Back Pain
Relief Is Available For Chicago Residents Experiencing Back Pain
Risk Factors
Many considerations influence the likelihood Chicago residents will experience back pain, including:
Being ages 50 and older: The more time you’ve spent on this plant, the more likely the possibility of injury or medical issues that can lead to back pain.
Being a woman: Post-menopausal women, in particular, can be susceptible to compression fractures caused by osteoporosis. Women also should be aware that back pain can be one of the not-so-obvious symptoms of heart attack.
Obesity: Carrying around extra weight can compromise the integrity of the spine and pinch nerves. It also can lead to conditions, such as osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease and spinal stenosis, each of which can contribute to back pain.
Work demands: Anyone in a job like construction, warehouse work or working in restaurants where you’re on your feet all day or moving around heavy objects, risks back pain from injury. Likewise, people with office jobs in Chicago’s skyscrapers and truck drivers delivering goods to the Windy City’s warehouses may not get up and move around enough to keep flexible, sometimes leading to back pain.
Symptoms
Some of the symptoms Chicago residents may experience with back pain include:
Muscle ache: This can be anything from an annoying throbbing sensation to sharp, dagger-like back pain.
Limitations in range of motion: The ability turn in one or both directions or bending forward or backward is inhibited.
Inability to stand: A variety of back-related conditions may cause either numbness or sharp pain that radiates down a leg.
Causes
Among the causes of back pain are:
Structural problems: The back is an intricately balanced framework made up of bones, disks, ligaments, tendons and muscles. When any of these elements becomes moved out of place or if there are skeletal irregularities, they can lead to back pain.
Medical issues: Cancer, infections or nerve conditions, such as cauda equina syndrome also can lead to back pain.
Poor mental health: Physical pain, including back pain, for some people, is a manifestation of an underlying emotional problem.
Treatment
Though back pain sometimes can resolve itself in as little as 72 hours with self-care, there are many times it can’t. In some instances, back pain may require medical treatment through steroid injections, radiofrequency ablation or spinal cord stimulation.
Whatever the cause of your back pain, Advanced Spine & Pain Specialists of Chicago can help you identify and treat it. Call 773-717-0890 to make an appointment today.
