7 Causes of Lower Back Pain!

There are seven major factors that contribute to your lower back pain. Maybe you have already been to a doctor who has told you that you have a herniated, bulging, or slipped disc. If you've been told any of the above, chances are good that you have excess pressure bearing down on your spine. Did you know that this pain could be reversed using a breakthrough medical discovery called Spinal Decompression¹? Here then are the seven common causes of low back pain:

1. Muscle strains.Strained muscles, tendons, ligaments or inflamed joints may cause low back pain... and result in you missing work. Muscle strains usually result from accidents.
2. Herniated disc.This condition occurs when normal wear and tear or exceptional strain causes a disk to rupture. Bulging disks are common and often painless. It becomes painful whenexcessive bulging or fragments of the disk herniate or break-off and place pressure on nearby nerves. Some doctors call this a "swollen disk", or a "bulging disk".
3. Bulging Disc or Slipped Disc.A bulging disc is a disc that is extending beyond its normal boundary, into the area where the spinal cord lives. A bulging disc causes pain if it bulges onto a nerve. (The spinal cord is all nerve tissue.) This will depend upon how far it is bulging and in which direction. Bulging and herniated discs cause pain because the soft material flows out, usually onto nerves. The nerves respond by sending pain signals. A slipped disc is when the soft part of the disc bulges through the circle of connective tissue which can also push on the spinal cord or on the nerve roots causing back pain!
4. Sciatica.Pain may occur in your leg due to inflammation or compression of nerves in your lower back. If sciatica goes untreated, you may end up dragging your leg around!
5. Spasms. Muscle spasm is a common response to injury. The muscle spasm is designed toimmobilize the painful area and prevent further damage. Some spasms are so severe that you can't move!
6. Ostcoarthritis.This degenerative joint condition affects nearly everyone past age 60. Overworking, injuries, and aging can slowly cause deterioration of cartilage, the protective tissue that covers the surface of the joints of your vertebrae. Even though we all call this "arthritis"...it still hurts!
7. Osteoporosis.This condition causes brittle bones, which leads to a gradual weakening of bones. The result can be painful vertebral compression fractures. People older than 50, particularly women, are prone to osteoporosis. Remember that older woman(who was all bent-over) next door when you were a kid? She had osteoporosis.

When to Get Help for Low Back Pain! If back pain has been a problem for you for some time and you don't feel some improvement within the first 24 hours of self-care, it's time to call us. Please call my office when you have any of the warning