NextStepPT_Is It Back Pain or Sciatica

NEWSLETTER The Newsletter About Your Health And Caring For Your Body

Does life ever feel like one large pain in the back? Back pain is difficult to deal with on a daily basis, yet for so many people, this is a total reality. By certain estimates, as many as 85 percent of adults in the United States struggle with back pain at some point in their lives. The most common type of back pain experienced is in the lower back, and it can happen for any variety of reasons. Being in a car accident can causeyou toexperience lingering back pain for years after the accident. Accidents at work can lead to similar consequences. But sometimes the cause of your back pain isn’t as straightforward. Back pain can also develop for any number of common reasons — things that you do every day without thinking twice. An old desk chair that doesn’t provide much lumbar support can take its toll over time, as can wearing shoes that don’t have much support, or even gaining weight, particularly around the stomach area. Too many people consider back pain a normal experience of their lives and don’t immediately seek support that could make the pain an issue of the past. Working with a physical therapist is, IS IT BACK PAIN OR SCIATICA? How Knowing the Difference Can Help You Find Relief!

hands down, the best thing that you can do when you are looking to overcome back pain. A physical therapist can identify the cause of the back pain and present you with helpful strategies that can strengthenyourbackandreducetheseverityofyour pain.Physical therapy forbackpainoften includes a combination of targeted massage, flexibility and range of motion training, muscle building, and targeted stretching techniques. Using these strategies in combination with anti-inflammatory medication, as recommended by your physician, is often considered the most-efficient approach to handling back pain and is recommended by the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. UNDERSTANDING BACK PAIN Being educated about your back pain can help you make the right choices to overcome it as quickly as possible. One of the biggest problems with back pain is that it lingers. This leads many people to deal with back pain for years on end without seemingly any end in sight.

While there is back pain that develops as a result of strain or sprain, there is also something called low back degenerative disc disease, which happenswhen thediscs inyourspineweaken.This frequently develops as a result of repetitive back injury and can also develop as a result of age. With degenerative disc disease, the space between the discs begins to collapse and become unstable and will cause back pain to develop. When you work with a physical therapist to overcome back pain as a result of degenerative disc disease, your physical therapist will begin by strengthening core musclegroups,which includes theabdominalwall, and will provide you with targeted massage and stretching techniques to alleviate pain. While some back pain is easy to identify as pain, suchas is thecasewithdegenerativediscdisease, there are other situations in which the pain may be a bit more complicated to understand. One of the most common back issues experienced in the United States is sciatica pain, and this sort of pain is often a lot more difficult to identify — especially by those who aren’t familiar with the problem.

SERVICES & THERAPIES :

• Wrist / Hand Pain • Wellness / Balance Problems • Ankle / Foot Pain

• Knee Pain • Sports Injuries • Shoulder Pain

• Physical Therapy • Low Back Pain • Neck Pain

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