What Is Your Back Muscle Spasm Telling You
Muscle spasms in your back can range from a minor discomfort and stiffness to a sharp, severe pain and muscle tightening that prevents normal back movements. Your back might be telling you to avoid a certain activity, or it could be warning of a more serious underlying issue in your spine.
A muscle strain can be a source of extraordinary pain. Watch:Lower Back Strain Video
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Medication For Treating Lower Back Pain
Your physician will recommend some medication for you depending on the period of time you have suffered from lower back pain, your medical history and evident symptoms. The following medications can be recommended for you:
Acetaminophen and Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs such as naproxen and ibuprofen may be prescribed to relieve lower back pain. You can buy them over counter but for stronger ones the doctor will advice and prescribe.
- Muscle Relaxants â These drugs helps in reduction of muscle pains and spasms.
- Opiate Pain Relievers â This is a very powerful and strong medicine prescribed to alleviate severe lower back pain in cases where other types of medicines have not succeeded.
- Anti-depressants â These are drugs such as duloxetine and amitriphyline which are used in treatment of depression but are also prescribed in treatment of chronic lower back pain.
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When To Talk With A Professional
Most of the time, mild sciatica will go away within 4 to 6 weeks. But you should talk with your doctor at the onset of symptoms to make sure youre dealing with sciatica. You return to see a medical professional if:
- your pain is getting progressively worse
- your symptoms start after a sudden injury
- you have severe pain, muscle weakness, or numbness
- you lose control of your bladder or bowels
- symptoms last longer than 6 weeks
- pain interferes with your daily life
- you havent responded to treatment after your initial visit to see a health professional
After your initial visit to see a health professional, you should discuss a plan for when to return if symptoms havent gone away.
Resolving Chronic Low Back Pain And Sciatica
This is why its so important to address both the internal and external causes. A traditional orthopedic physical therapist will address the common causes of low back pain and prescribe some stretching and strengthening exercises for the low back. However, many patients will find that the treatment doesnt stick – they feel better for a few days, but lasting relief is elusive. In these cases, the pelvic floor dysfunction isnt being addressed, so the low back regresses and gets pulled back into dysfunction.
The same issues arise when only the internal pelvic floor muscles are treated. Even if the trigger points in the pelvic floor are cleared out and a strengthening program put in place to resolve weakness, if the lower back isnt addressed the pelvic floor dysfunction will simply reoccur. For true healing to occur, both the pelvic floor and low back must be addressed together.
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Or You Could Be Dying What Are The Odds That Back Pain Is Something Scary
Of course there are cases of low back pain that have alarming causes, but its reassuringly rare. Once in a while back pain is a warning sign of cancer, autoimmune disease, infection, or a handful of other scary culprits.7 Over the age of 55, about one in twenty cases turns out to be a fracture, and one in a hundred is more ominous.8 The further you are from 55, the better your odds.
But how can you tell? It can be tricky. This is a concise, readable guide to symptoms that need better-safe-than-sorry investigation with your doctor. In other words, this article explains the difference between dangerous and just painful as clearly as possible. Tables, checklists, and examples ahead.
Dont Slump Over Your Desk
When sitting in an office chair, use the same good posture techniques you use when standing. Its critical to keep good posture and support your back when sitting down, especially if you do it for several hours per day. Choose a quality chair that provides firm support for your lower back, and make sure your knees are a little higher than your hips when you sit.
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How To Treat A Pulled Back Muscle In 8 Steps
A pulled back muscle can begin as a sudden, sharp pain when lifting or bending. Or it may appear gradually, getting progressively worse over several days. This common injury ranges from a minor inconvenience to an intense source of pain. It can take several weeks, and in some cases a few months, to heal.1
A pulled muscle is the common term for a strained muscle.2 A strain is a muscle or tendon injury that happens when the tissue stretches or tears. When a ligament stretches or tears, its called a sprain. Back pain, often due to a pulled muscle, is one of the most common issues health professionals treat.2 In most cases, you can manage and treat symptoms at home. But if the pain is unbearable or makes it difficult to move, see a doctor.
All The Red Flags For Ominous Causes Of Back Pain
Red flags are signs or symptoms that something medically ominous may be going on. Red flags are not reliable, and their presence is not a diagnosis. When you have some red flags, it only indicates a need to look more closely. Sometimes red flags are missing even when there really is something serious going on and sometimes they are a false alarm.21 Check off all that apply hopefully none or few or only the least alarming of them!
Some of these red flags are much less red than others, especially depending on the circumstances. For instance, weight loss is common and often the sign of successful diet! Obviously, if you know of a harmless reason why you have a red flag symptom, it isnt really a red flag . But every single actual red flag in combination with severe low back pain thats been going on for several weeks is definitely a good reason to get yourself checked out.
Most people who check off an item or two will turn out not to have an ominous cause for their low back pain. But why not check?
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Signs Your Back Pain Might Be An Emergency
In our 20s and 30s, normal back pain often can be attributed to factors of daily life, such as sitting too long, picking up children, or overdoing it while exercising.
In our 40s and older, work injuries and the beginnings of arthritis and degenerative conditions are more common.
Back pain is so common, in fact, that many patients shrug off symptoms that might indicate a medical emergency.
Approximately 80% of adults will experience back pain in their lives, so its important to be able to identify the severity of your symptoms and track how long the pain lasts.
If back pain can be associated with a specific activity, such as lifting or twisting wrong, and the pain goes away within 72 hours after resting and applying ice, its usually nothing to worry about. However, if pain creeps on gradually, appears suddenly, or doesn’t go away, you might have a more serious condition.
How To Make Progress
Your body needs to do more than usual to make physical improvements. But you should make sure to increase your physical activity and exercise safely and slowly over time.
Each person has a different capacity to do sports and exercise. This is called an activity threshold. When you stay within a safe activity threshold, you should only experience normal muscle soreness. Each person’s activity threshold depends upon many factors, such as:
- Age.
- How strong you are.
- Your regular activity levels.
For example, when a person first begins a walking or running program, a safe activity threshold may be walking or running for five minutes. After several weeks of slow, progressive increases in duration, the safe threshold may increase to 20-30 minutes. Going beyond the safe activity threshold too soon can result in an injury or pain.
To improve your activity threshold and overall fitness safely, make sure you:
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Overuse And Repetition Of Everyday Activities
Every day, the little things we do can have a big impact on the amount of stress we put on our bodies. Examples include:
- Driving or sitting for long periods of time
- Repetitive motion activities such as walking, bending over, exercising or typing
- Lifting both small and heavy objects
- Sleeping in an odd position or on an old mattress
Tips For Managing Inflammatory Back Pain
These approaches wont cure your condition, but they may help you manage the discomfort and prevent additional injury.
Also see a doctor if the pain is constant, wakes you up at night, and includes leg pain or follows an injury.For less-serious back pain symptoms, the best way to keep them at bay is to stay active, Dreisinger says. The natural response to pain is to do less, but the opposite holds true with back pain symptoms, he says. Thats because exercise helps muscles relax and increases blood flow to the area.Heres expert advice on what might work and wont for your back pain symptoms.1. Dont just lie there.Its tempting to rest until pain subsides, but taking to bed for more than a day or two may make your back pain symptoms worse, according to the National Institutes of Health .
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Other Conditions That Cause Back Pain In Older Adults
We often see a range of less serious but still painful spine conditions in seniors. Most patients with these conditions will not require surgery. Physical therapy, medication, injectable anesthetics, or a combination of treatments usually can control symptoms.
- Degenerative disc disease, which can cause whole spine pain, and lumbar arthritis, which usually causes low-back pain, commonly develop with age and are considered wear-and-tear conditions.
- Sacroiliitis is an inflammation of the joints that connect your spine and pelvis. This condition can cause pain in the low back, glutes, and upper legs.
- Ankylosing spondylitis is an inflammatory arthritis that causes patients spines to become inflexible, resulting in a continual hunched forward position and spine pain.
- We also check for adult degenerative scoliosis and kyphosis, spine-curving conditions that can result in back pain and weakness in the lower extremities.
Can I Prevent Lower Back Pain
You cant prevent lower back pain that results from disease or structural problems in the spine. But you can avoid injuries that cause back pain.
To reduce your risk of a back injury, you should:
- Maintain a healthy weight: Excess weight puts pressure on vertebrae and disks.
- Strengthen your abdominal muscles: Pilates and other exercise programs strengthen core muscles that support the spine.
- Lift the right way: To avoid injuries, lift with your legs . Hold heavy items close to your body. Try not to twist your torso while youre lifting.
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Symptoms Of A Pulled Back Muscle
Symptoms of a pulled back muscle depend on where the injury is. The spine is divided into three major sections: the neck, upper back and shoulders, and lower back.
For a pulled muscle in the neck, you might experience:3
- Pain in the neck and upper back area
- Limited range of motion in the neck
- Stiffness in the neck
- Pain radiating to the shoulders or arms
- Headache
Pulled muscles in the shoulders and upper back may cause:
- Pain in the area between the spine and shoulder blade
- Muscle spasms in the upper back
- Knots and tightness in the upper back and shoulders
- Pain when moving the shoulders
In lower back strain injuries, many people experience symptoms such as:3
- Aching and stiffness in lower back muscles
- Pain that worsens with movement
- Pain that radiates to the hips and legs
- Limited range of motion
- Muscle spasms in lower back area
- Pain when sitting, standing, or walking
Does Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Or Back Pain Come First
Its not always clear which comes first. A major role of the pelvic floor is to help stabilize the core and lower back, so when the back is in pain, the pelvic floor muscles may tighten to try and protect the sensitive area. This can overwork the pelvic floor, causing trigger points to form in the muscles and creating additional symptoms . In other cases, the pelvic floor dysfunction may have come first and altered the spine’s mobility and stability, thus triggering low back pain. Either way, there is a feedback loop where low back pain and pelvic floor dysfunction reinforce each other. Both must be addressed for full resolution of symptoms.
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How Do I Know If Pelvic Floor Dysfunction Is Causing My Low Back Pain
First of all, it’s extremely likely that pelvic floor dysfunction is at least contributing to back pain symptoms that won’t go away. In one study of chronic low back pain, 95% of people also had pelvic floor dysfunction! They had been getting treatment for years – orthopedic physical therapy, chiropracters, acupuncture, and even surgery – without results!
Because they weren’t getting to the underlying “why” of what was going on for lasting relief!
Other research has tied low back pain to urinary incontinence, with nearly 80% of women with chronic back pain reporting at least occasional incontinence.
Is It A Pinched Nerve Or Pulled Muscle In The Lower Back
A pulled muscle occurs when you tear or overstretch some of the muscle fibers. This can happen if you overwork the muscle or twist it too hard. You will probably notice pain and swelling, and the area will be tender to the touch. You may even notice redness or bruising.
A pinched nerve, or nerve compression, happens when pressure in an area causes the nerve impulses to become partially blocked. You may experience a radiating, burning pain in the affected area.
While a pulled muscle in your lower back could potentially cause a pinched nerve, this can also be caused by a herniated disc in your spine. If you feel radiant pain that extends into your legs, see a doctor right away.
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Putting It All Together
When you have to endure a back muscle spasm, whether its once or time and time again, it can cause you much pain and suffering. Your muscles become overwhelmingly tight and you may find yourself in search of relief in any manner possible.
Some causes of spasms are beyond your control. These include aging, having other medical conditions that bring about or aggravate your back muscles and taking medications that put your body in just the right internal environment to make it seize and spasm.
And, on the converse, some causes are self-created. For instance, if you currently smoke, you could be putting yourself at higher risk of back related issues and if youre out of shape you may notice more back pain than your in-shape counterparts. Also, things such as bad posture, not moving around enough on a regular basis and allowing your body to dehydrate also result in potential spasms.
In addition, some of your choices may unknowingly be making the spasms either worse or more prevalent. These include not relieving your body of stress often enough, consuming too much caffeine and taking medications that either incite the spasms or inhibit the absorption of vitamins and minerals necessary to stop them.
Now that you know how they are caused, you can take precautions to avoid them. After all, as Benjamin Franklin once said, An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
What You Can Do About Muscle Pain From Statins
Keep track of any new symptoms that develop when you begin taking a statin, and report them to your doctor. Some symptoms may go away as you continue to take the medication. If you’re taking the statin preventively, your doctor may try to determine if your muscle pain symptoms are actually due to the statin by suggesting a brief holiday from the drug to see if they disappear when you’re not taking it. However, don’t stop taking a statin without telling your doctor. Although there are no proven remedies for statin-related muscle pain, the following may help.
Exercise. There is some evidence that people who have exercised regularly before taking statins are less likely to experience muscle pain and cramping. Although gentle stretching may relieve muscle cramps, beginning a new vigorous exercise regimen while taking a statin may increase the risk of muscle pain.
Ramp up your lifestyle changes. Commit to an exercise routine, lose weight if you need to, and adopt a heart- healthy eating plan such as the Mediterranean diet. Doing so may enable you to reduce your statin dosage, or possibly even lower your cholesterol enough to enable you to stop the statin. Even if a healthier lifestyle does not lower your lipid levels, it may still lower your long-term risk of heart disease and stroke.
Have a thyroid blood test. If you have a low thyroid hormone level, taking replacement thyroid hormone pills may alleviate muscle pain and can also improve your lipid profile.
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