Have you ever had sharp lower back pain that stops you from doing your daily chores or anything you want? You aren’t alone. Lower back pain is one of the leading causes of why people visit doctors daily. It affects 80% of adults at one point in their lives and gets worse as you age.
A study published by Lancet medical journal has found back pain to cause disability, especially to the older people, because as you age, your back loses resilience and strength. Luckily you there are ways you can prevent frequent back pain no matter the cause of your back pain. Read on to know what lower back pain is? Types and causes of lower back pain and how you can prevent it.
What is Lower Back Pain?
Another term for the lower back is the lumbar region of the spine. It carries the upper body’s weight, performs a lot of lifting, and the stress from body movement. The lumbar spine has five backbones with large discs wrapped in tough membranes with cushiony gel. Each vertebrata has two lined facet joints, which act like disks enabling the spine to twist and bend. Your lower back has tendons and muscles that hold the vertebrate.
Types of Lower Back Pain
There are two main types of lower back pain, acute and chronic back pain. Acute back pain lasts for a few days to a few weeks. It’s mainly caused by accidents like falling or lifting too heavy weights. It can get better on its own, but you may take some painkillers to ease the pain. Chronic lower back pain goes for months, and it’s less popular than acute. It is caused by accidents like car accidents and can be treated with surgery.
Cause of Lower Back Pain
There are various causes of lower back pain, both chronic and acute. Ligament strain comes from heavy lifting regularly, which strains the muscle and spinal ligaments. The constant strain of your lower back causes pain in the lower back.
Disks in our spinal code act as cushions between the bones and your spine. If you have a ruptured disk, it can cause lower back pain that seems constant. However, some people can have bulged discs with no pain. Arthritis can affect the lower back, and at times it can narrow the spine in a condition known as spinal stenosis.
Other causes are lack of exercise, excess weight, extra weight on your back, other diseases like cancer, psychological conditions, age, and smoking. Smokers have increased back pain because smoking prompts frequent coughing that can lead to herniated disks.
How to Prevent Back Pain While Running
Running puts repetitive stress for a significant duration making any runners go through lower back pain. Many runners think leg, knee, or hip injuries are the only injuries that are only injuries that come with running and sideline lower back pain that many of them suffer.
Various causes of lower back pain can happen when the muscles surrounding your back like the glutes, core, and hamstrings are weak; it forces you to work harder to keep you upright while running. You can reduce lower back pain while running by stretching your hamstrings, hip flexors, glute, and calves regularly to straighten them so they can be strong enough while you start running. Perform child pose to stretch your lower back muscles and spend some quality time stretching your hips and buttocks.
Another good exercise to strengthen your core muscles is aqua jogging. This is an exercise where you put a buoyancy aid around your waist and run along the water. It is usually done in pools where your legs don’t touch the ground; you do your running exercise without impacting your legs. Upper back exercises are good to strengthen it and relieve a strained lower back. Exercise with a tennis ball by lying on your back on the floor and lie on the ball for 30 seconds with your lower back.
You can choose to invest on an Inversion table, you lie on the table, and it tilts you slowly upside down with your ankles strapped in. It gives your sine a good stretch removing the pressure and weight on your spine.
How to Prevent Lower Back Pain While Sleeping
You can prevent lower back pain while sleeping by using extra pillows. There are different ways you can use the extra pillows to support your back and reduce the pain. You place a pillow under your knees, underneath the hips, or between your legs, depending on your sleeping position.
Changing on the sleeping surface can help prevent back pain while sleeping. Probably the mattress you are sleeping on is increasing your back pain. To test if your mattress could be the reason why you can seem to sleep comfortably, try sleeping on the guest room, children’s bed, or the couch. Travel and test different surfaces; if your bed is the reason, you can replace it.
Take your time to let the spine get flexible after a long night sleeps in one position when waking up in the morning. It will help to reduce pain. Your daily routines are one of the major causes of back pain while sleeping. Review and change accordingly.
How to Sleep to Prevent Lower Back Pain
Various sleeping positions can help prevent lower back pain. Sleeping on your back and putting a pillow to support your head and another under your knees helps distribute weight evenly in the body, reducing lower back pain. Adopting sleeping with a pillow between your legs while lying on the side helps put one leg up, aligning the spine well. Sleeping on your stomach with a pillow under the stomach will align your spine well, reducing lower back pain. If you are not comfortable using extra pillows sleeping in a fetal position will be sufficient.
Lower back pain affects many people at some point in their life. You can be prescribed some pain relievers to help ease the pain. Invest in reducing the pain either through exercise or sleeping in a position that will reduce lower back pain.
