Pain in the back probably occurred at least once in almost every person. Someone dressed not in accordance with the weather, someone suffered weight. Plus age and extra pounds. As a result, all this can lead to problems with the spine. But it’s good if such a back pain goes away quickly. Another thing when it comes to more serious problems.
Osteochondrosis as one of the main causes of back pain
Doctors say that the state of the whole organism depends on the health of the spine. One of the most common diseases accompanied by back pain is osteochondrosis. It is characterized by damage to the vertebrae, as well as cartilage of the intervertebral discs.
The main symptoms can be called:
- dizziness and headache;
- increase in blood pressure;
- pain in the neck, lower back, and also in the arms and legs;
- numbness of the limbs;
- the appearance of heart pain.
The development of osteochondrosis in most cases occurs in middle-aged and elderly people. But sometimes this ailment is also observed in the younger generation.
Osteochondrosis, developing in the cervical spine, is accompanied by constant headache, dizziness, and in some cases even numbness of the tongue. In addition, the patient is worried about severe pain in the neck and clavicle.
Osteochondrosis, which affected the thoracic spine, makes itself felt with pain in the ribs, as well as between the shoulder blades, intensifying during a deep breath. In addition, back pain appears.
Osteochondrosis, which affects the cervical as well as the thoracic at the same time, can cause pain similar to a heart attack. But to get rid of it exclusively with the help of medicines for the heart will not succeed.
A fairly common occurrence these days is osteochondrosis, which develops in the lumbar spine. With this disease, pain appears not only in the lower back, but can also be felt in the hips and buttocks. In addition, in some cases, numbness of the toes is observed. It is difficult for the patient to stand for a long time, there is pain in the back, he gets tired very quickly when walking, possibly curving parts of the spine.
The next disease is an intervertebral hernia. This is a serious complication of osteochondrosis. When a hernia appears, pulling and sometimes severe pain in the legs are added to the pulling pains in the lumbar region . In addition, spinal curvature may be observed. Such patients are often recommended spinal surgery.
Prevention of osteochondrosis: how to prevent pain?
The risk group for osteochondrosis is quite large. First of all, it includes people leading a sedentary lifestyle – office workers and just lovers to lie on the couch or surf the Internet. The risk group also includes those whose profession involves lifting weights, long-term upright position and hypothermia. By the way, I want to say about this separately. Not everyone benefits from water procedures in the cold. With such experiments, you need to be extremely careful. And before you deal with such an extreme method of hardening, you must always consult a doctor.
Everyone knows that the disease is easier to prevent than to cure. Prevention of spinal diseases is necessary for everyone – both adults and children. Prevention measures are quite simple:
- The main thing is to ensure the health of your spine. Physical education exercises that develop back muscles and improve blood circulation are recommended .
- The second rule requires you to monitor your own posture – not to stoop, and also not to stoop. The correct posture is the position of the person’s body when the head and back are in the same vertical plane, the shoulders are even, the shoulder blades do not protrude, and the stomach is tucked up.
- For the prevention of diseases of the spine, experts recommend periodically hanging on the horizontal bar in order to stretch the spinal column and give it a rest.
- Make sure that during the night rest the spine is in the correct position. To do this, it is advisable to purchase an orthopedic mattress, thanks to which the spine has the ability to take a natural position.
- If you have to spend a long time sitting at the table, you need to get up at least two hours later for a short warm-up – relax, perform several circular movements with your head and hands, if possible, go out into the fresh air.
- Well, and, of course, care should be taken to prevent spinal diseases in children. It is necessary to monitor their posture, perform morning exercises with them. And, in addition, it is advisable to purchase a backpack for the school, and not a briefcase – this will avoid curvature of the spine.
Relieving severe pain with medication and other therapies
The task of treating osteochondrosis is to slow down or stop the development of the disease, as well as eliminate unpleasant symptoms. What to do if doctors have diagnosed osteochondrosis? Firstly, no self-medication. No need to rush to try on yourself all the recipes and methods of relief from severe pain. First of all, you need to visit a doctor who will diagnose and prescribe competent treatment.
For treatment, several methods are used:
- Drug treatment method.
Includes the use of painkillers, as well as drugs that relieve inflammation and swelling. There are many tools that can eliminate pain, and drugs that improve blood circulation and muscle relaxation. However, all funds should be prescribed exclusively by a doctor. And, in addition, such treatment should be repeated several times, since the exposure time of such therapy is limited.
- Physiotherapy.
This group of methods includes electrophoresis, massage, treatment with healing mud, ultrasound, as well as electric current. However, such procedures are not suitable for everyone, because they have a number of contraindications. Therefore, they are carried out exclusively as directed and under the supervision of a doctor.
- Reflexology.
A method borrowed from eastern healers. It consists in acting on individual active points of the human body. However, this method of treatment refers to alternative medicine methods, so you need to be very careful about it.
- Manual therapy.
A common method of getting rid of problems with the spine and quite effective. But only in the case of high qualifications and extensive experience of the doctor. For this reason, the choice of a specialist is a crucial step. It is better to choose a well-known clinic and a professional doctor with positive recommendations.
- Surgical intervention.
It is usually performed to remove the intervertebral hernia. Such a disease is the result of neglect of osteochondrosis. Therefore, I want to repeat – do not run osteochondrosis. The disease must be treated, and the sooner it is started, the lower the risk of complications and surgery.