Low back pain; apparently millions of us suffer from it, but until recently I had been ‘back pain free’. My back pain was not brought on as a result of injury, but rather sitting incorrectly at my desk. One evening while tired and sat slumped at the computer I felt a burning sensation in the middle of my back. Too late I tried sitting properly, stretching, moving but nothing helped as the burning sensation changed to an ache that wouldn’t go away. The back pain soon spread to other areas my back too, until it was hard to know where the real problem was. Its now totally sorted but so many people have since asked me advice that I thought a website where sufferers could share advice was a good thing.
A trip to my GP resulted in a prescription for pain killers and the recommendation that I keep mobile….. hmmm very helpful. Never one to rely on pain killers to ‘keep going’ I began researching alternatives.
Your Back
Its no wonder so many of us suffer from back pain at some time in our lives. The ‘back’ is a highly complex structure of bone, muscle, tendons, discs and nerves. The core of our backs consists of soft shock absorbing discs sandwiched between 33 vertebrae (small bones) held together by ligaments and tendons and supported by an amazingly complex structure of interrelated muscles in several groups. The discs absorb shock and allow nerve roots to leave the spine while the muscles hold us upright for all of our working day.
Causes of Back Pain
I began to understand why back pain is so hard to accurately diagnose but so easy to suffer from. Back pain can be due to a muscle strain or spasm, it can be due to decreased space between the vertebrae or pinching and irritated nerves. Back pain can be the result of injury to the vertebrae or ligaments or the result of disease. Obviously, due to the varying nature of back pain, the first port of call should always be your GP to check that nothing serious is wrong.
So what causes these problems? For many people, like me, it will be our sedentary lifestyles that take most of the blame. I have rarely worked in an ergonomic environment but until recently I did a lot of exercise and moved around a lot which helped balance the situation. But changing to running my business from home has resulted in long hours each day spent sat in front of the computer on a basic office chair. Lack of movement and poor seated posture leads to muscle tension and spasm which we feel as back pain. Its interesting to note that more pressure is placed on the spine when sitting than standing. For other people their back pain may be a result of injury from lifting badly or some other physical activity.
Now I understood why I was suffering with back pain. The burning sensation I felt initially was a small deep muscle in my back going into spasm, but how best to treat that? A little research produced several alternatives.
