Does Lower Back Pain Cause Hip Pain

Are Low Back Pain Knee Pain And Hip Pain Related

Man at the Doctor with low back pain, knee pain, and hip pain

The quick answer to this question is yes they can all be related. There are numerous muscles, tendons, and nerves that cross all of these areas. When one of these areas has a problem, it can affect other areas.

The truths about low back pain, knee pain, and hip pain are:

• Knee pain can cause back pain.
• Knee problems can cause back pain.
• Back and knee pain can be related.
• Hip or groin pain and knee pain can be connected.
• There can be a connection between back pain and knee pain.

What Are Va Secondary Conditions To Back Pain

Back pain is a common condition caused by various factors, including injury, poor posture, and disease.

For many people, back pain is temporary and can be treated with over-the-counter medications and home remedies. However, back pain can be a chronic condition leading to other health problems for others.

Those with chronic back pain risk developing secondary conditions, such as mental health, radiculopathy, shoulder conditions, hip conditions, plantar fasciitis, and ED/FSAD. These conditions can further complicate back pain treatment and make it more difficult to manage.

As a result, people with chronic back pain need to be aware of the potential risks and seek prompt medical care if they experience any new or worsening symptoms.

How To Tell If You Have A Back Pain

Back pain is so common that many patients often ignore or downplay the symptoms. They also mistake it for hip pain, which has identical symptoms as lower back pain. Taking Advil for back pain sometimes isnt enough. In severe cases, tracing the root of back pain is the best way to achieve complete recovery.

Here are the common signs that you have lower back pain:

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Lower Back Pain Causes

Most low back pain is due to a disruption in the way the spine, muscles, discs, and nerves fit together and move. Some mechanical causes of low back pain include:

Congenital

• Skeletal Irregularities: scoliosis , lordosis , kyphosis , etc.
• Spina Bifida: the incomplete development of the spinal cord or its protective covering.

Injuries

• Traumatic Injury: sports accidents, car accidents, or falls.

Degenerative Problems

• Intervertebral Disc Degeneration: spinal discs wear down from aging, causing them to lose their natural cushion.
• Spondylosis: general spinal degeneration from aging. This issue affects the joints, discs, and bones of the spine.
• Arthritis and Other Inflammatory Diseases:osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, spondylitis, etc.

Nerve and Spinal Cord Problems:

Non-spine Pain Sources:

• Kidney Stones: sharp lower back pain, usually on one side.
• Endometriosis: the buildup of uterine tissue outside the uterus.
• Fibromyalgia: a chronic pain syndrome causing muscle pain and fatigue.
• Tumors: tumors can press on or destroy the spinal cord and nerves.
• Pregnancy: lower back pain usually begins in later stages of pregnancy, and is resolved after birth.

How Are Lower Back And Hip Pain Treated

You can effectively treat the condition when you know what causes low back and hip pain. There are different levels of lower back pain. There is acute back pain which is more common and only lasts for a few days or weeks. Then theres the subacute low back pain which can last for four weeks to 12 weeks. The most severe is chronic back pain, which lasts for more than 12 weeks.

However, most people don’t visit a hospital when experiencing low back pain because it typically resolves itself after a few days.

The main goal of treatment for subacute pain is to prevent it from reaching the chronic level. Fortunately, all three lower back pain levels require the same type of treatment, and a combination of different approaches works even better.

Here are some treatment approaches available for lower back and hip pain:

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Is Walking Good For Arthritis In Lower Back

Despite all the workouts available, walking remains a tried-and-true form of exercise. Not only is it low-impact for achy joints, it also provides cardiovascular benefits. When considering back pain from arthritis, follow some simple rules to get the most out of your walk: Wear comfortable walking shoes.

Your Hips Or Quadriceps Feel Weak

Your quads are a group of muscles located at the front of your thigh. The three vastus muscles and rectus femoris make your thighs, one of the most powerful parts of the body, as they allow you to extend your knees and move your hips.

On the other hand, each hip is a ball-and-socket joint responsible for bearing most of your bodys weight. The hips have many ligament attachments for stability and muscular attachments to help control the motion of your leg and knee joints. The rectus femoris muscle crosses over from the quads and connects to the hip so if a problem occurs with the quad muscles, your hips will be affected.

Now, the parts of the human body are connected like a chain. Even if you didnt experience an injury or a major trauma to your hips and quadriceps, you may suddenly feel like youre unable to move them at full strength. This is a condition that may be caused by a spinal problem since the nerves that control the motor functions of the quads are located between the vertebrae of the lumbar spine.

If those nerves become irritated or get pinched by the vertebrae, the movement of your hips and quads will be affected. Weakness in these areas will cause the knee joints to work harder and wear out faster, which explains the knee pain you might be feeling.

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Hip Immobility May Be Behind Your Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is an increasingly prevalent problem in todays world. People young and old, active and sedentary complain of dull or sharp pains radiating through their lower back and possibly even down through their buttocks, hips, and legs.

Although there are lots of underlying problems that can lead to lower back pain, many people forget that low back pain might not stem from the lower back at all! One common problem that plagues people active and sedentary alike is hip immobility. Limited range of motion in the hips particularly the hip flexors can lead to significant back pain over time.

At Advanced Spine and Posture, our goal is to help patients in Las Vegas, NV, discover the underlying source of their back pain and deliver safe, non-invasive treatment methods to potentially correct it. Without the help of a musculoskeletal expert, your lower back and hip pain may worsen.

When The Spine Is The Likely Culprit

Most lower spine problems are caused by a herniated disk that presses on nerves in the spinal column. This produces the pain known as sciatica, which can be felt in the hip. You may have a herniated disk if pain:

• Is limited to your back, buttocks or hip.
• Shoots down your leg.
• Worsens with sitting or bending.
• Improves when standing or walking.

If you have night sweats, ahistory of cancer, or pain that is not relieved by lying down ,see your doctor the problem may be more serious.

Some people develop whatDr. DeMicco calls a double whammy problems in both the hip and lower back.Its not surprising, since both osteoarthritis and spinal changes are morecommon with each passing decade, he explains.

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Could Digestive Issues And Low Back Pain Be Caused By Tight Hip Flexors

Many people act as though health issues are specific and isolated. Itâs time for a new angle. The systems in your body are intricately connected: if youre experiencing problems in one area it can directly affect another.

This domino effect is especially prevalent when it comes to your back, hips, and digestive system.

Your abdominal region is packed full of tissues and necessary systems that you use 24/7. It is home to your bladder, kidneys, female reproductive system and can also be ground zero for potential dysfunction, from ovarian cysts toirritable bowel syndrome .

Many of these internal organs in your abdomen are also adjacent to the iliopsoas or hip flexor muscles. Thats why it isnt uncommon for patients to ask me: can IBS cause hip and groin pain?

Im going to walk you through the inner workings of your abdominal region so you can better understand your body and how your organ health directly relates to your muscle health.

Why Do The Hips Impact The Lower Back

Tightness, weakness and imbalances in the pelvis often contribute to lower back pain, whereas healthy mobile hips equate to general improvement in posture and movement across the whole body. Its often impossible to determine the exact cause of lower back pain, however, the connection between weakness in the hip muscles and lower back pain is well documented, and studies have shown that hip stabilizing exercises are an effective way to reduce lower back pain.

Three main muscle groups of the hips are affected when it comes to lower back pain. The Glutes are the muscle group of the buttocks, located at the back and sides of the pelvis, and are essential for keeping the pelvis stable. If you get into poor movement habits, their ability to keep the pelvis stable is compromised.

The Deep Hip Rotators often work in tandem with the glutes and are responsible for internal and external rotation of the hips. If you experience pain around your sacroiliac joint, where the base of the spine and pelvis meet, dysfunctional hip rotator muscles usually play a role.

Many people think of their Hip Flexors as the group of muscles extending from the groins into the front of the thighs. However, they extend from this region to the inside of the pelvis and attach to several vertebrae on the lower back. Weak and shortened hip flexors can lead to various issues, from lower back problems to issues with walking.

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Treatments For Lower Back Pain

The source of your lower back pain will help guide your treatment options. These include:

• Core strengthening to improve the ability of your abdominal muscles to support your spine
• Weight loss to decrease lower back strain
• Lower back and leg stretching to improve mobility and flexibility to alleviate areas of nerve compression and joint stiffness
• Application of ice to decrease pain and inflammation or heat to improve mobility and decrease stiffness
• Medication, hemodialysis, or kidney transplant to improve kidney function
• Medical management of underlying conditions that increase the risk of kidney disease, such as hypertension or diabetes
• Medications such as DMARDs and biologics to treat autoimmune forms of arthritis
• Antibiotics or antivirals to treat infections
• Pain medications taken orally via pill form, topically via creams or gels, or through injections into painful joints
• Surgery to relieve chronic nerve compression

Leg Pain From Hip Disorders

When the hip is affected, you may have groin pain on the affected side, reduced range of motion of the hip, thigh pain, knee pain, or buttocks pain. The pain usually does not go down below the knee, and there is no associated numbness or tingling. You may feel more pain when walking or standing, and the pain improves with rest. You may sense a limited range of motion when trying to get out of the car, chair or bed. Occasionally, pain in the hip could be secondary to inflammation of a hip bursa. This can happen if you have tight hip abductor muscles, difference in leg length or hip arthritis. Hip pain can also be caused by something more serious but less common, like fractures, tumors, infection or avascular necrosis.

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Pain From Abdominal Issues

Now you should have a good understanding of how your muscles, organs, and bones are interconnected and can affect each other when one isnt functioning properly. Youve also seen that your body alignment can get disrupted if your muscles are too tight. When your body alignment is disrupted, there is increased potential for organ discomfort or abdominal issues to arise as well.

Stomach Problems After Hip Replacement

You might feel a little stomach ache after the surgery, moreover, gradually with time, the pain will get away.

Apart from that, its not more of a big deal though, & a small stomach pain cant be the reason behind not going for the surgery.

However, you might feel headache, nausea, abdominal bloating after the surgerybut its sure that your severe hip pain will get away.

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Is It Really The Glutes

When this patient comes into our clinic, we talk with them about the difficulties in isolating one part of the pelvic-hip-spine complex as the main culprit of their problem. This we find especially true in treating a patient with problems of Gluteus Medius tendinopathy. We are not the only ones to understand this challenge.

A February 2020 study in the Journal of Physical Therapy Science offered this:

Gluteus medius syndrome is one of the major causes of back pain or leg pain and is similar to greater trochanteric pain syndrome, which also presents with back pain or leg pain. Greater trochanteric pain syndrome is associated with lumbar degenerative disease and hip osteoarthritis. Gluteus medius syndrome is also related to lumbar degenerative disease, hip osteoarthritis, knee osteoarthritis, and failed back surgery syndrome. Accurate diagnosis of gluteus medius syndrome and appropriate treatment could possibly improve lumbar degenerative disease and osteoarthritis of the hip and knee, as well as hip-spine syndrome and failed back surgery syndrome.

Osteoarthritis Of The Hip

Age-related degeneration of the hip joint can cause pain in the lower back and stiffness in the hip.

Hip osteoarthritis causes stiffness and a significant decrease in the hips range of motion. This change can cause the hip to incline forward, disrupting the curvature of the lower spine. The inward curvature of the lower spine may become more pronounced, sometimes causing the lower spinal discs to bulge or herniate.12,13

This condition may over time cause degeneration of the spinal joints too, resulting in a more advanced problem called hip-spine syndrome.

Learn more about Hip Osteoarthritis on Arthritis-health.com

This list is not exhaustive of all possible causes of lower back and hip pain. If you experience pain and/or stiffness in your lower back and hip that does not resolve with self-care and affects your daily activities, talk to your doctor. A doctor can accurately diagnose the cause of your lower back problem and formulate a treatment plan for the underlying condition.

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Find Out If Youre A Candidate For Hip Replacement At Orthobethesda

If you struggle with severe hip pain or disability, you may be a candidate for hip replacement surgery. To find out if thats an appropriate treatment option for you, contact the team at OrthoBethesda. Our highly skilled orthopedic specialists serve the community in and around Bethesda, MD, with compassionate care and can help you decide on the best treatment option for your hip pain. Call us today at .

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Treatments For Swelling In Legs And Feet

Swelling in the legs and feet can result from a variety of different causes so treatment will vary. Treating any underlying condition is necessary first before attempting other treatments, which include:

• Wearing compression stockings to help improve circulation from the legs back to the heart
• Elevating your feet above the level of your heart after prolonged sitting or standing
• Regular exercise involving the legs to promote improved blood flow
• Increasing fluid intake and decreasing sodium intake
• Diuretic medication to help get rid of excess fluid retention

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Signs You Should See A Healthcare Professional

Most people who experience lower back pain don’t need medical attention since the pain often improves in a few days. However, if the issue persists, you should get evaluated by a primary care provider.

A healthcare professional may conduct a physical exam and sometimes need more information to assess the situation further and suggest appropriate treatments. It would be wise to visit a healthcare professional if:

• You are 70 years or older and are experiencing new lower back pain

• You are experiencing persistent pain that continues through the night, even when lying down

• You have problems with your bowels, bladder, or sexual organ

• You are experiencing weakness in one or both legs

• You have lower back pain that is accompanied by weight loss or fever

• If you are older than 50 years and had an accident or fell resulting in low back pain

Lower back and hip pain are usually recurring conditions, so staying active will reduce your chances of experiencing another episode. There is no specific exercise to prevent low back and hip pain, pick an exercise you enjoy and work with it. Additionally, lift heavy objects using the correct form and take regular breaks if you sit or stand for long periods.

Lifestyle Changes That Can Help

When it comes to lower back and hip pain, prevention is key. This starts with maintaining a healthy body weight to keep added pressure off of your joints. Engaging in regular physical activity will also keep your joints and muscles limber and bones strong as you age.

Foam rolling and stretching are also helpful for muscle tightness and soreness. Applying heat and/or ice to the sore area can also reduce pain, swelling, and inflammation.

We develop a treatment plan to match your signs and symptoms, and this may also include education about pain, Magel says. In general, we take an active approach and have patients avoid bed rest and gradually resume activity as soon as possible, he says. Acupuncture may also help.

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