7 Common Causes Of Lower Back Pain You Should Know

Having annoying lower back pain? Is it so painful that it disturbs your daily activity? You might have to visit your doctor to get the help you need. However, it is also not wrong to learn more about this disease to know what disease you are facing.

The easiest way to understand lower back pain is by learning about its causes. This article helps you to know more about those causes. Therefore, you will know how to deal with it and choose the best treatment for this disease. Let's start!

The Symptoms of Lower Back Pain

Pain in your lower back is easy to notice by its symptoms. There are at least five common symptoms of this disease, such as:

Dull aches in the hips and pelvis area,
Tightness feeling on the lower back muscle or muscle spasms,
Tingling and sharp pain that spread down to one leg or sciatica,
Pain occurs when you sit and is reduced when walking,
You feel worse pain in the morning.

The Common Causes of Lower Back Pain

Many lower back pain cases occur because of injury. But it also happens because of more severe problems. Here are some of them:

Herniated Disk

There are 17 bones (vertebrae) stacked against each other that form a thoracic and lumbar spine. Between these bones, you can find disks. These work similarly to cushion to absorb the pressure each bone receives.

Each of those disks consists of two parts, an inner gel, and an outer rind. Both of them are the cushion we explained above. The pain occurs because of problems with these disks.

Herniated disk means that the inner gel inside each disk gets squished out of the outer rind. It affects the nerves around the lower back spines. This condition causes pain in the lower back area.

What causes this disk condition? It occurs because of trauma. Age is also another factor that causes the inner gel to spread out of the disk. Mostly, it occurs because of the long period of disk usage.

Facet Joint Damage

The facet joints are the joint that connects five spines on your lower back. It holds the most loads or weight when you sit or stand up. Over time, there can be damage to these joints, which leads to lower back pain.

The damage is caused mostly by poor posture. When you are sitting or in a standing position with bad or wrong posture, it gives more burdens to these joints. Then, if it is combined with osteoarthritis, it will cause inflammation, muscle spasms, and other conditions. That will cause pain in the lower back area.

Compression Fracture

This condition occurs because the spines collapse on each other. It mostly occurs because of osteoporosis. However, trauma or impact also can cause this condition.

This condition causes severe lower back pain. Most of the cases, the pain will occur almost suddenly without warning or symptoms. That will give you a lot of problems when it occurs in the middle of your activity.

Spinal Stenosis

The problem is called lumbar spinal stenosis. It occurs when the lower back spine space gets narrower. It gives more pressure on the nerve roots around the spine. That causes severe pain.

What causes this condition? Mostly, it happens because of the formation of bone spurs. The ligament thickening around the spine also can make it occur. In some cases, the lumbar disk and joint degeneration also become the cause of this condition.

Worst of all, lumbar spinal stenosis does not only cause lower back pain. In severe cases, it also can cause sciatica. This condition will cause pain in the lower part of your body.

Spondylolisthesis

This condition occurs because the lumbar vertebra slips. The slip changes its position and the pressure your spine holds will change its concentration as well. The pressure will load on the lower lumbar disk. It causes the disk to deteriorate, which makes the pain occur in the lower back area.

In some cases, the slip occurs because of a fracture on one of the spines. This condition can happen even if the fracture is only in small size. Moreover, it could happen when you are young, then you will feel lower back pain when you are old.

Scoliosis

Scoliosis is a condition when your spine curves sideways. Naturally, your spine curves and forms an 'S' form. The upper back curve backward and the lower spine curve forward. That looks like an 'S' letter when you see it from the side.

However, scoliosis makes the lower back curve sideways. Therefore, when you see it from the back, the spine doesn't appear straight, which is a healthy condition or form of the spine. This condition causes the degeneration of the lumbar discs and joints.

Strains and Sprains

Lower back pain also occurs because of muscle injury. You can get back strains and sprains when you lift something heavy. Some people even get this injury when they sneeze or scream.

Compared to many causes we mentioned before, strains and sprains are the mildest cause. Therefore, it is easy to deal with. You only need to get some rest to let your muscle recover. Using muscle medication or gel also can help to recover from this condition.

When to See Doctor

Many causes of lower back pain come from bad posture or your daily habit. Therefore, you can fix it by changing your habit. Moreover, by consuming a healthy diet, you can accelerate the healing process and recover from this pain.

However, when the pain doesn't disappear or get reduced for a few weeks and even gets worse, that is a sign you should ask a doctor. The doctor will help you to find out the cause. Then, you also get the treatment to cure your pain.

Final Words

Pain in the lower back is not something to take too lightly. The pain is indeed disturbing your activity and causing discomfort. Moreover, the pain also can be a sign that you have more health problems in the spine area. Therefore, get help right away when you experience severe lower back pain.