Health Articles

Basically there are two types of pain; acute and chronic. Acute pain is temporary in nature and this goes away if the cause is resolved. This can be due to an injury, illness or recent surgery. Chronic pain is a long duration pain and can go on for days, months or even years. Chronic pain is considered as the costliest health problem in the United States.

Prevention is better than cure. Hence, it is necessary to follow the steps given below to prevent getting back pain.
American Chronic Pain Association
• Head has to be held high without leaning forward while standing and walking. Feet are to be kept apart with the weight towards the balls of the feet.
• While sitting in a chair, one should keep back straight and with proper support at the back instead of leaning forward.
• While lifting, the back has to be kept straight by bending at the hips.
• The backrest of the chair has to push at the lower back while sitting. Keep the computer screen at eye level. One should not bend too much while sitting.
• Stretching exercises will help in preventing back pain.

Back pain is the most frequent complaint in people. The spine is a complex network of nerves, joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments and all are capable of producing pain individually.

Exercise and physiotherapy which includes stretching and strengthening are good to help the patient in long term. Series of lessons with an exercise prescription in Alexander technique is found to be beneficial for patients with chronic back pain.

Manipulation by a trained and qualified physical therapist is found to be beneficial for back pain patients. Cold compression therapy is also equally effective in relieving back pain.

Have you ever felt pains that can be felt either in the buttock, lower back, or maybe running down the upper part of your thigh? These afflictions can be nagging episodes of pain and may also be characterized by weakness or numbness. If you have felt this type of pain then you may have experienced sciatica.

Today, most of us are experiencing or at least have experienced sciatica. There are a number of causes for sciatica and we are going to discuss five of them in this article and at the same time the things that we could do in order to have relief of this pain. The reliefs may vary from a surgical and non-surgical approach.

The most common cause of sciatica is spinal disc herniation. Going back to human anatomy focusing on the skeletal system, our spinal discs have two components. The annulus or the cartilage part and the liquid nucleus. There are times, could be due to improper posture when reaching for an object or accident, when the nucleus can be displaced and protrude through the cartilage that surrounds it. This is the state where the spinal disc is herniated. The protrusion of the nucleus can cause swelling and impinge a nerve root. This will cause back pain or sciatica. But most of the time this back pain will go away once the swelling subsides.

Another cause is the Piriformis syndrome. This is where the Piriformis muscle, located at the buttock part, is impinging or compressing the sciatic nerve. The compression is because of spasms caused by accident or trauma to the Piriformis muscle.

Spinal tumors are also causing sciatica because of the growth of these tumors are compressing the nerve. These tumors may induce terrible back pain and may run up to the lower extremity area such as the legs and feet. Pregnancy can also cause sciatica, this is because as the baby grows, it also stretches the uterus and thus impinges on the sciatic nerve. Sciatica is often triggered by work related issues, for example if you carry something to heavy for yourself.

The measures to be taken in order to relieve sciatica may differ depending on the cause. The most common relief for sciatica is taking in anti-inflammatory medications. Therapy is also another way of relieving sciatica. If you do want something that you can do at home, you can try doing some stretches. Worst case scenario for relief is when you need to have surgery. Surgery however is risky and the process would involve removal of a nerve that is within the spine. One wrong move then more damage could be made and thus leading to a more serious problem.

Sciatica may come from a number of causes and have a number of remedies. Being careful with your body is probably the best way for you to not experience sciatica.
Sciatica and Back Pain are very uncomfortable and can stop you from doing numerous things in your life. Seeing a specialist is the best way of ensuring your life doesn’t remain a misery.