5 Important Facts About Lower Back Pain You Should Know

Your lower back, also known as the lumbar region, provides movement, structural support, and protection of certain body tissues. Muscle strain or injuries may cause lower back pain, reducing your efficiency in accomplishing your daily tasks. Read on as your trusted physical therapy provider, Terrapin Care Center, shares five important facts about this problem and our recommended management:

1. Increasing age may cause degenerative changes in your spine, putting you at a higher risk of developing lower back pain. Having a sedentary lifestyle, being overweight, as well as performing strenuous and highly physical activities are additional risk factors.
2. Underlying medical conditions, such as osteoporosis, may lead to chronic lower back pain, which is why we usually include physical therapy in our osteoporosis treatment. Degenerative spondylolisthesis, spinal stenosis, and other changes in your spinal cord may also result in greater pressure on your spinal nerves. Kidney stones, arthritis, and even traumatic injuries may cause tenderness on your lumbar region as well.
3. There are two types of lower back pain: acute, which lasts for a few days or weeks at most, and chronic, which can persist for 12 weeks or even longer and typically requires extended medical treatment.
4. During your visit, we may perform a comprehensive physical examination including X-Ray and palpation of your lumbar area. This will help us establish the root cause of your lower back pain as well as the severity of your condition. We may also assess your lower limb reflexes to check for nerve compression or damage. If necessary, we can also refer for CT scans, or MRI for a more accurate diagnosis.
5. Our lower back pain management methods depend on what’s actually causing your pain. There is no rule that says pain can only be caused by one thing.  It is our job to differentiate causes of pain and show you the best way to address all of the causes.  Lower Back pain can be joint pain, nerve pain, disc pain or muscle/soft tissue pain.  We have a multidisciplinary approach that can manage all of these.

We may recommend spinal manipulation, massage therapy, and spinal blocks in your treatment regimen. We may also suggest undergoing physical therapy to improve your mobility, strengthen your muscles and improve flexibility to relieve your pain.

At Terrapin Care Center, we use the least invasive yet most effective pain control methods to alleviate lower back pain, maintaining your quality of life. For more information about lower back pain and our services, call us at (301) 220-1930 or fill out our contact form. We serve Greenbelt and College Park, MD.