Back Pain is a Common Complaint
Back pain is a common complaint among adults, and it isn’t picky, as it affects men and women equally. About 80% of the adult working population suffers from one form of back pain or another, and 60% of back pain sufferers experience functional limitations. Back pain can be debilitating and it’s a challenging condition to diagnose, treat, and study, making it the most common reason for work disability.
Some risk factors for back pain include: age, fitness level, pregnancy, weight gain, genetics, occupational factors, mental health, and backpack overload in children. Some of these risk factors are avoidable, even preventable, such as weight gain or decrease in fitness level and some are just inevitable, like aging. The causes of back pain are as diverse as the risk factors and range in severity from a small sprain to cancer. Some of the main causes of back pain include, but are not limited to, disc bulge, disc herniation, pinched nerves, strains, and sprains.
Let’s talk more about these conditions which result in back pain. Bulging discs occur when a crack in the tough outer layer of cartilage allows some of the softer inner cartilage to protrude out of the disc. Herniated discs are also called ruptured discs or slipped discs, even though the whole disc does not rupture or slip, but only a small area of the crack is affected. Compared with a bulging disc, a herniated disc is more likely to cause pain because it generally protrudes farther and is more likely to irritate nerve roots due to inflammation.
Another common cause of back pain is a sprain, or strain, and often results from excessive physical demands on the back. Lifting something too heavy or improperly, a sudden fall, car crash, or sports injury can cause soft tissues to stretch too much. Strains affect muscles and tendons, or muscle-tendon combination sprains affect ligaments.
At Comprehensive Health Orlando we can treat a variety of back pain with a combination of methods, including manual therapy, EMS, TENS, therapeutic ultrasound, physical therapy, chiropractic adjustment, or trigger point injections. We invite you to setup a consultation with our doctors, which includes a physical evaluation and X-rays, and let us create an individualized treatment plan for you.
https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-Caregiver-Education/Fact-Sheets/Low-Back-Pain-Fact-Sheet
https://www.spineuniverse.com/conditions/sprains-strains/lumbar-back-sprains-strains
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/herniated-disk/expert-answers/bulging-disk/faq-20058428