Back pain is one of the commonest reasons adults make an appointment to see their physician. It is one of those pains that putting a finger on exactly what is causing it could be a bit difficult. However, the back does a lot of work over the course of a person’s life, supporting the body and helping us maintain our erect posture.
This job of maintaining our day to day posture in addition to some other strenuous activity that involves lifting heavy loads or standing for prolonged hours could cause the back muscles to undergo wear and tear faster than normal. Assuming a bad posture when lifting heavy objects, slouching while sitting down and generally trying to lift objects which would be a lot easier to lift by two people all add up to cause the muscles to be over worked.
Signs and Symptoms of Right Lower back Pain
This complex network of muscles in the back could be strained by twisting or pulling, and improper lifting. When this happens, it will result in right lower back pain. To help you have an idea to what the possible cause of the pain is, there are some characteristics that pain has that will guide the physician in making sense of the pain. Is it sharp and deep? Does it radiate to any part of the body? Below are a few symptoms that could describe the type of pain you have to help you better explained to your doctor:-
Chronic Back Pain
This is the type of back pain that you have that could be:-
– Burning in nature
– Deep, aching or dull
– It could radiate and travel down your leg
Pain from Back Injury
– Deep pain in the lower right of the back
– Sharp and acute
Relieving Lower Back Pain
There are many different causes of back pain, and below are some tips on how to relieve lower back pain.
Exercise: Doctors know that exercise is good for certain types of back pain and do recommend it when they come across back pain that could benefit from it. This will involve daily regular exercise design to work out the muscles of the back, so that they can gain some strength and in the long run be able to withstand the types of strain that caused the stress in the first place.
Physicians do recommend gentle exercise with warm ups and cool downs to help with the back pain. When people sustain back muscle injury from overwork, then tend to start guarding (not using) the muscle to relieve the pain and also not to aggravate the problem. However, if you have chronic pain that lasts for a while, lack of use of the muscle will result in the muscles cells undergoing atrophy and not being able to provide support. To prevent this from happening, regular back exercise is recommended.
Posture: With back pain, you assume postures that will prevent the situation from getting. In most cases that is the right posture you should assume normally to keep your spine straight. If you like to cross and uncross your leg a lot when sitting down; when you have back pain you should do away with that. The process of crossing and uncrossing the leg does put the back muscles to work adding pressure to the lower back and pelvic area, making a bad situation worse.
Medication: Over the counter anti inflammatory medication could be ideal for back pain over narcotics based pain killers. With over the counter medication, you get some relief from the pain, but you still have a subtle feeling about the aching muscles and therefore you do not over use them, giving them the opportunity to heal.
However, with narcotics or opiate based pain killers, they mask the pain creating an illusion. You will go ahead and use the muscles without feeling any pain, but in reality you are not giving the injured muscles the time they need to recover.
Other Causes of Lower Back Pain
Due to the fact that there are other causes of back pain, it is very important that you consult your doctor ones you have back pain so that they can make a proper diagnosis and put you on the right track to recovery. Do not self diagnose. The treatment for low back pain caused by back muscle strain or poor posture is different to that for low back pain caused by an infection of the kidney. A strong sharp pain could be the result of a kidney problem or back pain. Even falls could affect the kidney one way or the other.
Other symptoms associated with kidney involvement include:-
– Fever
– Hematuria (blood in the urine)
– Pain while urinating
– Chills
– Backache and pain
– Nausea and vomiting.
Kidney involvement could be due to direct trauma to the kidney, a bacterial infection or a structural problem. The diagnosis will be determined by your physician after taking a history and ordering some tests. He would then prescribe the appropriate medication to treat the problem.
