BACK PAIN
What is back pain?
One of the most common reasons why Danes seek medical help is due to back pain.
There are many types of back and lower back pain:
1. Common back pain or lumbago (80-90%)
2. Nerve root pain radiating below the knee, most often due to prolapse or narrow nerve root canal (10%)
3. Rare disease, eg tumor, fracture, rheumatic disease (1-5%)
Acute lumbar spine
Many people have at one time or another experienced an acute "lumbar sprain", for example after a bad night's sleep or by a very slight forward bend to pick something up from the floor. It can feel as if the back is "locked" and nasal movement with pain at the outer positions is often the biggest symptom. In most cases, these symptoms go away after a few days or weeks.
If no improvement is seen, it may be because the nervous system's emergency preparedness has increased - ie. that the brain tries to protect your neck, for example, by tensing up the muscles and creating pain.
Treatment:
Movement exercises are important to restore normal tension in the muscles and help the nervous system to lower the brain's alertness.
Joint manipulation can have good relief and help increase mobility in the neck.
Disc herniation
Good advice
Back pain
Do not think that your back is unstable and weak - it is not!
Use your back as normally as possible and gradually increase the load
Prioritize your sleep
Disc herniation in the back can occur spontaneously, as well as in violent trauma.
Between the vertebrae sit our discs, which are intended to act as "shock-absorbing" devices and relieve the pressure in the spine. In the middle of each disc is a core which is pressed backwards towards the edge of the discus when we, for example, bend forward, and vice versa when we bend backwards.
In a prolapse, the nucleus is smoked out of the disc itself and can in some cases press on nerves. This can cause a feeling of pain in the neck radiating down the arm.
Treatment: Previously, it was recommended that people with disc herniation should remain calm, avoid forward bending because it could aggravate the symptoms and condition.
Recent research, however, suggests that this is often not the case and that exercise and normal activity are actually incredibly important in reducing pain and shortening the period of illness.
There may be cases where surgery is a necessity and the right solution. However, this should be the last resort as surgeries are major traumas for our nervous system.
Chronic back pain
If you have had pain that has lasted for 3 months, it is described as chronic or prolonged pain.
The essential thing in chronic back pain is that the pain at this time can no longer be attributed to the structures that may. has had to be damaged. Most structures (bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments) should be healed after 6 weeks.
A 2015 study concludes that pain is not always associated with structural changes.
When the pain has been going on for a long time, it is more about the hypersensitivity of the nervous system. The brain can, as a protective mechanism, create the experience of pain, as well as the brain can create muscle tension, headaches, dizziness, discomfort and much more.
At OPTIMUS - Physiotherapy & Pain Clinic, we have a good effect with treatment of chronic (long-term) pain using a neurological form of treatment: P-DTR, combined with teaching pain understanding and training aimed at challenging and overcoming the nervous system's protection mechanisms.
Let us help you get rid of your back pain - no matter how long you may have gone with it
