Low Back Pain

Causes, Symptoms and Home Treatment Products

Back pain can change your life. It can reduce your energy, keep you from doing the things you love to do, and, without a doubt, make you irritable and depressed.

Causes

There are several causes of lower back pain including:

Past trauma
Arthritis
Pinched nerves
Disc problems
Improper posture

Back pain can be:

Acute or chronic
Mild or severe
Dull or sharp
Local or radiating

Acute Trauma is the most well known cause of back pain. Acute trauma includes slips, falls, sports injuries, car accidents, lifting injuries etc. These types of injuries cause tearing in the tissues including muscles, tendons, ligaments, connective tissue and discs.

Back Sprain - When a ligament tears it is called a sprain. There are different levels or grades of lower back sprain from 1-3

Lower Back Structure

Lumbar Vertebrae, Discs & Nerves

The lower back consists of five vertebrae, the sacrum and the pelvis. The vertebrae are stacked on top of each other and are designed to be curved slightly toward the front of the body (normal lumbar lordosis). Normally, in the lumbar spine, most of the weight bearing is on the joints of the spine rather than the discs.

In between each vertebrae is a disc made of a fibrotic cartilage type of material with a fluid type center called the disc nucleus. The discs provide cushioning between the bones and help with shock absorption. The disc is surrounded by thick ligaments that attach around the body of the vertebrae. There are also many different ligaments that provide stability and integrity and hold the bones together.

The spinal cord runs through a hole in the back part of the vertebrae called the spinal canal and between each vertebrae. Spinal nerves exit to provide sensory nerve supply from the body to the brain and motor nerve supply from the brain to the body.

Sacrum and Pelvis

The vertebrae sit atop the triangular shaped bone called the sacrum. The sacrum articulates with the two pelvic bones called the Ilium; hence the term sacro-Iliac joint. This joint allows for the proper motion to walk and is held together by many strong ligaments.

Grades of Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is categorized into three different grades of sprains:

Mild (Grade 1) Back Sprain

This level of Lumbar Sprain indicates that the back has been taken past its normal range of motion and the ligaments that hold the joints together have been overstretched but not torn.

Symptoms:

Little to no swelling
Mild back pain
Mildly limited range of back motion

Prognosis:

It is common that nearly normal activities can be performed with only limited amounts of pain following this type of sprain. Usually you can resume normal activities within 1-2 weeks.

Moderate (Grade 2) Back Sprain

Grade 2 Lumbar Sprains indicate that there has been a relatively mild, partial ligament tear with a little swelling to severe ankle sprains that inhibit weight bearing or use of the joint.

Symptoms: