Back Pain

• Injuries and Accidents: Injury to muscle, ligaments, or soft tissue can lead to back pain. Fracture in spinal bone in a fall or a car accident also is a common cause. If you have osteoporosis, a condition that weakens your bones, you’re much more prone to fracturing a bone.
• Obesity: Being overweight puts pressure and stress on the back, especially the low back. Carrying excess weight aggravates other health conditions such as osteoporosis (weak bones), osteoarthritis (joint pain), rheumatoid arthritis (an autoimmune disease), degenerative disc disease (described above in the aging section), spinal stenosis, and spondylolisthesis.

Back pain is also caused by a specific spinal condition like :

1. Slip disc
2. Spinal stenosis
3. Faceted arthritis
4. Spondylosis
5. Primary spinal tumors
6. Spinal Metastatic tumors
7. Infections
8. Tuberculosis
9. Spinal Fracture
10. Metabolic causes- Osteomalacia

What is the Anatomy of Back Spine?

Human Spine is made of up 33 bones (vertebrae) that are cushioned by discs. These vertebrae are divided by region: neck (cervical spine), mid-back (thoracic spine), and low back (lumbar spine). At the lower end spine ends at the terminal bone of the sacrum and the coccyx, which is commonly called your tailbone. Discs are present between these bones. The disks protect the bones by absorbing the shocks from daily activities like walking, lifting, and twisting. Each disk has two parts – a soft, gelatinous inner portion (nucleus pulp-ous) and a tough outer ring (annulus fibrosis). Facet joints are on the posterior side (back) of your vertebrae. These joints (like all joints in your body) help movement and are very important for flexibility. Together, the vertebrae and discs form a tunnel through which the spinal cords and nerve pass. The spine also has muscles, ligaments, and blood vessels. Muscles are tissues that act as power generators for movement. Ligaments are the strong, flexible bands of fibrous tissue that link the bones together. 

What are the Common Symptoms of associated with Back Pain?

Low back pain – type character, duration, recovery, and natural course depend on what is causing pain and where it is affecting your spine. The common complaints as-sociated with back pain are,

• Morning stiffness,
• Spasms,
• Pain in flanks
• Difficulty in sitting, forward bending,
• Pain with prolonged sitting or performing ground-level activities.
• Difficulty in walking and lying down also is a common presentation.
• Associated symptoms with back pain are leg pain,
• Numbness/ weakness in legs,
• Difficulty in passing urine or motion and difficulty in walking.