Lower Back Pain – Assessed & Treated in Hastings
Lower back pain is an extremely common situation with up to four fifths of the population having back pain at some time during their lives.
Whilst the vast majority of patients with back pain will improve within six weeks, a small number will go on to develop long standing back pain and a gradual deterioration of functionality.
Causes
In the traditional, old-fashioned medical view back pain was nearly always attributed to some sort of structural deformity, structural injury or abnormality. Modern medical research has shown this to be simply untrue in approximately 95% or more of cases. We now know that back pain is very rarely caused by structural issues, rather it is stress, strain, irritation, and/or inflammation in the back that leads it to become sensitive and therefore sore. Most commonly the physical trigger for back pain will involve some sort of change in the demands placed upon the lower back in a patient’s day-to-day activity. for example, suddenly changing how much lifting bending or sitting you do or dramatically changing any other physical demands that placed an increased load upon the back.
Modern medical science has also shown that back pain is not always caused by physical strain alone, but that it is ‘multifactorial’. That is, many many things can affect whether someone’s back becomes sore. In addition to obvious physical stress or strain these other factors include emotional stress, immune health, mental health, sleep quantity/quality, general exercise and many more. As well as discussing your physical symptoms and asking detailed questions about your physical activity or physical workload your physiotherapist may ask you about these other areas too.
Examination
Your physio will carry out a detailed history and perform a thorough physical examination to help determine causes or contributing factors for your back pain. Modern medical science has shown that in the vast majority of cases scans, x-rays or images are not required. This is because medical research has shown that even the vast majority of healthy people have abnormalities on their scan. However, your physiotherapist’s thorough examination will also help determine whether scanning is required for your particular problem.
Treatment
Physiotherapy treatment of low back pain focuses on restoring ‘function’ or healthy movement and use of the back. There are many different ways to achieve this, including a number of different hands-on therapies and tailored exercises. Your physiotherapist can discuss these options with you and help develop a personalised plan. If you have any particular types of preferred treatment or expectations of how you would like to address your back problem, these can be incorporated too.
Please contact us to organise your comprehensive lower back consultation to help locate the exact cause of your back pain and begin a course of corrective Physiotherapy care today!