It is difficult to find an adult who has not felt pain in the lower back at least once, and some of these painful sensations do not go away day or night, altering the quality of life and forcing him to swallow whole arms of painkillers. It is unfortunate, but most of those who suffer from chronic low back pain do nothing to treat it, believing that it is impossible to cure such a pathology, and it is not necessary.
How wrong they are! After all, there is an effective treatment for back pain. And for this, you do not need to search for famous doctors and modern clinics at all. All you have to do is be patient, set a goal, and start your daily therapeutic procedures. Of course, this is not a quick process, but the result in the form of the absence of severe back pain will certainly please you.
So, let's look at the main causes of low back pain and the methods to treat them.
Why does your lower back hurt?
There is a full carriage and a small cart that causes pain in the lumbar region. They can be divided into two parts: primary and secondary pain syndromes.
Primary back pain
With primary pain syndrome in the lower back, pathological changes develop mainly in the tissues of the spine; These are degenerative-dystrophic disorders that begin in the intervertebral discs and gradually affect the vertebrae and surrounding soft tissues. Probably everyone is familiar with diseases such as osteochondrosis, spondyloarthrosis, and spondylosis. These pathologies develop gradually, accompanied by chronic pain syndrome, and with the development of complications (compression of nerve roots, protrusion or herniation of the intervertebral disc, compression of the spinal cord), an attack of acute pain develops, requiring attention urgent medical. .
Degenerative-dystrophic changes in the spine and their consequences are the cause of low back pain in more than 90% of cases.
Secondary back pain
Secondary back pain can be caused not only by diseases of the musculoskeletal system, but also by pathology of the internal organs:
- Congenital or acquired pathology of the musculoskeletal system: pathological curves of the spine, flat feet, etc. ;
- rheumatological and systemic diseases (ankylosing spondylitis, rheumatoid arthritis, deforming osteoarthritis, reactive arthritis, systemic scleroderma, vasculitis, lupus erythematosus, etc. );
- metabolic pathology and endocrinological diseases in which the normal structure of bone tissue is disturbed: osteoporosis, hyperparathyroidism, osteomalacia;
- malignant and benign neoplastic lesions of the vertebrae and surrounding tissues (myeloma, lymphomas, osteosarcomas, metastatic tumors);
- traumatic damage to the tissues of the spine (stretching of muscles, ligaments, compression and other vertebral fractures);
- inflammatory lesions of the lower back muscles - myositis;
- gynecological diseases;
- urinary tract pathology (pyelonephritis, urolithiasis, etc. );
- diseases of the abdominal organs (acute appendicitis, pancreatitis, intestinal lesions).
This article is about treating primary back pain, which occurs in most cases. But before proceeding with therapeutic measures, it is imperative to visit a doctor to rule out more serious causes of low back pain.
Basic principles of low back pain management
If you are looking for an answer to the question of how to treat low back pain, then the first answer is that the treatment must be comprehensive, most likely injections and pills alone cannot help you. Basically, drugs are used for exacerbation of the disease, and after the pain has stopped, more active actions begin, for example, corrective gymnastics, physiotherapy, massage, manual treatment, traditional medicine, etc.
Conservative therapy
Drug treatment
If your lower back hurts a lot, then you cannot do without medication. In the treatment of back pain, several groups of drugs are used. The main ones are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which also have powerful pain-relieving effects. These drugs are used both internally (injections, tablets) and locally (plasters, ointments, creams, gels). It is necessary to clarify that the drugs of the NSAID group, although they perfectly eliminate the symptoms of the disease, do not affect its course, it is impossible to treat osteochondrosis only with anti-inflammatory drugs.
Pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medications work well to relieve pain, but they do not address the underlying cause.
Muscle relaxants should be included in the complex of drug therapy. These drugs eliminate the pathological spasm of the skeletal muscles of the lumbar region (pathogenetic treatment of low back pain), which greatly relieves pain.
A good helper in treating back pain caused by pinching or inflammation of the spinal nerve roots are B vitamins, which strengthen and help restore damaged areas of nerve tissue.
To establish nutrition and metabolic processes in the affected tissues of the spine, antiplatelet agents and nicotinic acid are used.
If the pain is very severe, then local anesthetics are used for regional blocks, allowing you to temporarily relieve the pain while steps are taken to eliminate its cause.
Physiotherapy
Exercise therapy is prescribed only after the pain disappears, with exacerbation it is contraindicated. The key to success is regular training. Exercises to strengthen your back muscles should be done every day. It is ideal if a certified physical therapist selects such a complex and will teach you all the subtleties of performing exercises.
As a last resort, you can learn it yourself (you can find a large number of videos with specific examples of movements). The main thing that you should be guided by when doing gymnastics is the absence of pain. If the movement causes pain in your lower back, reduce its range or abandon it altogether. Doing this at home can help you gradually strengthen your spinal muscles and ease pain.
Massage
The health benefits of back massage can hardly be underestimated. The main thing is that it be done correctly and competently. And for this, first of all, you need to find a good, experienced and certified massage therapist.
Massage activates blood circulation processes in damaged tissues, contributes to their nutrition and elimination of toxic substances. Massage, as well as exercise therapy, are carried out only outside the exacerbation of the disease.
Physiotherapy procedures
The treatment and prevention of low back pain involves a wide variety of physical therapy treatments. All of them are aimed at preventing degenerative processes in the spine and renewing damaged structures.
It is most often used in the treatment of low back pain:
- magnetotherapy;
- laser treatment;
- ultrasound therapy;
- electrophoresis;
- thermal procedures;
- balneotherapy;
- mud wraps;
- Paraffin and ozokerite applications.
Surgery
Operations for osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine are performed only in extreme cases, since such manipulations have a very high risk. Operate only in patients with intervertebral hernias causing constant pain or patients with signs of spinal cord compression.
There are many methods of such operations, from open neurosurgical surgery to remove a diseased disc to endoscopic and robotic interventions with replacement of a damaged disc with artificial or bioengineered prostheses.
Unconventional treatments
Acupuncture
Needle stick treatment has been used since ancient times to combat various ailments. Modern acupuncture is an effective alternative treatment for back pain. In addition, current conventional acupuncture is complemented by the introduction of various biologically active substances at the puncture site, through the action of a magnet or laser, which further increases the effectiveness of the technique.
Manual therapy
It is widely used in the treatment of osteochondrosis and its consequences. The conclusion is manual action on the spine, fixing the displaced vertebrae, releasing the nerves from compression and, as a result, eliminating pain. But it should be noted that these are quite dangerous treatment methods and only a certified chiropractor should perform such techniques.
Popular recipes
Perhaps, the treatment of low back pain with home remedies is very popular among the population due to its simplicity, naturalness and availability of ingredients for recipes, great experience in its use and effectiveness. There are many recipes for alternative treatments, consider the most popular.
Horse chestnut ointment is prepared as follows. Grind the chestnut herb to a powder and add to the fat and camphor oil in equal proportions. You can lubricate or apply a compress with such an ointment 2 times a day until the pain disappears.
Mix grated radish or horseradish with sour cream or heavy cream and apply to the sore lower back as a compress. Wrap yourself in a woolen shawl and go to bed. Repeat this procedure until the pain goes away.
For the next recipe, you will need dried burdock leaves. Soak them in boiling water and put them on the back, wrap them in a warm cloth. Keep the compress for at least 1 hour.
Rubbing can help with back pain. To do this, you need to do the following mixture. You need to mix cologne, for example, triple, a bottle of iodine solution, valerian tincture and dried red pepper. Then, you should rub the sore spot well with the mixture and wrap it with a warm cloth overnight.
Folk recipes relieve back pain well, but their use is only allowed with the approval of a doctor.
There are more than a dozen, and perhaps more than a hundred, traditional medicine recipes. But in each case, before using them, you should consult a doctor, if this particular prescription is contraindicated for you.
If you have low back pain and don't know where to start treating it, first visit a doctor who will establish the true cause of the pain. Only after this, through joint efforts (yours and that of your specialist), will you be able to overcome disease and pain.