Category: Arthritis

BPS 31: Understanding Different Types of Back Pain

Knowing about the different types of pain will help you in better pain control. Pain can be divided into different categories. The treatment of a pain depends on the source and diagnosis of pain. In this post, you will learn about different types of pain.

Acute Pain

Acute pain lasts for a short time. The typical duration of an acute pain is around three to six months. This pain is generally related to tissue damage. Pain due to touching a hot stove, a needle prick, or a paper cut is known as acute pain. Other examples of acute pain include pain due to hitting one’s fingers with a hammer and childbirth pain.

Chronic Pain

When pain lasts for more than six months, the pain is known as chronic pain. This type of pain occurs when the tissue has not healed thereby causing pain. Degenerative disc disease and physical deconditioning due to lack of exercise and result in chronic pain. Sometimes chronic pain is not physical, but emotional in nature. This type of pain is caused due to emotional tension due to anxiety and depression.

Chronic pain can be divided into two types.

-Chronic Benign Pain — The type of chronic pain is caused by visce ...

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BPS 29: What are the Causes and Treatment of a Neck Strain?

A neck strain happens when fibers in a neck muscle stretches and tears. The injury is also known as pulled muscle. The pain in case of a neck strain vary in intensity. A neck strain generally heals on its own. However, in some cases surgical treatment is required.

Causes of Neck Strain

A neck sprain normally occurs due to an injury of the neck’s soft tissues. The neck contains more than twenty muscles. These muscles support the upright position of the head. They also help facilitate the movements of the neck, head, jaw, shoulders, and upper back.

The muscles consist of muscles fibers. Within each fiber are myofibrils that perform muscle contractions. When the muscle stretches or overexerts, small tears can develop in the tendon, muscle, or the connective tissue between the tendon and muscle.

Extensive neck strains result in inflammation that result in additional pain and swelling. It also requires a longer recovery period. The healing period depends on the muscle fibers that have been torn due to the injury.

While there are many types of neck muscles, the following two muscles are at increased risk of strain.

Trapezius

The kite sized musc ...

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BPS 22: What you Need to Know about Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD)?

Lumbar degenerative disc disease result in lower back pain. The disease is age-related that occur due to wear and tear of the spinal disc. In this post, you will learn about the pain in the back that occurs due to pain in the vertebrae.

About Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease (DDD)

Intervertebral discs are fibrous, tough structures. they act as ligaments between the vertebrae. The disc absorb pressure thereby acting as a shock absorber. The discs are flexible but strong enough to allow movements such as bending backward, forward, and side to side.

Lumbar degenerative disc disease is a misnomer. The reason is that it’s neither a disease nor the symptoms of the condition worsen over time. The discs stiffen naturally with age due to wear and tear. Everyone experience some form of disc degeneration. Due to stiffening of the spinal disc, an individual can experience different spinal disc problems, including lumbar degenerative disc disease.

Components of Intervertebral Disc

An understanding of the intervertebral disc that undergoes degermation will help in better understanding of the condition.

An intervertebral disc is composed of three main parts. T ...

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BSP 21: An Overview of Degenerative Disc Disease

Degenerative disc disease is a common condition that results in neck and back pain. The condition is also one of the least understood medical condition.

Degenerative disc disease can result in pain in the neck and back. The pain due to degenerative disc can occur in the lower or upper back. In this post, you will learn more about how degenerative disc disease causes back pain.

About Degenerative Disc Disease

Disc degermation is common that occurs with time. The spinal disks at the back act similar to shock absorbers in a car. They are located between the bones and vertebrae of the spine. The discs help the back stay flexible as you twist and bend.

Symptoms of degenerative disc disease include numbness, weakness, and shooting pains. The pain can occur in the back or also the arms and legs, known as radicular pain. Disc degeneration typically consists of a chronic pain with intermittent episodes of severe pain.

Types of a Disc Degeneration

There are two common types of disc degeneration.

-Lumbar Spine — Disc degeneration in the lumbar spine results in pain in the lower back.

-Cervical Spine — Cervical spine degermation result ...

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BPS 20: Symptoms and Diagnosis of Spinal Stenosis

Spinal stenosis may have different symptoms. The symptoms depend on the severity and the location of stenosis. In this post, we will look at the common symptoms of spinal stenos as well as proper diagnosis tests to identify the condition.

What are Common Spinal Stenosis Symptoms?

Spinal stenosis develops slowly over time. The symptoms can also occur intermittently. Instead of continuous pain, the symptoms can come and go. The symptoms of spinal stenosis may also occur when performing certain activities such as walking, riding a back or standing upright.

Patients suffering from spinal stenosis may experience relief from pain by lying down. They may also experience relief when in a flexed forward position.

Leg pain may develop due to lumbar spine stenosis. The medical word for the leg pain is claudication. It can be caused due to vascular claudication (arterial insufficiency) or neurogenic claudication due to spinal stenosis. In either condition, leg pain will subside with rest. The patient will have to sit down for a few minutes to ease the pain in the lower back.

In case of lumbar stenosis, pain may subside after flexing forward or sitting. This will ...

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BPS 16: What are the Causes, Types, and Symptoms of Spinal Stenosis?

Stenosis refers to an abnormal narrowing of the body. Spinal stenosis is a condition where the narrowing occurs in the bone channel occupied by the spinal cord and spinal nerves. Some people are born with a congenital defect, but most develop this as part of the degenerative disc due to aging.

The narrowing of the bone channel may result in radiating pain, numbness, and weakness. It can also result in a secondary compression of the spinal cord or nerves.

What are the Causes of Spinal Stenosis?

Spinal stenosis can occur due to many reasons. Some people have a small spinal canal that results in narrowing in the space within the spine. Other causes of the condition include herniated disks, overgrowth of bone, tumors, thickened ligaments, and spinal injuries.

People over the age of 50 are susceptible to developing spinal stenosis. Although, it can also happen in younger individuals.

Types of Spinal Stenosis

Spinal stenosis types are classified according to the location where the problem occurs. Based on the location, spinal stenosis can be divided into two types.

1. Cervical Spinal Stenosis

Cervical spinal stenosis occurs in the neck area. The cond ...

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BPS 11: 7 Common Causes of Sciatic Nerve Pain

An effective treatment of sciatica requires understanding the underlying medical cause. Once the cause of the sciatica pain is understood, the root cause of the pain can be addressed. In this article, we will discuss the seven common causes of sciatica.

1. Isthmic Spondylolisthesis

One common cause of sciatica is isthmic spondylolisthesis. This occurs when a fracture results in a vertebral body to slip onto another. For instance, this can occur when the L4 vertebra slips over to the L5 vertebra.

The combination of the stress due to fracture, disc space reduction, and the slipping forward of the vertebral body can result in a pinched nerve. This results in sciatica symptoms.

2. Spinal Tumor

In some cases, a tumor can put pressure on a nerve root causing sciatica. The tumor sometimes originates in the spine. But usually, spinal tumor develops when cancer in a different part of the body spreads to the spine.

3. Disc Degeneration

Disc degeneration is a natural process of aging. In most cases, this does not cause any problem. However, smoothies the disc degeneration results in irritation of the nerve root. When this happens, it leads to sciatica.

Ne ...

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BPS 10: Herniated Disk Symptoms and Causes…

Herniated Disc—what is it?

It’s a problem associated with one of the disks located between the vertebrae that are stacked together to make the spine. This spinal disk is like a rubbery cushion which is encased in a tough exterior, while the center of the disk is soft.

A herniated disk is also termed as a ruptured or slipped disk. It is known to occur when some of the soft jelly in the center of the disk squeezes outward through a tear in the exterior. Though it occurs usually in the lumbar spine, some people can have a herniated disk in the cervical spine.

Common Symptoms for Herniated Disk

The condition can be identified through some signs and symptoms such as:

·        Pain in the leg or arm

If you have herniated disk in the lumbar spine, then you are likely to feel intense pain in the lower body region such as your hips, thigh and calf; and sometimes even the foot. However, if the condition affects the cervical region, then you’re likely to experience severe pain in the arm or your shoulder.

The pain shoots in the leg or arm when you move into certain positions, cough or sneeze.

·     ...

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BPS 9: What are the Symptoms and Causes of Sciatic Nerve Pain?

Sciatica is associated with a feeling of pain, weaknesses, and numbness. Symptoms of sciatic pain differ but generally involve a pain in the buttocks. Sometimes the pain is felt in the back of the thigh, calf, or even just the toes.

Keep in mind that sciatica involves radicular pain that originates from the nerve. A pain that originates from the joint is not sciatica, but joint pain. The specific nerve pain can be traced to the area that has been injured.

Here you will learn about the different types of sciatica nerve pain depending on the source of the pain.

Symptoms of Sciatic Nerve Pain

Sciatica nerve pain generally originates from the area between the lumbar segments L3 and L4 and L4 and L5. In some cases, it also originates between the lumbar segment L5 and sacral segment S1. Symptoms experienced by an individual differs depending on the location of the pain.

Sciatica from L3-L4 Level

Sciatica symptoms that stem from the L3-L4 nerve root include pain in the lower leg or foot. The patient may not be able to heel walk i.e. bring the foot upwards. In addition, there is reduced knee-jerk reflex associated with nerve pain that stems from this level.

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BPS 8: What are the Common Treatment Options for Sciatica Nerve Pain?

Sciatic nerve pain in most cases goes away over time. But if the pain does not subside with time, medical treatment should be sought.

For most people, simple non surgical methods and regular exercise are effective. A structure treatment option, including surgery, is necessary in case of persistent pain.

In this article, we will list treatment options – both non surgical and surgical – for sciatic pain.

Non surgical Treatment Plans

The aim of non surgical treatment options is to provide relief from sciatic pain. Various non surgical treatment options are available to treat the compressed sciatic nerve. Doctors may recommend one of the following non surgical methods for the condition.

Heat or ice Packs

Heat or ice packs can help in relief from acute sciatic pain. The packs can reduce the intensity of the leg pain. This method is particularly helpful during the initial stage. The ice is applied for about half an hour every two hours.

Most people find relief from using ice packs. But some find relief from heat packs. The two can also be applied in succession. It’s recommended to apply the ice pack with a towel or cloth placed betw ...

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Robin BackPainExpert

Physiotherapists & Back Pain Expert

Twenty years ago I was lucky to survive a serious hockey injury. In a sport where big men zoomaround on hard ice and solid wood sticks are slung furiously, a difficult back injury is what every player fears.
It took a long time for me to climb back to a normal life. But when I did, I was determined to spend the rest of his life helping back pain victims everywhere.
As a physiotherapist and back pain expert I have treated thousands of patients over 20 years, built a respected back pain clinic, created the site BackPainSecrets.Com and authored the book “Back Pain Secrets.”
Learn more about me here.

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