Chronic back pain is one of the most common complaints that can have debilitating effects on your work, recreation, sleep, and mood. The longer it lasts, the more it can affect your health. At Pain Physicians NY Clinic, Dr. Leon Reyfman and Dr. Boleslav Kosharskyy focus on addressing the potential causes behind your backache to treat it successfully and prevent it from flaring up again. Dr. Leon Reyfman and Dr. Boleslav Kosharskyy are experts in pain conditions and work with you to understand your symptoms. They offer a full range of treatment options to fix your back issues of the joints, ligaments, and muscles and ensures you return to your routine within the shortest possible time.
A constant dull ache, a sharp or stabbing pain, and a tingling or burning sensation in your back are some signs of chronic backache. If you have chronic back pain, it feels as if you are in constant discomfort or you are waiting for the pain to return.
Back pain is considered chronic if it lasts three months or longer. It can come and go. You will get temporary relief followed by irritating pain. It can develop anywhere from the neck to the lower spine. This pain can be localized or spread across a wide area and radiate from a central point.
There may be several potential causes of chronic back pain, but it is usually attributed to issues within lumbar discs, nerves, joints, or vertebrae. While accident-related trauma, acute stress, and an awkward movement or fall can trigger pain, these events are not the root cause. Dealing with chronic back pain can be a challenge, especially if you don’t know what is causing this pain.
Read on to learn more about chronic back pain and its underlying reasons to understand how to find lasting relief.
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How Do Chronic Back Pain Symptoms Differ From Acute Back Pain?
Acute back pain develops suddenly, often as a result of an identifiable injury, such as strains and sprains in the muscles, tendons, and ligaments. It can happen if you lift a heavy object with incorrect posture. Most minor cases of acute back pain resolve fairly quickly, within a matter of days, but may last up to 6 weeks.
In comparison, chronic back pain develops gradually over time and worsens progressively. This pain lasts at least three months or occurs intermittently over about six months or beyond the point of tissue healing. Because chronic pain is long-lasting, it often causes you to avoid physical activity or change your routine in some way.
Whether your symptoms are acute or chronic, you must seek rapid back pain relief to continue with your routine life and activities.
Read more: What Is Causing My Back Pain, and How Can I Remedy It?
How Common Is Chronic Back Pain?
A large population suffers from chronic back pain. Studies show that 8 out of 10 Americans experience mild to moderate back pain during their lifetime, which limits their certain everyday activities. A small percentage of people who go through back pain suffer from chronic kind.
Back pain affects adults of all ages. It is a leading cause of work-loss days as severe pain can keep you from sitting or standing for long hours, and you end up taking off from work.
Underlying Conditions That Can Cause Chronic Back Pain
Chronic back problems are not caused by some injury or event. The reasons behind chronic back pain often remain unidentified. However, several underlying conditions have been linked to chronic back pain.
Muscle Deconditioning
It is one of the most common causes of chronic back pain. Also, known as muscle atrophy, it is the thinning or loss of muscle tissue. Muscle deconditioning occurs naturally as we age, but for most people, lack of physical activity or certain medical conditions is the primary factor that can lead to wear and tear of the muscles.
If your back is hurting or you have injured yourself, you start taking it easy or avoid certain activities, such as lifting heavy objects or participating in routine activities. However, too much inactivity can cause the muscles to shrink and weaken. When you don’t use your back muscles enough, they lose the strength and stability to support the ligaments and vertebrae properly, as they normally would, leading to wear and tear over time. This causes more pain and leaves you more vulnerable to injury.
Read more: How Can I Relieve Pain in My Neck?
Incorrect Posture or Body Mechanics
Poor posture can lead to unwanted strain on your upper and lower back and the soft tissues surrounding it, which leads to complaints of back, neck, and shoulder pain. Bad sitting habits throw the spine out of its natural alignment position, and this repeated stress can break down the structural components of the spine, causing long-term pain.
While posture or body mechanics are part of every movement you make, your work environment can have a significant impact. Sitting for long hours in the same position without stretching can cause the hip flexors to tighten. Over time, this causes hips and hamstrings to weaken, leading to lower back pain. If you hunch over the keyboard several times every day, it can lead to kyphosis, an excessive forward rounding of the upper back. Too much curved spine is often associated with back pain.
If your job requires regular lifting or repetitive movements, proper mechanics are your best defense from chronic back pain. You should learn the right way to lift objects, bend, and sit to prevent spine issues.
Aging and Genetics
As we get older, our bodies change, and the aches and pains become more common. It is also because we lose muscle strength and disc space within our spine. This natural aging process can also be accelerated by other chronic pain-causing conditions.
Research also shows that there is strong evidence that your back pain or degenerative disc conditions may be inherited. If someone in your immediate family, such as a parent or sibling, has disc-related lower back pain, you have four times more chances of having back pain, and lifestyle factors and aging add to it.
Read more: 5 Signs Your Back Pain Might Be an Emergency
Traumatic Events
Back pain is often a result of direct or indirect contact with an external force. The ligaments that control your back joints can be damaged by an accidental fall, twist, or slip. A car accident, fall on ice, trip and slip events, and other high-impact events not only cause damage to the spine but also speed up the aging process on the spine, flaring up chronic pain.
Accidents leading to injury or trauma can happen to anyone. Knowing how your pain has started can help you recover and get back on your feet again.
Overuse and Repetition of Routine Activities
Our routine activities can have a significant impact on the amount of stress we put on our bodies. Sometimes, even little things can affect our spine health negatively if they are overdone or repeated for a long time, such as using your phone, driving or sitting for long hours, and repetitive motion activities such as walking, bending over, exercising, or typing.
Even lifting heavy as well as small objects like kids and sleeping in an odd position or on an old mattress can result in back pain.
Chronic Neck and Back Conditions
While back pain can be irritating, uncomfortable, or even scary if it turns unbearable, it is rarely serious. In most cases, this pain begins to develop with simple, everyday movement rather than an injury or condition. It is usually caused by stress, tension, fatigue, inactivity, or even some new activity that makes your back sensitive to movement. Most of the time, this type of back pain subsides within a couple of weeks with rest and home care. However, in certain cases, chronic neck and back conditions can cause back pain and other discomforting symptoms that can affect your movement and routine life.
They include:
- Degenerative disc disease (spondylolysis) – It is a type of osteoarthritis that affects the discs in the spine. It can be caused by drying out of the disc over time, daily activities, sports, and injuries. As your spinal discs thin, or wear down, you experience neck and back pain. This pain can range from nagging to disabling. However, many people diagnosed with degenerative disc disease do not have any painful symptoms.
- Herniated disc – A herniated disc is an injury of the spine. It occurs when the rubbery cushions between the bones or vertebrae that make up your spine, called discs, tear or leak. These discs have a soft, gel-like center and a firmer out layer and act as a buffer between your bones, allowing you to bend and move easily. When the outer layer weakens or cracks, the inner jelly substance pushes through the crack, pressing on the spinal nerves. Depending on where the herniated disc is, it can result in pain and discomfort.
- Myofascial pain – It is a chronic condition that arises from inflammation in your muscles and fascia, the thick connective tissues that surround your muscles and keep them in place. Myo means muscle, and fascial means fascia. When the muscles, tendons, and ligaments around the spine become strained or tensed, they can cause pain. Muscle strain can be disruptive in some cases.
- Pinched nerve – Too much pressure on a nerve by surrounding tissues such as bones, cartilage, muscles, or tendons can lead to a pinched nerve in the lower part of the spine. This pressure can also cause numbness, weakness, and tingling. Also known as cervical or lumbar radiculopathy, pinched nerve may occur due to compression or inflammation in the cervical or lumbar spine.
- Spinal stenosis – It is a narrowing of the spinal canal in the lower part of the back. It usually happens when the space inside the backbone is too small. Stenosis can cause pressure on your spinal cord or nerves that go down from the spinal cord to the muscles, which leads to pain. It can happen in any part of the spine, but it is most common in the lower part.
- Spine arthritis – It is inflammation in the joints between your vertebrae, the bones that link together to make your spine. It usually occurs as a result of wear and tear, autoimmune disorders, infection, and other conditions that cause pain in the back or neck. In some cases, the inflammation can also affect the sites where ligaments and tendons attach to the bones of the spine. Arthritis in the back or neck can be painful and often becomes chronic.
Read more: How to Relieve Shoulder Pain When Lifting Your Arm
Injuries
Most back pain is linked to minor strains, but injuries can also result from some accident or a fall. Back injuries can result in painful symptoms that can affect movement. Timely treatment and care are crucial for proper healing and pain relief. However, injuries like spinal fractures, stress fractures, or sports fractures take time and don’t heal as expected, which often results in long-term pain and other chronic issues.
If you suspect you didn’t heal after an injury to your back or your pain lasts for more than a few weeks, it is necessary to seek medical help. Your doctor will discuss your symptoms and test you for conditions that are causing pain to find the best treatment.
When to See a Specialist for Lower Back Pain?
If you have been experiencing back pain for more than a few weeks and it has not improved with rest and self-care, it is time to see a specialist. Chronic back pain means that you are experiencing more than aching discomfort, and it will not go away without proper treatment.
Severe back pain that does not go away, numbness, loss of movement, weakness, or bowel or bladder changes are warning signs that need immediate medical attention. The specialist will perform a physical exam, and order one or more imaging tests to diagnose the root cause of your back pain.
Read more: 9 Stretches to Relieve Neck Pain
Chronic Back Pain Relief Without Surgery
While surgery can be an effective option for lasting pain relief, it is not the best solution for relieving back pain. It is only recommended if non-surgical treatments do not deliver the desired results.
The best treatment for chronic back pain is movement. Instead of resting and taking it easy when your back hurts, you should keep moving to heal better. It may come as a surprise to you but the less you move, the more you will experience muscle deconditioning and chances are it will worsen your pain.
Read more: 10 Tips For Dealing With Lower Back Pain
Physical Therapy for Treating Chronic Back Pain
Physical therapy is the most effective and lasting solution for eliminating chronic back pain from your life. It involves movement-based activities like stretching, range of motion exercises, and targeted spine exercises that not only promote healing, but also help to prevent further back issues.
These movements and exercises are designed to address the underlying issues of chronic back pain, which strengthens your back and core, conditions your muscles, and enhances your mobility in the long run.
No matter the cause of your pain, it is essential to find long-term relief and regain mobility for a healthy body. Chronic back pain treatment options focus on finding the root cause of your pain, and improving your muscle strength, to help you perform daily chores without straining your back.
Read more: 8 Tips to Help Ease Your Back Pain
At Pain Physicians NY Clinic, our pain management specialist Dr. Leon Reyfman and Dr. Boleslav Kosharskyy are dedicated to reducing your pain with the most advanced treatment techniques so you can achieve maximum relief from your symptoms. They determine the source of your chronic back pain and come up with a unique as well as personalized treatment plan that best fits your condition and lifestyle, including physical therapy and minimally invasive spine surgery. They understand how back pain can affect your life and well-being and focus on treating and preventing recurring back pain to ensure you get back to activities you love.