BackPain

Back Pain - Symptoms

What Are the Symptoms?

Most people have experienced back pain sometime in their life. The causes of back pain are numerous; some are self-inflicted due to a lifetime of bad habits. Other back pain causes include accidents, muscle strains, and sports injuries. Although the causes may be different, most often they share the same symptoms.

The symptoms for back pain are:

• Persistent aching or stiffness anywhere along your spine, from the base of the neck to the hips.
• Sharp, localized pain in the neck, upper back, or lower back -- especially after lifting heavy objects or engaging in other strenuous activity.
• Chronic ache in the middle or lower back, especially after sitting or standing for extended periods.

Call Your Doctor If:

• You feel numbness, tingling, or loss of control in your arms or legs. This may signal damage to the spinal cord.
• The pain in your back extends downward along the back of the leg. You may be suffering from sciatica.
• The pain increases when you cough or bend forward at the waist. This can be the sign of a herniated disc.
• The pain is accompanied by fever. You may have a bacterial infection.
• You have dull pain in one area of your spine when lying in or getting out of bed. If you are over 50 you may be suffering from osteoarthritis.

Pain Management: Sciatica

Sciatica is a common type of pain affecting the sciatic nerve, a large nerve extending from the lower back down the back of each leg.

What Are the Symptoms of Sciatica?

• Pain in the rear or leg that is worse when sitting
• Burning or tingling down the leg
• Weakness, numbness or difficulty moving the leg or foot
• A constant pain on one side of the rear
• A shooting pain that makes it difficult to stand up

Sciatica usually affects only one side of the lower body. Often, the pain extends from the lower back all the way through the back of the thigh and down through the leg. Depending on where the sciatic nerve is affected, the pain may also extend to the foot or toes.

For some people, the pain from sciatica can be severe and debilitating. For others, the pain from sciatica might be infrequent and irritating, but has the potential to get worse.

Seek immediate medical attention with any symptoms of progressive lower extremity weakness and/or loss of bladder or bowel control.

What Causes Sciatica?

Sciatica is caused by irritation of the root(s) of the lower lumbar and lumbosacral spine.

Additional common causes of sciatica include:

• Lumbar spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal in the lower back)
• Degenerative disc disease (breakdown of discs, which act as cushions between the vertebrae)
• Spondylolisthesis (a condition in which one vertebra slips forward over another one)
• Pregnancy

Other things that may make your back pain worse include being overweight, not exercising regularly, wearing high heels, or sleeping on a mattress that is too soft.