The back is a remarkable structure, a combination of human anatomy designed to not only be flexible, but to also provide strength and structure. When something goes wrong, back pain can take over our lives. Whether you have a muscle strain (the most common form of back pain) or a condition such as herniated disc, degenerated disc, osteoarthritis, or spinal stenosis, there are a wide range of treatments available.
Common Causes of Back Pain
Fortunately, most episodes of back pain will heal with time: approximately 50% of patients will feel relief from low back pain within two weeks, and approximately 90% within three months, regardless of the treatment.
The majority of episodes of acute low back pain are due to a muscular strain and these will usually resolve with time because muscles have a good blood supply to bring the necessary nutrients and proteins for healing to take place.
Back pain caused by lumbar spine problems
For patients with low back pain that lasts longer than three months, or patients with predominantly leg pain, a more specific and definable problem for the pain should be sought.
There are several very common causes of low back pain and leg pain.
Low Back Pain
Low Back Pain affects nearly two thirds of the population at some stage in their lives. There are many causes of back pain including disc problems, muscle strains, poor posture, arthritis, stress fractures and nerve irritation (e.g sciatica). Although our understanding of low back pain is limited in relation to the exact origin of the pain that is, perhaps the most common cause of low back pain is damage involving a facet joint and its associated ligaments and joint capsule. Low back pain is often divided into 3 categories: non-specific low back pain; low back pain with radiculopathy (sciatica); and low back pain due to spinal stenosis.
How SOS Physiotherapy can help you
SOS Physiotherapy can help by diagnosing your low back pain and providing treatment and advice to help you through the painful, acute stage of the pain. Exercise prescription and advice on staying active is also an effective treatment modality. We provide up-to-date, evidence-based treatment for back pain customised to your needs; indeed we only focus on techniques of proven effectiveness and the treatment options depend on the type of back pain you may be suffering from.
Through our thorough physical assessments we ensure that we recognise and treat the real cause of your problems in order to bring you lasting pain relief, not just temporary relief from your back pain. We also prescribe lumbo-pelvic or ‘core stability’ exercises to help stabilise and strengthen your back in order to minimise recurrence of pain or injury.
