Ligamentous sprains, or sprains to the ligaments is another common cause of back pain. This occurs when the back ligaments are stretched beyond their limit. These sprains can often coincide with muscular strains.

When the spinal nerves in the back are compressed at the point where they exit the spinal column, the result is a herniated disc. Repetitive vibratory motion, such as experienced by truck drivers or machine users, often leads to this condition. A sudden heavy loading of the back, as occurs with improper lifting, can also cause a herniated disc. Because the condition affects the nerve endings, a radicular type of back pain is felt at the site of injury, as well as along the course of the affected nerve. Sciatica, a condition resulting from the irritation of the sciatica nerve is also a type of radicular pain. As the largest nerve in the body, it runs from the lumbar spinal cord in the low back and extends through the buttock area to send nerve endings down the lower limb.

Another cause of back pain, spinal stenosis occurs more commonly in adults over 50 years old. The term refers to a narrowing of the spinal canal. Spinal stenosis has numerous causes including thickened ligaments along the spinal canal, bony spurs, and enlarged joint cartilage from arthritic changes. In many cases, the pain of this condition is made worse with extended periods of weight bearing or walking. Surgery is sometimes required to correct the disorder.

As with spinal stenosis, osteoporosis affects the joints in the spine and is also more common in people over 50 years of age. Considered a degenerative joint diseases, over time the cartilage begins to degenerate in the discs between the vertebrae and the joints in the spine. Without a cartilaginous cushion, the bones begin to rub against each other, which results in inflammation, swelling and stiffness. As the condition progresses, bone spurs develop and ligaments become thick, both of which result in spinal stenosis.

A common cause of back especially in women, osteoporosis is a disease characterized by progressive loss of bone density. As the bone tissue begins to thin, it becomes more susceptible to fractures or broken bones. Bones of the spine are especially affected with osteoporosis. Injury from falls and lifting heavy objects can result in painful vertebral compression fractures.

Fibromyalgia is also a common cause of chronic back pain. The rheumatic condition is characterized by widespread soft tissue pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and the presence of evenly distributed areas of tenderness. A presence of widespread pain and tenderness for at least three months in 11 or more of the 18 designated tender point sites is required in diagnosing this disorder.

Prevention is the first line of defense when it comes to protecting your back from injury. Injury prevention includes everything from proper seat positioning at work to stretching before performing strenuous exercises. Lower back stretches, which can be recommended by a physician or physical therapist, are a quick and effective way to keep the back muscles and joints limber. Performing simple stretches can help prevent back pain or provide pain relief from present back aches.

Strengthening exercises help to build strong muscles which provide joint stability. These exercises are also important after sustaining injuries that require resting affected muscles. Especially in cases of post-operative recovery, discomfort after surgery often leads to decreased use of the affected area which leads to stiffness and weakness. As a result, strengthening and stretching exercises in early rehabilitation helps to prevent this from occurring.

For those experiencing chronic lower back pain, it’s important to first see your physician, who may refer you to a specialist or physical therapist. Physical therapy is very effective in treating lower back conditions and providing pain relief. A physical therapist may focus on decreasing pain with both passive and active therapy. Examples of passive therapy include heat/ice packs, ultrasound treatments, and TENS units. Active treatments include stretching, strengthening exercises, pain relief exercises, and low-impact aerobic conditioning. source

Sciatica symptom relief has often been hit and miss, but a new treatment option provides effective relief in the majority of cases with minimal risks. Sciatica (commonly misspelled as syatica) is an irritation of the sciatic nerve which is formed by nerves that arise in the low back. Most cases of sciatica are caused by herniations or bulges of one or more spinal discs. The spinal discs are soft tissue structures that separate the spinal bones (the vertebrae) and act as shock absorbers.

When a disc becomes damaged, the cartilage wall on the outside of the disc may be too weak to fully withstand the pressure coming from inside the disc, and the result is a protrusion of the disc into the passageways where the nerves branch off from the spinal cord and exit the spine. This places pressure on the nerves and creates pain, often in the form of sciatica, which begins in the buttock area and may extend down the leg towards the foot.

The treatment options for sciatica symptom relief vary depending on the case. Medication is usually the first line of treatment for sciatica symptom relief. Muscle relaxers may also be prescribed to reduce muscle spasm. Medication may be effective enough to provide relief short-term until inflammation subsides and/or the disc stabilizes. In more severe cases, oral medication may not be effective, and some patients may not be able to tolerate the common side effects of anti-inflammatory drugs and/or the diminished mental alertness seen with pain killers and muscle relaxers.

Steroid injections are often the next line of sciatica symptom relief treatment, and they are used to try to reduce inflammation around the discs and spinal nerves. While steroid injections often provide relief short-term, the long-term effects are less favorable. Due to the fact that the main effect of steroid injections is to reduce inflammation, once those effects wear off, inflammation and the resulting pressure on the nerves often builds up again, and symptoms return. Steroid injections also carry side-effects that include immune suppression, osteoporosis, and soft tissue damage, so their use must be limited to prevent causing other health problems.

Surgical treatment is often suggested for sciatica sufferers, and in a few cases it may be the only real option. The overall success rate of disc surgery is poor - about 50% - and in a relatively high number of cases the symptoms actually get worse after surgery resulting in what is known as “failed back surgery syndrome”. Complications of surgery include problems from post-surgical scar tissue formation and increased stress on adjacent spinal discs which may result in additional problems with other discs in the years following surgery.

Fortunately, there is a new option in sciatica symptom relief that has a high success rate and a very low risk of side-effects. Spinal decompression is a new, advanced form of spinal traction that uses special computerized traction motors to gently and slowly apply a decompressive force to the spine, reducing pressure in the spinal discs. Spinal decompression systems can comfortably create negative pressure (suction) within the spinal discs that can pull disc bulges and herniations back in and away from sensitive nerve structures, as well as increase disc hydration and nutrition to help with disc healing. Unlike the old forms of spinal traction which could be painful due to the traction pull triggering muscle spasm, spinal decompression systems monitor and respond to the body to keep muscles relaxed so the treatment is comfortable and effective.

Preliminary studies have shown a success rate for spinal decompression of 80 to 90%, with the beneficial effects holding up well over the long-term. The one-year recurrence rate post-treatment is less than 5%. While spinal decompression is not appropriate for everyone with sciatica and is not effective in every case, it does represent a big improvement in sciatica treatment. source