Even children sometimes experience pain in the lower back. Adults know problems firsthand. To solve it, you need to find out: why does the lower back hurt, what are the reasons. The range of causes is wide: from benign to urgent conditions that require medical attention. Having found the root of the disease, you will understand what to do, you can help yourself or by contacting a doctor.
Pain triggers
Low back pain is a common phenomenon, but from the "accident" category. Happens unexpectedly and is always inappropriate. There is an explanation for everything, consider the possible ones in order.
After sleep
A person wakes up in the morning, intending to wake up. . . And he can't. Sharp stabbing back pain. The day before, I didn't lift weights, I didn't put any weight on the muscles, where the pain came from, it's not clear.
Action algorithm:
- With any pain, it is important to calm down in order to adequately assess the situation.Panic won't make the pain go away, but it can make it worse. It didn't work, we thought lying down.
- Remember yesterday.If you spend them in the office, and in the evenings in front of the TV or computer, and this is your usual routine, the muscles experience (don't be surprised) with an overload. Constantly, every day. They don't have time to relax at night. Passive rest does not help muscle recovery without stress. Static loads are heavier than dynamic loads. The first (static) - being in the same position - strains some muscles, deprives others of their work. Dynamics (movement) involves many muscles.
- We continue to analyze. You load the muscles evenly, do a minimum of exercises, sit not eighteen hours a day, but wake up with lower back pain.
Possible causes:
- Uncomfortable posture while sleeping;
- Beds that are too hard or too soft;
- Internal manifestations.
The last state is rarely associated with sleep. A person may feel unwell after waking up, because in a dream the body is relaxed, the sensations are dull. The perception of the awakened person is sharpened, he moves - the suffering organs react.
- If you have calmed down, analyzed the situation, found the cause of the pain - act.If you are sure: muscle pain, not associated with organ pathology, get up gently. It didn't work - rolled over to the edge of the bed, slid across the floor. There you will do exercises to relieve muscle spasms - this is your treatment.
Lower back pain after sleep, which appears for the first time, usually occurs for the reasons listed above.The main reason deep is detraining, muscle weakness.Weakened muscles react to factors that strong muscles are "unconscious" of. It's not the hardness/softness of the bed, awkward movements, and flaccid muscles that provide the pain.
Learn more about comfortable sleep. Which bed is better: controversial questions, diametrically opposed answers. Supporters of hard beds insist on using a protector under the mattress, calling such a bed - orthopedic. It is believed that on a hard bed the spine is straightened, which is good for posture.
Opponents of rigidity promote soft thick mattresses that allow the body to "sink" in the filler. In a semi-suspended state, the muscles and spine occupy an arbitrary position. Advertisers of "sleep well" argue: it is more useful, the approach is physiological. Mattresses are also called orthopedic.
Low back pain in women and men occurs after sleeping on any bed. Extreme is not the best solution. Our mighty ancestors, peasants, slept in chests or stoves, making beds with feather beds. Middle option. The posture is very good. The pain after waking up is not typical for young and middle-aged people.
To keep the body in good shape, muscles - active, regular training will help: practice. Muscle training. How to help yourself "here and right away" - we will definitely talk about it. As we consider all the possible causes and find out what causes them, why does low back pain appear.
You can also feel pain and burning in other cases, with diseases of the spine, injuries. Then they are non-specific, annoying mornings regardless of the "sleepy" time.
After practice
Underload leads to weakness, muscle atrophy, overload - pain will be rewarded for persistence. Memo to trainees: use the expression "fast, slow" as a recovery motto. It is not always possible to row strength and health.Graduality is the key to success.
Calculating the optimal load is not difficult, you need two indicators:
- HR (heart rate, the number of heartbeats per minute measured);
- Arterial pressure.
Heart rate measurement is carried out three times:
- before class;
- At the end of the exercise;
- 5 minutes after class.
In a relatively healthy person with an initial pulse of 70-72, immediately after exercise, the heart rate can increase with sufficient load to 120 (no more). After 5 minutes, the pulse will slow down: it will be under 100 beats. If the heart rate remains more frequent, the load is excessive, the muscles will respond with subsequent pain. The lower back is no exception.
Blood pressure should also return to normal within five minutes. This knowledge will tell you what to do so that pain in the lumbar muscles does not occur after training.
Due to negative emotions
A person prone to feelings or who has been in a prolonged stressful situation may experience pain of varying intensity in the lower back. They are not associated with organic lesions of the spine. The cause of back pain in the lumbar region lies in the body's response to stress.Nerve tension causes muscle spasms.Spasmodic muscles signal a breakdown in their work - soreness.
This happens not only in the waist area, muscle spasms can occur anywhere. Such a symptom in medicine is called psychosomatic pain.
Regular training is aimed at strengthening and developing muscles, forming a "muscle corset" - preventing neurological pain.
Diseases of the spine
Diseases of the spine itself, dysfunction of the muscles adjacent to it, are more difficult to treat. Main assistants: willpower, perseverance, patience. Diseases have individual triggers. The method of treatment depends on its nature.
Injury
The spinal muscles are injured for two reasons:
- Causing harm to oneself through ignorance: ignorance of one's own physiology, improper "exploitation" of the body.
- External influences (accident, elements, unforeseen circumstances).
Self-mutilation is accidental (exceptions are rare, we are talking about something else here), injuries occur through carelessness. The man didn't calculate his strength, he jerked a heavy object, and at the same time turned around awkwardly. Causes injury to the spine in the lumbar region. The pain is sharp, sharp, does not allow movement.
More often this happens with men: they work more with weights.Doctor's standard recommendations:
- Movement restrictions (bed rest);
- Strong injections for pain in the back and lower back;
- warming rubs, ointments, compresses, warming;
- physiotherapy procedures;
- Massage;
- Exercise therapy - after a decrease in intensity, attenuation of symptoms and during remission.
Let's take a closer look at the essence of medical prescriptions:
- Rest (restricted movement). The muscles are spasmodic, tense, some of them are blocked by the wrong load. By depriving the patient of mobility, the doctor unknowingly corrects this blockage: immobility will not relieve spasms. Muscles stiffen - lose flexibility, remain tense for a long time. Muscle tissue rapidly weakens throughout the body without movement. This is a prerequisite for the transition of the disease into a chronic form.
- Painkillers. Injections "suppress" the symptoms, it is easier for the patient. But there is no therapeutic effect. The reason remains, the person only feels less pain for two to three hours. Strong drugs are also strong, giving side effects. Often used to relieve attacks of pain in the lumbosacral spine, drugs from the group of phenylacetic acid derivatives cause serious problems in the gastrointestinal tract. Other pain relievers are also not without side effects. And they are used for a long time, of course.
- Pain is always swollen. It is visible or hidden, but pain and swelling appear together. Edema is exacerbated by heating manipulation. The situation is the same: the pain is dull, the problem persists or grows.
- Physiotherapy for spasmodic muscles has an effect similar to placebo. Best case scenario.
- Skillful massage will be useful, relaxing muscles. Careful stroking is useless, use special massagers that relieve spasms. It's painful at first, but helps with a quick recovery.
- Exercise is especially important immediately after an injury. Through painThe correct movement returns the muscles to normal without medication. It is important to know the exact diagnosis, focusing on it, choose a set of exercises. Leave the diagnosis to the doctor.
Serious injuries (soft tissue tears, fractures) require hospitalization, sometimes surgery. But in rehabilitation, the main thing is development and strengthening, recovery of injured muscles. Drug anesthesia is a temporary measure, recovery is achieved by regular exercise.
Osteochondrosis
Osteochondrosis is called dystrophic changes in the intervertebral discs:
- The cartilage tissue of the discs wears out if the muscles supporting the spine, adjacent to them, are not well developed, sluggish. The spine is vulnerable without a reliable support of the muscular corset, the load on the discs is uneven.
- The discs become flat, the tissues around them lose their elasticity, spasm. The pain reflex is transmitted from the place of compression by the spinal disc: from the spasmodic muscle through the nerves to the brain.
- The edges of the spine are deformed, begin to grow, in addition, they injure the muscles.
- The chronic process is formed gradually, painful sensations are far from their beginning. It develops from discomfort and dull pain - it becomes growing, intense. Often causes disability.
Osteochondrosis often occurs in men who are forced to lift weights. This disease often develops in women. Women tend to be more sedentarylack of movement weakens the musculoskeletal system. Staying in one position for a long time overworks some muscle groups without engaging others. There is pain in the spine in the lumbar and other segments.
The scheme is the same: muscle spasms, signals from pain receptors from compressed discs are read by nerves, the person feels debilitating pain. This is called "radicular syndrome" (doctors explain this by squeezing the roots of the spinal cord). Hypodynamia is to blame along with an irresponsible attitude towards health. Muscle tissue can recover, for this it needs your conscious help. A pinched nerve (the name of the second syndrome, inaccurate, because the nerve does not contain pain receptors, it transmits impulses from a swollen muscle) is not easy to cure. Determination, patience, time are your allies.
Treatment is carried out on an inpatient or outpatient basis, as well as for injuries that do not require surgery. The doctor used a blockade of painkillers, prescribed injections of anti-inflammatory and pain relievers.
Full muscle work can only be restored by regular exercise. Thoughtful and competent exercise system. Choose among a variety of medical writer rehabilitation methods - the one for you.
Spondylosis
Untreated progressive osteochondrosis against the background of a number of violations in the regimen and the body itself can develop into spondylosis. The growth of bone tissue is an adaptive reaction of the body. Skeletal muscles, spine, could not stand it. He tried to hold on with his own strength, pushing off the supports - bone spikes. The process in advanced cases grows together with the neighboring vertebrae. The spine is fixed, becomes stiff, movement in the lower back is hindered.
The protrusions (growths) at the edges of spinal segments continually injure adjacent tissues.
Stop the disease in time, or better, prevent it.Don't let osteochondrosis transition to spondylosis: the second is more difficult to treat.
At least half an hour - forty minutes of simple exercises (remember gradually) every day. Add regularity to the phases: don't skip class. The results in two to four weeks, they will be noticeable. Total healing time depends on the initial state: how far the disease has gone.
Proper gymnastics will certainly improve your well-being, but will only alleviate the neglected stage, not cure it. The disease is severe. Surgery for spondylosis is not effective. Treatment is symptomatic. Anesthesia with ointments, injections.
The use of drugs is recommended if the pain in the lumbosacral region is unbearable. Dosage and frequency - adjust.For muscles strengthened by exercise, the need for anesthesia disappears.The pain will subside. Prevention will be a guarantee of their non-return: gymnastics for muscles, joints and the whole body. At the same time, the body is completely healed.
Spondylarthrosis
Pain in the lumbosacral spine is pronounced in spondylarthrosis. Pain can radiate to the buttocks and thighs.
This disease is characterized by damage to the joints located between the spinal bodies. Joint cartilage is destroyed, bone tissue is damaged. Nearby muscles and ligaments are inflamed and tense. Reduced mobility. The disease progresses, occurs in the elderly, young people rarely suffer - with congenital spinal deformities.
Factors provoking spondylarthrosis:
- old age:
- Floor;
- Obesity;
- Hard physical work in the past;
- Strength sports (barbells);
- Injury;
- genetic predisposition.
In women, spondylarthrosis occurs twice as often. This fact is associated with metabolic disorders (fluctuations in the level and composition of hormones - pregnancy, menopause). Affecting statistics and differences in average life expectancy of different sexes. The age bar for spondylarthrosis is high, women overcome it more often.
Doctors decide how to treat, surgery is not indicated. The procedure is aimed at reducing pain. The doctor will prescribe proper medicines and exercises.
Radiculitis
If you do not cure osteochondrosis, sciatica can become complicated. The symptoms are similar, but the disease is more severe. Affected nerve fibers - bundles located in the muscles adjacent to the spine along the spine. Lower back pain, pulling pain, radiating to the buttock and left leg, may indicate sciatica, osteochondrosis, hernia of the spine. Pain also radiates to the right leg, less often bilateral. With sciatica, it can be difficult to find a position that relieves the intensity of the pain. Pain radiating to the legs and with other health disorders of the spine, consult a doctor:high-quality diagnostics is half the success in treatment.
Radiculitis in the absence of competent treatment leads to curvature of the spine. A frequent complication of the disease is a vertebral hernia, a protrusion of a disc that is compressed by the spine. With a hernia of the lumbar spine, the pain is constant, this is a severe consequence of sciatica.
The onset of radiculitis, like osteochondrosis, has similar causes:
- Posture violation;
- muscle detraining;
- flat feet;
- Wrong habit of "holding back" while walking, sitting, working and resting;
- Violation of metabolic processes.
If osteochondrosis develops, pain and burning sensation in the back appears, urgently deal with the problem. Until he gets worse.
Radiculitis is treated by the same methods as osteochondrosis:
- Eliminate pain - apply ointments, gels, medicines;
- Relieves inflammation;
- Strengthen the muscular system with exercises.
tuberculosis process
The infectious disease tuberculosis can cause muscle inflammation in any location. If the lumbar back muscles are inflamed, pain is felt there. The process of tuberculosis in the vertebral bone tissue is caused by the penetration of specific tuberculosis bacteria into the vertebral tissue with the blood flow. This triggers the development of tuberculous spondylitis or osteomyelitis (bacteria infecting the spinal cord).
The etiological disease of lumbar tuberculosis is accompanied by severe pain in an advanced stage.
What to do if tuberculosis of the spine is diagnosed? Follow the directions of an experienced doctor. Delaying treatment is dangerous: the spine is gradually deformed: the spine is crushed, a hump forms.
Treatment is long, antibacterial, sometimes surgical. Load limiting is recommended. Medical supervision is required even after achieving remission.
Tumor
Tumor processes in the lumbar spine and adjacent tissues cause pain, which increases as the neoplasm grows. Unpleasant sensations give tumors of any form: benign and malignant.
If a tumor is suspected, thorough examination and treatment is essential. Symptoms may resemble a pinched nerve, sciatica, or a spinal hernia. Therefore, it is important to consult a doctor, establishing a reliable diagnosis.
Diagnosis is difficult because of the similarity of symptoms with other diseases. Night and morning pain is characteristic. Tumors involving the spinal cord are the most severe prognostically.
Benign tumors are treated surgically, removed. Malignant ones are more often formed by metastases from other organs, difficult to cure. You should contact the oncologist, he will plan and carry out the treatment. Treatment tactics: anesthesia, supportive therapy, if necessary - surgery.
Diseases of internal organs
disease, symptoms |
Why does the lower back hurt |
Required action |
|---|---|---|
Stroke is a violation of cerebral blood circulation. Failure of most bodily functions - speech, motor, mental. |
Acute circulatory failure due to rupture or narrowing of blood vessels can affect the spinal cord. Its function is disturbed, hypoxia occurs. This causes pain. |
Emergency call for ambulance paramedics. |
atypical acute appendicitis |
Pain occurs in an unusual place for this disease - epigastrium, left side or lower back. |
Call an ambulance, hospitalization and surgery are possible. |
Pyelonephritis, ICD (kidney disease) |
Inflammatory processes (pyelonephritis) or the development of kidney stones provoke pain in the lower back and lower abdomen of varying intensity - from aching to acute, intolerable. |
Call an ambulance. |
Intestinal obstruction. Acute life-threatening conditions: stool and gas retention, vomiting, nausea, food masses not moving through the intestines. Cold sweat, rapid pulse, blood pressure drops. |
Pain in the form of contractions can be given to the lower back. |
Emergency hospitalization. |
Reflected pain |
Give them:
|
Examination by a doctor, examination, diagnosis, followed by the appointment of adequate treatment. |
women's problems
The cause of pain is not always pathology, when it comes to women. Sometimes they lie in purely female physiology.
During pregnancy
Aching pain in the lumbar region in pregnant women can be conditionally associated with pain. This is a natural feeling of heaviness: the child is growing, the belly is growing, the heaviness in the pelvic area is the greatest. This provides an increased load on the spine in the lumbar region. Imagine that you have a bag strapped to your belt, a bucket or bucket and half of water is poured into it. After walking with such weight for several hours, even a man will feel tired, his lower back will ache. Carrying a child is not an easy pleasure in every way. 
At the initial stage, the body begins to rebuild, feels.
Healthy women do not perceive the desired "overweight" as an inconvenience.Normal developed muscles, gymnastics for pregnant women neutralizes the feeling of heaviness.If the pain is intense, the lower abdomen and lower back hurt, tell the doctor who is leading the pregnancy. The doctor will help find out what it is. Multiple pregnancies can increase in severity - the burden is greater than usual. Exacerbation of diseases that existed before pregnancy is not excluded, a doctor's consultation will reveal it.
Period
Normal processes indicate: the woman is healthy. At the start of menstruation, the cervix opens slightly, and pulling pains may occur. Then the internal mucous membrane lining the uterus is rejected - pain can also occur. If the pain is unbearable - see a doctor, he will tell you how to normalize menstruation. Irregular cycles can indicate hormonal disturbances.
How to relieve pain
Acute muscle back pain unrelated to organ damage can resolve on its own, quickly and without medication.
Intense (deep, from the belly) breathing activates the diaphragm, activates blood circulation, and its condition is relieved.
- Lying on your back, we put a cold object under the lower back (a heating pad with ice, a bag of frozen vegetables, etc. ), the cold also numbs the swollen muscles.
- We slightly bend the legs at the knees.
- We put our hands to our ears, on exhalation we raise our head, shoulders and lower them on inhalation.
Cold relieves swelling, activates blood flow to the lower back. The pain recedes.
Drop to the floor on all fours, stretching your muscles by walking with support on your palms and knees. 5-20 minutes is the optimal workout duration. The edema healed, anesthesia took place.
Lie on your back, feet on a bench (couch, other comfortable support). Under the lower back - a heating pad with ice. Hands behind head. As you exhale, raise your shoulders, trying to reach your knees with your elbows. Do it 20 or more times, if possible. Muscles are developed, swelling and spasms are relieved, pain is relieved.
There is a series of exercises that strengthen the lower back muscles, here are the main exercises that relieve pain quickly. Like an ambulance. The exercise is safe, the initial pain is normal. If you start performing these movements immediately, as soon as a person feels discomfort, "pulls" his muscles, the pain syndrome can be relieved in one or two sessions.
Medicinal painkillers provide temporary relief, but do not get rid of the problem.Apply, if unbearable, ointments, folk remedies (salt lotions, herbal baths), but the emphasis is on exercise.
Alternate reasonably between work and rest, allow yourself to sleep peacefully.
Don't be reckless: work your muscles proactively. Practice movements that relieve muscle stagnation. They are dynamic organs. Apply a series of reasonable exercises, do not force. Be patient. Muscle work is controlled by the mind, its ability to regenerate (recovery) is amazing. Under load, new pathways are innervated, bypassing damaged pathways, and temporarily lost muscle function affected by disease or external influences is restored.
Anatomical changes only concern the pathways. Health, well-being, mobility - restored.
There is no better investment than investing in your own health. It's about the investment effort: exercising as part of a lifestyle. Get used to it - every day, like brushing your teeth.
Treating the disease is not an option. The desire to find a comfortable body position that relieves pain is understandable. But if "movement is life, " then peace (which is so desirable when there is pain) is the antipodal of life. Eternal peace - with any degree of laziness - few people are interested, so you have to strain sore muscles. Through pain Illness is loved when pampered (bed rest, minimal movement, heating and other hobbies). Butdisease recedes before the brave, step over the fear of experiencing pain and go through it yourself. Overcome self-pity: it is an excuse for laziness and fear. A little courage, regular light work, and you'll forget about lower back pain.