No matter your age, lower back pain can be stressful and uncomfortable to experience regularly. At its best, it causes noticeable discomfort. At its worst, it may leave you unable to perform your day-to-day activities.
Due to these reasons, you must understand the causes behind your specific condition and seek targeted treatment for lower back pain in New York. This ensures that you can address the core reason behind your pain while also finding relief from related aches and discomfort.
At New York Spine Specialist, our healthcare professionals specialize in diagnosing and treating lower back pain through various approaches. With our firm grasp on various spine-related conditions, our physicians can help you alleviate your lower back pain as well as its associated causes.
What Are the Common Causes of Lower Back Pain?
Various causes could contribute to lower back pain in people of all ages. While most of these reasons relate to age-related risks, that is not always the case. In many instances, other factors such as physical injuries or lifestyle practices may also contribute to lower back pain.
Some of the most common reasons behind lower back pain include but are not limited to the following.
- Underlying conditions. Sometimes, lower back pain may arise out of underlying conditions such as degenerative disc disease (DDD).
- Neurological issues. Neurological conditions such as sciatica may also contribute to lower back pain.
- Physical injuries. Physical damage such as sprains and sports injuries may also cause lower back pain.
- Skeletal irregularities. Skeletal issues such as scoliosis can also lead to lower back pain.
- Arthritis. If you develop spinal arthritis, it could cause perpetual lower back pain that may worsen with movement.
- Osteoporosis. If you have a weak or hollow bone structure, it could also lead to noticeable fractures in the spine and cause lower back pain.
- Ruptured discs. If your intervertebral discs are compressed to the point of bulging outward, it could cause low back pain.
- Tumors. There are certain instances where tumors may contribute to lower back pain.
- Fibromyalgia. This chronic pain condition may also contribute to lower back pain.
Various other conditions such as infections and life changes such as pregnancy, may cause lower back pain. Due to this reason, it’s essential to reach out to a physician for lower back pain treatment in NY.
Through different diagnostic approaches, specialized healthcare professionals can diagnose the root cause of your lower back pain. This ensures that you are getting targeted and timely treatment for your pain.
How to Differentiate Between Lower Back Pain Causes?
Since lower back pain can arise from many issues, you must narrow down the cause with a qualified physician’s help. This diagnosis helps in the proper treatment of your pain, related symptoms, and the underlying condition.
The diagnosis of lower back pain and its associated cause is made through a variety of approaches. This includes a physical examination, medical history, and imaging tests such as CT scan, X-ray, and MRI. There are a few instances where blood tests might be required, but they are reserved for selected conditions such as infections.
Once your physician has diagnosed the condition properly, you move forward to the next phase of your lower back pain management. This is where the actual treatment for lower back pain in NY starts and allows you to seek relief from your pain and related condition.
What Can I Do To Relieve My Lower Back Pain
Exercises that Help to Relieve Lower Back Pain
Indeed, back pain creates a significant portion of stress in your life. Issues such as spinal stenosis can appear throughout your life due to old age, wear and tear, or other problems.
A few simple exercises are noted below.
The Knee-to-Chest Exercise
This is a simple exercise. It is where you lay on your back. Bend your knees with your feet in a flat position. Then bring the knee back to your face and hold it for over 80 seconds. Then do the same for the other knee or leg. If you can do it with both knees, you will find that your back is strengthened.
Ensure to relax your legs and overall back as you do these stretches.
The goal is to do these steps several times and then move to the next stretch.
The right type of stretches can help you improve your back, improve spinal cord alignment, and improve your posture.
The Slight Crunch
The slight crunch is an exercise that can help to minimize spinal cord injury and maximize potential opportunities for pain alleviation. In this exercise, you would lie on your back and get into the crunch position, but instead of raising your upper body as you would with a full crunch, you would only slightly raise your shoulders off the floor. Hold that position for a few seconds and then slowly descend. Conduct this exercise several times before taking a break.
These are a few of the exercises you can conduct without the possibility that it would lead to low back issues. Remember to notify your internal medicine specialist if you have already performed simple exercises to minimize severe pain.
Aspects such as regular numbness or weakness can affect your mental health and require seeking professional help with nerve conduction, lumbar region treatment options, and other aspects to prevent low back pain.
How is Lower Back Pain Treated in Different Scenarios?
Depending upon your diagnosis and the underlying issue, your lower back pain may be treated with different medical procedures and complementary medicine approaches. It can be as simple as taking x rays and prescribing bed rest to minimizing heavy lifting for a while.
These health care practices may include but are not limited to:
Medicine for Chronic Low Back Pain
Pain management is one of the primary causes of concern for lower back pain. This especially holds for conditions with intense pain. After studying your case, your doctor may prescribe analgesics, topical pain relievers, as well as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
Physical Therapy for Chronic Back Pain
Physical therapy is often prescribed to alleviate the underlying condition. This also helps in the prevention of lower back pain from recurring in some cases. Physical therapy typically involves manual exercises, which healthcare professionals prescribe according to the cause of your lower back pain.
Cryotherapy and Thermotherapy
In chronic lower back pain, cryotherapy with cold packs and ice packs and thermotherapy with hot packs and heated water bottles are prescribed. These therapies interact with your muscles to help with pain relief and associated causes such as swelling.
Steroid Injections
In certain conditions such as sciatica, your lower back pain doctor in NY may suggest using steroid injections. These injections are administered around the site of your acute back pain and reduce inflammation. With that being said, the use of these injections is limited due to steroids’ possible side effects.
Surgery
In conditions such as nerve compression or extensive physical injury, your doctor may need to perform surgery to resolve the cause of your low back pain. This particular approach is only reserved for instances where non-invasive procedures are not as effective.
Reach Out to Reliable Physicians for Acute Low Back Pain Treatment in NY
To ensure that you receive proper care and medical attention for your lower back pain, you must reach out to specialized physicians. If you are in NY, New York Spine Specialist’s healthcare professionals can help you obtain the treatment you need for your low back pain.
With our specialized experience and skills in treating low back pain, the New York Spine Specialist team can provide you with the level of care you need to alleviate your pain and treat its underlying cause. This ensures that you receive treatment for the outward symptoms of pain and benefit from targeted approaches that address the root cause behind it.
Get a direct consultation to treat low back pain. Don’t hesitate to contact us today. We will be pleased to understand your back pain symptoms and concerns. Further, we will help you relieve pain by addressing the causes of low back pain. Whether it is wear and tear or muscle strain, we will provide medical advice, diagnosis and help you get to normal activities as soon as possible.
Contact us today at (516) 355-0111 or request an appointment.