A common occurrence in people of different ages and professional affiliations, when the back hurts in the lower back. Hypotension in contrast to excessive loads in the gym, drafts, poor posture - all this leads to unpleasant, painful sensations in the lumbar region.
When is a painkiller enough to fix the problem, and when is urgent medical intervention required? You need to remember the following: if the lower back hurts constantly, then this is a serious reason to see a specialist.
Why does the lower back hurt
The causes of pain in the lumbar region can either be similar in men and women, or have their own peculiarities related both to anatomical features and to professional activities and lifestyle.
- A stiff lower back in the morning after sleeping can be both the result of poor quality bedding and a sign of spinal problems.
- If the lower back hurts a lot, it is possible to injure nerve endings, develop a herniated disc and osteochondrosis.
- When standing for a long time, a static load acts on the lumbar spine. The lumbar muscles enter a state of hypertonia and can disrupt the innervation of nerve endings.
- When you sit, your lower back hurts due to poor posture. Many sitting at the table adopt an uncomfortable posture, which also leads to overstrain of the muscular corset and injury to nerve endings.
- If the lower back hurts and pulls on the legs, the symptoms can indicate an injury to the nerve endings in the pelvic area. Often the injury occurs in the coccyx area, if there is pain below the waist, then the pain is reflected in the lower extremities.
- If the back hurts above the waist, most likely the cause lies in the violation of nerve fibers in the lumbar region, or the problem lies in the internal organs.
- The situation when the lower back hurts from the side, the feeling is like pulling, and the temperature rises, then we are talking about progressive inflammation in the internal organs.
To identify the cause of pain in the lumbar region, you should undergo a thorough medical examination and conduct tests that will show whether there are inflammatory processes, injuries to nerve endings, or a hernia. Only after the diagnosis has been clarified can measures be taken to eliminate the disease.
Lower back pain in women
The weaker sex is particularly prone to lumbar pain. The reasons why modern women experience lower back pain can be related to both professional activities and the presence of diseases.
Pain after running can arise from improperly selected shoes without high-quality shock absorbers, when heel impacts to the ground are transmitted to the lumbar region without softening. The lower back hurts after walking in very high heels, which not only upsets balance, but also causes the woman to severely bend the spine and put additional stress on the lumbar region.
Pain while walking may not be the result of a lower back condition, but rather problems with the hip joints that experience excessive friction during exercise. Anxiety at night can cause an uncomfortable mattress for a girl in bed.
If pain is felt closer to the periphery on the right or left, this indicates a greater likelihood of a disease of the internal organs. An interfering tailbone can be a symptom of an injury or strangulation.
Whatever the cause, only a qualified medical specialist will prescribe appropriate treatment.
Lower back pain before period
The reasons why women and girls may have lower back pain or pull the lower abdomen before the onset of menstruation have a very extensive etiology. This can be both a consequence of changes in the hormonal background, and symptoms of a whole range of diseases.
- neoplasms;
- Infections and the consequences of hypothermia;
- Incorrect installation of the intrauterine device;
- abnormalities in the position of the uterus or ectopic pregnancy;
- Cysts, fibroids, endometriosis.
Given the completeness of the list, a woman with troubling symptoms needs to see a doctor and determine the cause of the periodic discomfort.
Why does the lower back hurt during menstruation?
Pain in the lumbar region during menstruation is often considered the norm, since there is a sharp hormonal surge, a large amount of blood flows to the pelvic organs, and increasing pressure on the nerve endings can occur. The pain subsides as soon as the main discharge occurs.
However, some women continue to experience discomfort after menstruation. If such a manifestation is atypical, then this should be considered a signal of a possible pathology.
Can the lower back hurt without visible causes in the form of infections, diseases and the development of pathological processes? Maybe if the anatomical structure of the uterus is such that it deviates backwards. In this position, which swells during menstruation, it puts pressure on nearby organs and nerve endings, causing pain in the lumbar region. A prolapsed uterus caused by regular weight lifting can also cause a similar symptom.
If a woman experiences pain in the abdomen and lower back, it is highly recommended to visit a gynecologist to determine the cause of such a condition. Symptoms can indicate the development of polycystic disease, inflammation of the appendages, endometriosis, infectious and sexually transmitted diseases. The cause may be a poorly installed intrauterine device, or the opposite case - the development of an ectopic pregnancy.
Lower back pain during pregnancy
A common complaint of women during pregnancy is an indication of back pain. There can be many reasons why pregnant women experience back pain, as the body undergoes major restructuring, weight gain and imbalance due to an enlarged abdomen.
In the early stages of pregnancy, pulling symptoms can begin as the fertilized egg becomes attached to the walls of the uterus. After childbirth, pregnant women are prone to diseases of the genitourinary tract - cystitis and pyelonephritis, which can also be reflected in pain in this area.
Why a pregnant woman can feel a lot of discomfort in the second trimester. This is due to the active growth of the fetus and an increase in the volume of the abdomen of the expectant mother - the internal organs begin to squeeze, including the nerve endings that pass in the pelvic area. A woman may experience referred pain in the buttocks region or in the legs.
A woman may feel her lower abdomen being pulled, in the latter stages as the baby's head begins to drop, the pain flows down the lower back to the sacrum. At 21-40 weeks of pregnancy, a woman may experience back pain due to an increase in relaxin levels. This provokes the development of symphysiopathy - an inflammatory process in the pubic bone.
Lower back hurts and gives in leg
Low back pain that recurs in the leg or gluteus often occurs in people after the age of 35. What can be associated with such a pathology? For some people the pain will radiate down the right leg, for others the pain will radiate down the left leg, although the lower back feels the same. This can involve pinching different nerve roots as there are exits on both the right and left side of the vertebra.
Shooting pain in the buttocks and leg occurs in osteochondrosis, scoliosis, herniated discs and a whole list of other diseases associated with damage to spinal cord neurons.
When pinched, the lower back hurts a lot. A clumsy movement can lead to such serious consequences that it will be necessary to eliminate the pain syndrome with one injection. Since inflammation develops immediately from an injury, additional pressure is put on the nerve endings.
The problem is resolved after a course of anti-inflammatory steroids and decongestants that allow the patient to relax and relieve muscle tension in the affected area.
Also common causes of such irradiation can be neuralgia and more serious pathologies associated with neoplasms in the lumbar region that exert pressure or cause inflammation.
Why does the lower back hurt in men?
The treatment of pain in the lumbar region in men is very often associated with neglected cases, since the representative of the stronger sex prefers to endure "until the spear in the back does not interfere with sleep. "When the pain becomes the cause of the chronic lack of sleep, the man decides to go to the doctor.
Back pain in a representative of the stronger sex can be associated with:
- With high physical activity - professional, sports;
- Problems with the spine from physical inactivity, prolonged driving.
- Problems of internal organs - kidneys or prostate.
Treatment of the lower back at home for acute attacks of pain is ineffective, especially when using folk remedies. Since men tend to trigger the disease, sometimes the pain needs to be blocked with the help of injections of powerful drugs - painkillers and anti-inflammatory drugs.
back pain after sleeping
Have you ever had lower back pain in the morning? Such a reaction of the body is quite understandable if you overdo it in training the day before or vigorously move the furniture after starting a general cleaning. If it is an injury, be sure to see a doctor to make sure there are no serious consequences.
And if there were no injuries and you do not abuse sports, but after sleep you feel pain in the lower back. One of the causes of morning pain is the development of osteochondrosis. With the developing pathology, the bones and parts of the spine become much more sensitive to the static position of the body at night. What passes without consequences in a healthy person, causes a portion of acute pain sensations in a patient with osteochondrosis after waking up.
Pain can also be caused by an abnormally curved spine when lying on your back. This is due to the habit of sleeping lying on your back and straightening your legs. The lumbar region is overstressed and in the morning you can get a very overworked musculature.
If the morning pain is chronic, you should have a doctor examine you, as this condition can be a signal from the body about disorders or a reaction to stress, illness or obesity. It is very important to find out the reason.
How to understand if the kidneys or lower back hurt?
Pain in the lumbar region can be caused by both spinal problems and internal organs.
How to understand where the signal is coming from? To determine what hurts - the kidneys or the lower back - you need to observe the localization. The spine, pinched nerve endings and spasmodic muscles are painfully felt closer to the central part of the back, at the axis of the spine. And when the kidneys hurt, there is a lower back closer to the periphery to the side.
At the same time, pain in the spine can vary: it can be stronger in the morning, after waking up, and in the late afternoon at the end of the day. Pain in internal organs is more permanent and may be accompanied by signs of inflammation - fever, vomiting.
In a simple way we determine - the lower back or the kidneys. If the pain is weaker with physical inactivity and disappears after rubbing with ointment, then this is the back. Pain in the internal organs does not give a debilitating reaction to the local application of warming ointments and does not allow you to relax, no matter what position you are in.
child has back pain
Back pain in children is often caused by poor posture or a bad workplace. The occurrence of pain is not clearly related to age: it can harm both a preschooler and a teenager. Why does the lower back hurt in childhood, a vertebral doctor can say after a detailed examination.
- Muscle strain from a heavy backpack or sitting at a desk or computer all the time - up to 80% of cases.
- The development of scoliosis requires rapid intervention, as children's spines can deform very quickly.
- injuries or bruises.
- Diseases of internal organs - 20% of applications.
If a child has a fever and back pain, this can be a symptom of an extremely unpleasant disease - osteomyelitis. The pathological process of purulent-necrotic nature affects the bone marrow and bones.
Which doctor to contact
When the lower back hurts and a visit to the doctor is imminent, the patient wonders which doctor can help. Everything here depends on the reasons that caused the pain.
It's best to see a local therapist or family doctor to start with. To determine the cause of the problem, you need an examination, an X-ray of the spine, ultrasound of the pelvis, general blood and urine tests.
After the examination, the therapist will recommend which specialist doctor you need to contact in order to continue the cause-oriented treatment. As such a specialist can be recommended:
- Neurologist - to examine the spine, back muscles and nerves.
- Urologist - for problems in the urogenital area.
- A gynecologist is a female specialist who helps identify the cause of pain in the female reproductive system.
Timely contact with a specialist will help eliminate the cause of back pain in the initial stages. Advanced cases can have serious consequences, including surgery.
Exercises for back pain
When eliminating an acute attack of pain, after drug therapy, in most cases the doctor prescribes exercise therapy, that is, exercise. Effective exercises will help relieve tension in the muscular corset, strengthen it and eliminate spasms in the fibers that can cause pain.
The rehabilitation system dictates that all exercises be performed slowly, without sharp twists and lunges. If you don't follow this rule, you can get additional injuries.
Stretching exercises are recommended to reduce pain. For muscle fibers, such a load allows you to eliminate hypertonia, the clamps are removed. An exercise that focuses on a problem muscle group or spine. It improves blood circulation in the problem area, improves microcirculation in muscle and cartilage cells, contributes to increased nutrition and removal of putrefactive products.
The necessary exercises are selected by the attending physician or a physiotherapist who conducts exercise therapy courses. After that, the task of the patient is to independently maintain and consolidate the result by doing exercises at home.
How to smear your lower back with pain
When the lower back starts to hurt, the first thought that pops up is how to smear the treatment. You can't reach for the first creams and ointments that come across as "painkillers. " It's important to understand what's causing the pain before applying the appropriate medication.
- If the pain is associated with osteochondrosis, pinched nerve endings, or inflammation of the nerve roots, both NSAIDs and corticosteroids may be needed.
- With hypothermia, warming ointments with an irritant effect are suitable for activating blood microcirculation in the muscles.
- There are also homeopathic preparations and balms.
It must be remembered that ointments will not help if the cause of pain lies in the internal organs. If the pain is caused by diseases of the kidneys, organs of the female or male genitourinary system, anesthetic ointments can lubricate the clinical picture, and warming ointments can provoke intensive development of inflammation.
That is why it is also necessary to use folk remedies only after consulting a doctor, so as not to aggravate one's condition with unjustified treatment.