Not all low back pain is the same

From mayoclinichealthsystem.org

Your back is made up of 30 bones stacked in a column surrounded by muscles and ligaments. It allows you to stand, walk, bend, sit and twist. It connects other parts of your skeleton and supports your spinal cord and nerve roots. Nearly every movement you make involves your back in some manner. This constant movement and support mean that your back is susceptible to strain and stress.

About 80% of adults in the U.S. will experience low back pain at some point. Not all back pain is the same and symptoms can vary widely, ranging from intense, shooting or pinching pain to a dull, ongoing ache.

Occasionally, a person with back pain can pinpoint the exact time it started, like when attempting to lift a heavy object or after a fall. More commonly, no specific trigger or event led to the pain.

Understanding the causes of back pain, along with the symptoms, can help you and your health care team determine the best treatment options for you.

Here are the most common causes of back pain:

Muscle or ligament strain

Strains are usually caused by a single event, such as using poor body mechanics to lift a heavy object. Carrying more weight and certain repetitive motions also can strain muscles and spinal ligaments in your back.

Strains feel like a sudden stabbing, localized pain. This pain worsens when you contract the muscle or twist. Redness, swelling and bruising can occur. The pain can be intense and significantly affect daily activities. Occasionally, people state that they have "thrown out" their backs. In most cases, they have a muscle or ligament strain.

Bulging disk

Disks act as cushions between the bones, or vertebrae, in your spine. The material inside a disk can bulge and press on a nerve.

It is possible and fairly common to have a bulging disk without pain. Pain from a bulging disk usually occurs in the low back and radiates into the hips, buttocks or legs. It is often worse with activity and feels better when resting.

Herniated disk

A herniated disk results when a tear in the tough outer layer of allows some of the inner disk material to protrude outward. Herniated disks also are called ruptured disks or slipped disks, although the whole disk does not rupture or slip.

Many people have no pain from a herniated disk. But compared with a bulging disk, a herniated disk is more likely to cause pain because it protrudes farther and is more likely to irritate nerve roots. Depending on where the herniated disk is, it can result in pain, numbness or weakness in one or both legs. They usually affect only one side of the body.

Sciatica

Sciatica is named after the sciatic nerve, which is the largest nerve in your body. It most commonly occurs when a herniated disk, bone spur on the spine or spinal stenosis compresses part of the nerve. This causes inflammation, pain and often some numbness in the affected leg.

Sciatica is a sharp, shooting pain that runs from your low back down the side or back of your leg. Typically, sciatica affects only one side of your body. Although the pain associated with sciatica can be severe, most cases resolve with nonoperative treatments in a few weeks.

Arthritis

Low back pain often is caused by osteoarthritis, the most common type of arthritis. Arthritis can lead to a narrowing of the space around the spinal cord or nerve roots, a condition called spinal stenosis. It occurs most often in the low back and neck. When this occurs in the low back, the most common symptoms are pain in both legs, tingling, numbness and sometimes muscle weakness. Symptoms are usually brought on by standing for a long time or walking longer distances.

Degenerative disk disease

As you age, the disks between your vertebrae begin to shrink and lose their softer qualities. This narrows the space between the vertebrae and can make your spine less flexible.

Degenerative disk disease does not always cause symptoms. If it does, symptoms vary widely in nature and severity. Generally, pain comes and goes over a long time. It may feel better when you change positions or walk, and worsen when you sit, bend or twist.

Spondylosis

Spondylosis is a general term for age-related wear and tear on the bones in your spine. As disks dehydrate and shrink, bone spurs can develop where your vertebrae meet.

Bone spurs are common. More than 85% of people over 60 are affected by them. Most bone spurs cause no symptoms or pain. You might not know you have bone spurs until revealed on imaging of your spine.

Skeletal irregularities

Back pain can occur if your spine curves abnormally or if the bones are not stacked directly on top of each other (a "slipped" vertebral body). Abnormal curves or slipped vertebral bodies can sometimes contribute to back pain.

When to schedule an appointment

Most low back pain — even when severe — goes away on its own in six to eight weeks with self-care, such as resting from heavy lifting, applying heat or ice, using over-the-counter pain medications and stretching. Physical therapy can provide tremendous relief from back and limb pain, and oftentimes people do not need additional imaging or evaluation with these measures.

Talk with your health care professional if your back pain occurs after a fall or another injury, or you have a history of cancer.

In addition, schedule an appointment if you have any of these back pain symptoms:

• Constant or intense pain, especially at night or when you lie down.
• Spreads down one or both legs.
• Causes weakness, numbness or tingling in one or both legs.
• Occurs with a fever, swelling or redness on your back.
• Occurs with unintended weight loss.
• Occurs with new bowel or bladder control problems.

Kendall Snyder, M.D., is a neurosurgeon in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/not-all-low-back-pain-is-the-same 

Perfect for those suffering from mild sciatica pains, this one daily exercise could prevent them

From d1softballnews.com

Sciatica is the perception of a distinct pain. From the base of the pelvis it can also reach down to the foot. It almost feels like a nerve is pulling hard and burning to death. In most cases, it is perceived in situations where we are lying with the leg bent or when we are sitting with the legs crossed. In fact, it is an inflammation of the sciatic nerve. This is the most voluminous that exists in our body and also the one most exposed to conditioning by the skeletal structures. Some less acute symptoms, in addition to pain, involve tingling, numbness, and muscle weakness.

The causes of pain

This disorder has many causes. Chief among them is the compression of the nerve due to a herniated disc. Then it can be due to piriformis syndrome, a muscle found in the back of the pelvis. Spondylolisthesis could be another cause: in this case, it is a slow and progressive forward movement of a vertebra relative to the one below. Finally, it could result from trauma and accidents, or from diabetes. However, the diagnosis can only be made after a thorough medical examination by a specialist. For this reason, it is best to consult a doctor first.

Perfect for those suffering from mild sciatica pains, this one daily exercise could prevent them but also make them disappear

To prevent nagging sciatica pain, there are many things we could do. First of all, as with everything related to our body, a healthy lifestyle is always recommended. Avoiding bad fats or getting regular exercise could be a good start. Many doctors also recommend light physical activity, functional to get our whole body moving, helping to maintain tone. Again, good posture in the workplace, especially if particularly sedentary, would help prevent this type of pain. In case we simply wanted to lighten the weight on our legs at the end of the day, we recommend reading this article. The exercise we’re going to talk about today is a muscle stretching exercise. It may be effective in milder situations, but never without a doctor’s response. Surely it could help relieve pain and promote its spontaneous disappearance.

All we have to do is relax the painful area, without straining it with excessive weights or movements, but simply favouring its relaxation. So, let’s sit on the ground, with the foot flexed and open, and stretch the leg. The buttocks must be pressed to the ground. Hold the position for 10 seconds, then bend the knee towards the chest and extend the leg on the ground. The most suitable repetitions are 5-10 times. Perfect for those with mild sciatica pains, this unique exercise, coupled with regular physical activity and healthy food, could really be the breakthrough we were looking for.

(The information in this article is for informational purposes only and does not in any way substitute for medical advice and / or the opinion of a specialist. Furthermore, it does not constitute an element for formulating a diagnosis or for prescribing a treatment. For this reason it is recommended, in any case, to always seek the opinion of a doctor or a specialist and to read the warnings regarding this article and the author’s responsibilities which can be consulted. HERE”)

https://d1softballnews.com/perfect-for-those-suffering-from-mild-sciatica-pains-this-one-daily-exercise-could-prevent-them-but-also-make-them-disappear/

 

Sciatica versus pseudo sciatica

From southplattesentinel.com

By Dr. Mark McDonald 

This week we are going to discuss the difference between sciatica and pseudo sciatica and the way to tell what you have.

Pseudo sciatica is a false sciatica that is derived from compression of the nerve and perineural tissue in the muscular spaces of the buttock and thigh which causes pain down the leg, numbness and tingling and for all the world feels like sciatica itself. However, the cause of pseudo sciatica is false. That is to say that it is not originating in the spine but is originating in the muscular spaces of the buttock (i.e. under the piriformis muscle or through the piriformis muscle) and is associated with radiating pain from the glut medius, glut minimus and piriformis muscles themselves.

When trigger points appear in the glut medius, glut minimus and piriformis, these highly sensitized muscle knots can refer pain down the leg which feels for all the world like a true “pinched nerve”. This is not true far from the truth as the nerve may itself be pinched under or through the piriformis muscle in the buttock. However, pseudo sciatica differs from sciatica in that it does not originate in the spine.

Sciatica itself simply means “an irritation of the sciatica nerve” so technically pseudo sciatica is sciatica. However, for purposes of treatment and defining the condition, it is better to clarify whether or not the condition originates in the spine or in the buttock. Many patients confuse pseudo sciatica with hip pain as they often have pain over the greater trochanter (the bump on the side of your hip) as well as pain down the buttock. Since the hip is in the front of the pelvis, nothing can be farther from the truth.

Patients with hip pain generally have pain in the groin and pain down the front of the thigh, not the back. Therefore, patients with true hip arthritis and other pathologies of the hip often have pain in the groin and the front of the thigh where the hip refers pain.

On the corollary, the piriformis and glut medius can refer to pain into the side of the hip and into the buttock and down the back of the leg to the knee and even below the knee. This is how pseudo sciatica can be identified and treated specifically for its causation.

True sciatica: True sciatica is a pain down the buttock and down the lateral hip which originates in the spine. True sciatica is caused by a “pinched nerve” in the spine either from an intervertebral disc bulge or rupture as well as from bony changes in the spine (spinal stenosis) and lateral recessed stenosis of the spine. Generally, patients with stenosis of either type have difficulty with standing and walking and get relief with sitting and bending. Patients with spinal stenosis causing sciatica have something called neurologic claudication, that is to say, that pain shoots down the leg after walking even a short period of time and goes away when the patient stops or sits down.

It should be known that patients can also have claudication symptoms with a clogged artery in the leg and therefore this should always be diagnosed by a physician. Patients with a pinched nerve in the spine that is compressing the nerve root and the nerve root sleeve will have numbness, tingling, burning pain and even weakness in the leg which shoots down the buttock, back of thigh and even beyond the knee into the foot and ankle. Your physical therapist can help determine which level is being pinched in the spine by checking for weaknesses as well as loss of reflex action in the leg.

As you can see, sciatica and pseudo sciatica are two very different types of pain in the leg and have different causes which need to be specifically diagnosed in order to treat properly. Additionally, patients with hip problems will have pain in different areas. However, if misunderstood, patients can misunderstand sciatica as a hip problem rather than a back problem. For more information on sciatica, pseudo sciatica and hip pain, do not hesitate to contact the clinic to schedule a no-cost consultation.

https://www.southplattesentinel.com/2022/02/07/sciatica-versus-pseudo-sciatica/