It's difficult to find an adult who didn't experience lower back pain at least once, and some of those painful sensations don't go away day and night, affecting their quality of life and forcing them to swallow whole arms full of pain pills. It is unfortunate, but most of the people suffering from chronic low back pain do nothing to treat it, believing that it is impossible to cure such a pathology and it is unnecessary.
How wrong you are! Finally, there is an effective treatment for back pain. And for this you do not need to look for famous doctors and modern clinics at all. It is enough just to be patient, set a goal and start 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 lumbar pain and the methods of treating it.
Why does your lower back hurt?
There is a whole cart and a small cart that causes lumbar pain. 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 diseases that begin in the intervertebral discs and gradually affect the vertebrae and surrounding soft tissues. Probably everyone knows such diseases 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 hernia of the intervertebral disc, compression of the spinal cord), an acute attack of pain develops, which requires urgent medical attention.
Degenerative-dystrophic changes in the spine and their consequences are the cause of lower back pain in over 90% of cases.
Secondary back pain
Secondary back pain can be caused not only by diseases of the musculoskeletal system, but also by pathologies of the internal organs:
- congenital or acquired pathology of the musculoskeletal system - pathological curvatures 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 muscles, ligaments, compression and other vertebral fractures);
- inflammatory lesions of the muscles of the lower back - myositis;
- gynecological diseases;
- Urinary tract pathology (pyelonephritis, urolithiasis, etc. );
- Diseases of the abdominal organs (acute appendicitis, pancreatitis, intestinal lesions).
This article deals with the treatment of primary back pain, which occurs in the majority of cases. However, before therapeutic measures are initiated, a doctor's visit is essential to rule out more serious causes of low back pain.
Basic principles of treatment for lumbar pain
If you are looking for an answer to the question of how to treat back pain, the first answer is that treatment should be comprehensive, injections and pills alone are unlikely to help you. Basically, drugs are used to worsen the disease, and after the pain is relieved, they begin more active measures, such as: B. Remedial gymnastics, physiotherapy, massage, manual treatment, traditional medicine, etc.
Conservative therapy
Medication
If there is a lot of pain in the lower back, then you can not do without medication. Several groups of drugs are used to treat back pain. The main ones are nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which also have a powerful analgesic effect. These drugs are used both internally (injections, tablets) and locally (plasters, ointments, creams, gels). It must be clarified that drugs from the NSAID group, although they perfectly eliminate the symptoms of the disease, do not affect its course. It is impossible to treat osteochondrosis with anti-inflammatory drugs alone.
Pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs work well for pain relief, but they don't address the underlying cause.
Muscle relaxants must 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 lower 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 help strengthen and restore damaged nerve tissue.
Platelet aggregation inhibitors, nicotinic acid, are used to build up nutrition and metabolic processes in the affected tissues of the spine.
In the case of very severe pain, local anesthetics are used for regional blockages, which allow you to temporarily relieve the pain and at the same time take measures to eliminate the cause.
physical therapy
Exercise therapy is prescribed only after the pain has subsided; in the event of an exacerbation, it is contraindicated. The key to success is regular exercise. Exercises to strengthen the back muscles should be done daily. It is ideal if such a complex is selected for you by a certified physiotherapist and teaches 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 concrete examples of movement). The most important thing in gymnastics is freedom from pain. If the movement causes lower back pain, reduce the amplitude or do without it. Doing this at home can gradually strengthen your spinal muscles and reduce pain.
massage
The health benefits of a back massage can hardly be overestimated. The main thing is that it is done correctly and competently. And for this you first need to find a good, experienced and certified masseur.
Massage activates the blood circulation processes in damaged tissues, contributes to their nutrition and the elimination of toxins. Massage, as well as exercise therapy, is carried out only outside of the exacerbation of the disease.
Physiotherapy procedure
Treating and preventing low back pain includes a variety of physical therapy treatments. All are aimed at preventing degenerative processes in the spine and renewing damaged structures.
Most commonly used in the treatment of low back pain:
- Magnetic therapy;
- Laser treatment;
- Ultrasound therapy;
- Electrophoresis;
- thermal processes;
- Balneotherapy;
- Mud packs;
- Paraffin and ozokerite applications.
surgery
Operations for osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine are only carried out in extreme cases, since such manipulations carry a very high risk. Operate only on patients with intervertebral hernias that cause constant pain or on patients with signs of spinal cord compression.
There are many methods for such operations - from open neurosurgical operations to remove a diseased intervertebral disc to endoscopic and robotic interventions with the replacement of a damaged intervertebral disc with artificial or biotechnological prostheses.
Unconventional treatments
acupuncture
Needle prick treatment has been used to combat various ailments since ancient times. Modern acupuncture is an effective alternative treatment for back pain. In addition, conventional acupuncture is nowadays supplemented by the introduction of various biologically active substances at the puncture site, by the action of a magnet or laser, which further increases the effectiveness of the technology.
Manual therapy
It is widely used in the treatment of osteochondrosis and its consequences. The bottom line is a manual intervention on the spine that fixes the displaced vertebrae, relieves the nerves of compression and thereby eliminates pain. However, it should be noted that these are quite dangerous treatment methods and only a certified chiropractor should perform such techniques.
Folk recipes
Perhaps the treatment of back pain with folk remedies is very popular among the population due to the simplicity, naturalness and availability of ingredients for recipes, their great experience in their application and effectiveness. There are many recipes for alternative treatments, the most popular being.
Horse chestnut ointment is made as follows. Grind the chestnut into powder and add equal proportions to the fat and camphor oil. With such an ointment, you can lubricate or apply a compress 2 times a day until the pain subsides.
Mix the grated radish or horseradish with sour cream or heavy cream and apply it to the sore lower back in the form of a compress. Wrap yourself in a woolen scarf and go to bed. Repeat this process until the pain subsides.
For the next recipe, you will need dried burdock leaves. Soak in boiling water and lay on your back, wrap in a warm cloth. Hold the compress for at least 1 hour.
Rubbing can help with back pain. To do this, you need to make the following mixture. For example, you need to triple colognes, mix a bottle of iodine solution, valerian tincture and dried red pepper. Then you need to 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 allowed only with the consent of a doctor.
There are more than a dozen and maybe more than a hundred traditional medicine recipes. But in any case, before using it, you need to consult a doctor - if this particular prescription is contraindicated for you.
If you have lower back pain and don't know where to start treatment, the first thing to do is seek medical advice who can determine the real cause of the pain. Only then will you, through joint efforts (yours and that of your specialist), be able to conquer the disease and the pain.