Getting an accurate back pain diagnosis can greatly improve your lifestyle and help you move on to treatment of back pain. When your back pain has exceeded three months, it is termed chronic, and this means that it is not responding to basic treatments such as rest, anti-inflammatory medications and heat and there must be a problem that needs addressing. The positive message about the term �chronic� is that it has a possible cure. Conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and MS are not termed chronic, but can only be managed, but not cured.
See a Physician for Back Pain Diagnosis
A qualified physician can order tests to help in a back pain diagnosis that will show with a visual such as an x-ray, CT scan or MRI what the problem may be. In addition, he or she will listen to your symptoms and prescribe treatments, exercises and medications to reduce your pain. Several organizations will offer homeopathic and holistic relief, yet without the proper diagnosis, the root cause may not be addressed. A clinical diagnosis looks at the skeletal system and all of the biological factors involved ruling out any other factors that may be contributing to the pain, including heart disease, osteoporosis and even an infection. Blood and urine tests may be ordered if the patient has a fever or other symptoms that indicate something more than skeletal or muscular. Your range of motion in the back and nerve sensitivity will be tested as well. This complete physical exam will likely reveal what is causing the pain.
Possible Back Pain Diagnoses
Muscle strain of the back is the most common pain diagnosis, and can be caused by overuse or sudden twisting brought about in athletic activity or in a fall. And when abdominal muscles are weak, they do not support the back, and injury is possible. Often, the pain can be related to the spine itself and the discs between the vertebrae. Several medical terminologies describe a problem in the back disc � the cushion between the vertebrae of the back. A ruptured disc, slipped disc, bulging disc, herniated disc, disc tear, collapsed disc, disc protrusion and black disc all describe basically the same thing - when damage to a disc presses it onto a nerve and therefore causes pain. Muscle weakness can also cause pain when a nerve is pinched. Disc degeneration, however, is when the disc itself deteriorates and is the source of pain.
Spinal compression fractures caused by osteoporosis are a common problem found in the elderly. When bones of an individual over the age of 60 are brittle, a slight miss-step, a fall or even coughing or sneezing can bring on the fractures. The tiny fractures may eventually accumulate and cause a vertebra to collapse, eventually causing pain. Other pain diagnoses exist, but the above are the most common.
The back is a complex human mechanism that helps us to stand, sit, walk and run. Each back pain diagnoses has a solution, and by describing the symptoms to your doctor, having a thorough physical and undergoing diagnostic tests, you are on your way to being pain-free.