What is backache?
Back Pain is a common health problem that older people usually suffer, but that may appear sporadically in earlier stages. It is a condition that can be intermittent, with periods in which the person has a very acute pain, accompanied by others in which the pain disappears. Although there are exceptions, back pain is not usually very worrying and serious, and fades with the passage of time or with some pharmacological or home analgesic treatments.
In general, most of the back complaints are related to the twist, tension or slight injury of a muscle or ligament. If we observe the mentioned pain in any of our extremities, it is that the problem will be something more serious and will be related to the nerves of the spine. The particularity of each back pain will be what makes us start to feel discomfort immediately after the injury or several hours later.
Types of back pain
The back is a fairly large area of our body and, therefore, say that someone hurts that part of the body, it is too generic and inaccurate. In order to detail a little more, we will describe technically what are the different types of back pain:
- Cervicalgia: We call cervicalgia or cervical pain to back pain that we could place in the back of our body, just in the upper part of the cervical spine. The main causes of this pain would be injuries and isolated blows that have occurred when doing sports, bad positions or diseases that lead to muscle contractures or, more seriously, arthrosis of one of the last vertebrae of our cervicals. In particular, this pain is related to the more sedentary professions, that is, those in which the individual barely performs and combines it with positions that may not be the most appropriate. Said problems would lead to a muscular weakness of the cervical part and, therefore, to a greater propensity to cervicalgia.
- Dorsalgia: The back pain takes place a little below the area in which the cervicalgia develops, in the vertebrae of that part of our cervical spine. The aforementioned column is attached to said vertebrae and the pain is produced by an extreme rigidity of the same, which leads to a worrying lack of mobility that generates a rather unpleasant pain. This pain is related to several more serious postural problems (the popular scoliosis), with simple crushing of vertebrae or the much more worrisome infections in the spine.
- Low back pain: In general terms, low back pain is the most commonly recognized back pain (as lumbago) and also the most commonly associated with advanced ages. It corresponds to the pain in the lumbar region and the exact cause is unknown, although among the possible causes are recognized bad postures, forced movements or the strangest muscle tears. On extreme occasions, this pain may be due to a displacement of our invertebral disc. The intense pain is located in the lateral area of the back and in the buttocks and, with respect to cervicalgia and dorsalgia, it is the back pain that is located lower in our body. Low back pain is a condition that requires a lot of rest, because the movements cause the pain to increase.
How to Prevent Back Pain
Yoga to avoid back pain
Although in most cases back pain is difficult to predict and control, there are a number of aspects that we must take into account in order to try to avoid being reproduced the unwanted disease. These are the tips we give to avoid back pain:
Try not to carry excess weight and, in case there is no other choice, do not do it in a continuous way.
Perform moderate exercise often, avoiding excesses and being constant at the time of performing the same, weekly.
Avoid situations or positions that are painful or uncomfortable. Always trying to lead a normal life, we should, as far as possible, avoid positions or situations that may damage our back.
Do not rest in bed. Although it seems a contradiction, we have to try to recover the usual physical activity (including work) as soon as possible. In this way, we will encourage our body to accelerate the recovery and strengthening of the injured area and avoid future injuries.
Put heat in the area several times throughout the day for about 20 minutes. In this way, we will help our muscles relax and the possible pain disappear and not reproduce.
Sleep in a correct position. It is common to hear about postures at bedtime and it is one of the commandments that we must take to the letter
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