You know the drill. You are in your office, working away. You drop your pen on the floor, reach over to pick it up, and BAM! Serious low back pain. It’s not like you were squatting your bodyweight or scaling a mountain; but, there you are, in a world of pain and wishing you had just left that pen on the floor! How did you get to that point and what can you do to speed up your recovery and prevent reinjury? That is the focus of this post. Low back pain (LBP) is a common problem affecting as much as 80% of the population at some point in their lives. People of all ages, and both males and females are susceptible to acute and chronic low back pain. Back pain is the second most common reason for visits to the doctor’s office (outnumbered only by upper respiratory infection). Most cases of back pain are mechanical or non-organic, meaning not caused by serious medical conditions such as fracture or cancer. Muscular causes of low back pain or low back myofascial pain syndrome are often overlooked because they are not accompanied by structural abnormalities (i.e. not seen on imaging studies). What may be the cause? Let’s look at factors that may predispose you to low back pain. Among the many factors are obesity, lack of physical fitness, hypermobile joints, occupation, age, psychological stress, and smoking. Smoking has been found to have an overall detrimental effect on the intervertebral discs, by causing vasoconstriction (reduced blood flow) and decreased rate of healing. Other conditions such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis may increase likelihood of low back pain, as may anxiety and depression. When to see a Doctor Before beginning any program of self-care, it is important to rule out serious pathology in the back. […]
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