Pain Lower Spine: This Causes and How to Overcome It

Lower spine pain can be very annoying. Therefore, it is important to know the causes as well as how to deal with the spinal pain experienced.

Pain in the lower spine is often associated with low back pain. This pain is usually associated with ligaments (connective tissue) around the spine, nerves, and spinal cord. This condition is most common in adults aged 30-40 years.

Understanding the Causes of Lower Spine Pain

There are several factors that can increase the risk of lower spine pain. For example, being overweight, pregnant, smoking, stress or depression, and consumption of drugs that can affect bone conditions, such as corticosteroids.

Symptoms of lower spine pain can be felt in the form of pain, numbness, or numbness that spreads on one leg, joint pain or feels stiff when walking in the morning, and others. The pain makes it uncomfortable, it can even interfere with activity.

There are several things that can cause lower back pain, including:

Experience muscle tension
Muscle tension (muscle strain) or also commonly known as sprains usually occur when lifting heavy objects that are wrong or sudden movements. Other than that, tension can also result from excessive activity while working.

Disorders of the spinal structure
For example problems with spinal discs, arthritis (bone and joint inflammation), osteoporosis (bone loss), or abnormal spinal curvatures such as scoliosis.

Suffering from certain diseases
Other causes can also come because of certain disease conditions, such as narrowing of the spinal canal (spinal stenosis), degenerative spondylolisthesis, loss of nerve function in the lower spinal cord or called cauda equina syndrome, fungal or bacterial infection of the spine, and also cancer of the spine.

To ascertain the cause of lower spine pain, doctors can perform several supporting tests such as X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, bone scans, or electromyography (EMG). If infection is suspected, the doctor can recommend a blood test.

How to Overcome Spinal Pain

Treatment of lower spine pain depends on the cause. Here are some treatment options that can be done:

Pain relievers. For example paracetamol can help relieve pain for the short term. Always consult the dose and duration of consumption of this drug with your doctor. In addition, pain relievers can also be a cream or ointment that is smeared directly in a painful location.

Giving drugs such as antidepressants or some types of narcotics to treat chronic back pain. However, it must always be done under the supervision of a doctor.

Anti-inflammatory injections, for example corticosteroids, can be given if the spinal pain feels spread to the feet and does not work with other pain relievers. One of them is cortisone injections, which will help reduce inflammation around the nerve roots, helping to temporarily relieve pain.

Spinal surgery is the last choice if other treatments are unsuccessful, or if the pain is so severe that the sufferer cannot sleep or move. A common surgical procedure is discectomy (the part of the disc between the spine is removed so that the disc does not compress the spinal cord) and spinal fusion (two or more vertebrae are combined to stabilize the spine and reduce pain). However, this surgery has the risk of serious complications, such as nerve damage around the area of ​​surgery or even paralysis.

In addition, there are also several alternatives that can be done to relieve lower back pain, such as yoga or acupuncture. However, always consult with your doctor before undergoing any treatment method.

For those of you who experience lower spine pain, keep trying to move actively to help recovery. Perform movements without haste and not force the body. Consult a neurologist or orthopedic doctor for the most appropriate treatment of lower spine pain.