What Are The Different Types of Back Pain?

Back pain can be divided into two types: Central (axial) pain and Peripheral (radicular/radiating) extremity pain. Many patients have both types.

What Causes Back Pain?

Back pain can have several causes. However the most common cause of back pain is age. Other lifestyle choices can also result in back pain: poor posture, ill-advised or awkward lifting, being overweight, or an accident.

How Can I Prevent Back Pain? 

To prevent back pain maintain good posture, exercise to keep your core flexible and strong, follow a healthy diet, and pay attention to your weight.

What Causes Acute Painful Vertebral Compression?

The most common reason for vertebral compression fractures is the presence of osteoporosis; other less common causes are trauma and cancer.

What Causes Facet Joints Issues?

The facet joints in our back and neck have cartilage that allows our back/neck to bend, twist, and flex. As we age, these joints can become degenerative or arthritic – the cartilage loses fluid and height, which can lead to a bone-on-bone condition often resulting in bone spur formation and chronic neck or lower back pain. Facet joint arthritis is one of the most common causes of chronic neck or lower back pain.

What Causes SI Joint Issues?

Degenerative arthritis/inflammation of the SI joints is a common cause of chronic low back/buttock pain. Patients often complain of chronic low back pain, groin pain, and sitting intolerance without associated leg pain.

A beautiful, warm spring day is perfect for heading outside to tend to your yard and garden. After a long winter, it feels great to be out sprucing up the landscaping or planting flowers. Unfortunately, though, many of us might not feel quite so great the next morning, as an entire day of yard work has resulted in aches, pains, and muscle stiffness.

Gardening can be especially hard on the back, but it doesn’t have to be. If you take the following precautions, you can have a beautiful garden—as well as a healthy back—this spring.

Pace yourself. Set attainable goals, and don’t feel you have to finish every project in one day. Work steadily, but don’t push yourself to finish big projects that can be broken up over several days. It’s also important to take frequent breaks. Take a five-minute break every hour to stretch, relax, and drink water.

Lift with your knees. Gardening can involve some heavy lifting, whether it’s moving large pots or carrying bulky bags of soil or mulch. Bending over to pick up large items puts extra stress on the back, so be sure to bend at the knees when lifting heavy objects. Also, position yourself close to the object or task. Bring a heavy object closer to you before lifting, or walk over to what you need, rather than bending or reaching, which can put undue strain on the back.

Raise your garden. Growing flowers and vegetables in raised beds helps reduce the need to bend over for weeding and cultivating. Creating a tabletop garden or planting in pots, which you can place where they are comfortable for you to reach, are also good options, especially if you already suffer from back pain. Placing pots on caddies with casters can make the plants even easier to move.
Use long-handled tools. Look for tools with a 3- to 4-foot-long handle that can help you stay more upright—or even work while sitting down—while weeding, cultivating, or watering.

Loosen up. Remember that gardening and yard work can be strenuous activities; therefore, treat them as you’d treat any exercise or physical activity. Stretch your muscles thoroughly beforehand, and be sure to cool down when you’re done, as well, to avoid strained muscles.
Switch it up. Avoid repetitive-motion injuries by dividing up each task into sections that will allow you to switch activities, as well as your posture, often. For instance, if you’re kneeling down to weed, take a break to stand up and water some plants before starting on another section of weeding.

Listen to your body. If you garden for pleasure, it won’t be fun if you’re too sore or injured to do it. If your back (or another part of your body) starts to hurt, it’s sending you a message that it’s time to take a break. Don’t push yourself so hard that you’re hurting too much to enjoy the hobby!

Approximately 25 percent of Americans are affected by back pain in any given year, spending more time at the doctor’s office for back pain than for any other medical condition except high blood pressure and diabetes.

Back pain sufferers can potentially avoid those doctor visits, as well as costly prescriptions and surgery, by doing simple exercises at home.

A weak core is one of the most common causes of low back pain. Building strength and stamina in your core—the muscles between your chest and butt—can go a long way in preventing back pain.

Strong core abdominal muscles help stabilize your spine. When these muscles are weak, the long, strap-like muscles in the back—whose function is to help us rotate, twist, and bend—instead begin to take over the stabilizing function. The back muscles tighten and contract, which can lead to painful spasms and potential injury.

One simple way to strengthen your core is by slowly pulling your belly button in to engage the abdominal muscles. Becoming conscious of engaging those muscles while you perform everyday activities will go a long way to improve your core. Engage the muscles, while still breathing normally, as you go about your day—while rising to a standing position, lifting your child or a heavy object, or bending down to pick something up off the floor.

Two other easy exercises to strengthen your core are the plank and the “Superman.” To do a plank, lie down on the floor on your stomach and raise yourself up on your forearms and toes. Squeeze your butt and suck in your gut, while holding your head in a neutral position. For the “Superman,” lie on your stomach, while raising your legs and arms a couple of inches off the floor, again, holding your head neutral.

Hold each position for as long as you can. It’s perfectly fine if you can only hold for five seconds at first. Repeat several times a day until you can work up to a minute or longer.

Other exercises to strengthen the core include partial crunches, wall sits, and pelvic tilts. Some movements in exercise programs such as Pilates, Tai Chi, and some forms of yoga can also focus on building strong abdominal muscles.

Without specific back and abdominal exercises to target these muscles, they will naturally weaken over time, increasing the chance of developing or worsening back pain. Conversely, developing combined strength in stomach and back muscles can reduce the likelihood and severity of back pain and injury, improve posture, facilitate healing from back injury, and help avoid back surgery in some cases.

Exercising your core should be included as a part of your daily routine of good health and should only take a few minutes out of your day to complete.

Winter is upon us, and, like it or not, winter means snow—and consequently, snow shoveling—here in Central Indiana.

Did you know that shoveling snow is a frequent cause of injury, causing thousands of back and shoulder injuries each year? Below are a few tips on how you can be safer this winter and take precautions to avoid injury while shoveling.

☞ Stretch first. Snow shoveling can be compared to weight lifting, and the aerobic aspect of this activity is similar to the workout one gets on a treadmill. Tight muscles are more prone to injury; thus, as with any exercise, it is important to first stretch your muscles before heading out to the driveway.

☞ Wear proper attire. Being cold will tighten up your muscles and leave you vulnerable to painful muscle strains. Therefore, wear warm layers that you can shed should you become too hot. Thick gloves will keep your hands warm and dry and will also allow for a good grip on the shovel’s handle. And boots with good traction will help you maintain your balance, preventing unfortunate slips and falls.

☞ Pace yourself. Snow shoveling is strenuous work. Be sure to take frequent breaks to rest, stretch, and drink plenty of water. If you experience pain of any kind, stop immediately and seek assistance.

☞ Create better traction. If the ground is icy or slick, spread sand or salt over the area to help create foot traction. While shoveling itself can cause damage to the back if done incorrectly, slipping and falling can also obviously cause injury; therefore, it is important to watch your footing and do your best to prevent falls in the first place.

☞ Choose the right shovel. Using an ergonomically correct shovel—one with a curved handle—allows you to keep your back straighter while shoveling, thus reducing spinal stress. Choosing a shovel made to push snow is also a good option. Consider using a shovel with a plastic blade, which will be lighter weight than one with a metal blade. Finally, a smaller blade may be preferable over a wider one. You will not be able to shovel as much snow per load, but the loads will weigh less, putting less strain on your spine with each pass.

☞ Use proper technique. Use good posture and maintain the natural curve of your spine while shoveling. Keep the shovel close to your body, and create some distance between your hands while gripping the handle. This will give you more leverage and make it easier to lift the snow. Lift with your legs—not your back—and tighten your stomach muscles as you lift. Don’t throw the snow over your shoulder or twist your body while dumping snow; instead, dump it in front of you. If you must dump it in another spot, walk over, as opposed to leaning over or throwing the snow. Rotating or twisting your body, especially with a shovelful of heavy snow, can be an easy way to injure your back.

☞ Shovel early, shovel often. Snow becomes more dense as it compacts on the ground, and wet snow is very heavy, weighing as much as 20 pounds per shovelful! Fresh snow is lighter in weight, so clear snow as soon as it has fallen. As snow continues to fall, you may find yourself outside several times, but it is much easier to clear fresh, lighter snow than dense, heavy, wet snow.

☞ Consider a snowblower. If shoveling is too strenuous for you, using a snowblower can be a good option. However, if not used correctly, it can still cause back strain. Snowblowers are designed to remove snow at a particular rate of speed, so pushing or forcing the equipment to go faster defeats the purpose—and puts you at risk of injury.

Overall, the best thing to do while shoveling snow is to use common sense. Stop shoveling if you feel any pain at all, and don’t feel you have to tackle the whole job all at one time. If you are out of shape or have had back injuries in the past, it is best to check with your doctor before shoveling. (Or, better yet, consider hiring the job out!)