Welcome to the first BLOG of the physiotherapy center Fizionova!
Our chief therapist, Nemanja Marjanović, will explain to you how pain most often occurs in back and lower back and how you can protect yourself so that the injury, that is, disc herniation, doesn’t happen. We will show you the best preventive measures.
What is back and lower back pain?
What is back pain? Back pain most often occurs in the lower back, i.e., in the lumbar area. Many say that back pain is an illness of the present, a disease of a modern man. Lower back pain can be of muscular, degenerative or neurological origin.
"DID YOU KNOW THAT AS MUCH AS 80% OF PEOPLE IN THE WORLD SUFFER FROM SOME FORM OF BACK PAIN?"
Back pain - when do they occur and how long they last?
Back pain most commonly occurs in people between the ages of 30 and 50.
Acute back and lower back pain can last from a few days to a few weeks, while chronic back pain lasts longer than three months. This is partly due to the changes that occur in the body with aging, because after the age of 30, there is a decrease in fluid content between the vertebrae.
Why is this important? Because of to the reduction of the fluid content between the vertebrae, the discs of the spine are irritated more easily. Muscle tone also decreases with age, as a result of which the back is more prone to injuries. Therefore, strengthening the back muscles and proper holding and carrying of heavy items can greatly help prevent back pain. Preventive exercises are, in that sense, of great importance.
Prevention for back and lower back pain
There are many ways to prevent back and lower back pain. Prevention measures can also help reduce the severity of your symptoms if you already have a lower back injury. Prevention includes:
- exercising the abdominal and back muscles
- weight loss if you are overweight
- proper lifting of objects (with bending the knees and lifting the legs)
- proper posture
Additional prevention measures include sleeping on a firm surface; sitting on chairs of appropriate height and using additional work equipment if your job requires prolonged sitting and/or working at a computer; wearing adequate footwear and quitting smoking (nicotine can cause degeneration of the spinal discs and also reduces blood flow).
Preventive exercises for back and lower back pain
A video with preventive exercises and explanation of therapy in our Center:
In the video, you will see how the disc herniation occurs, what preventive exercises are important to do and how we treat this injury, that is, painful condition in our physiotherapy Center.
Back pain - causes
The causes of pain can be various. We will introduce you to some of the most common causes and guide you through the entire process of how disc herniation happens. Back pain can occur due to prolonged sitting in one position or continuous performance of the same activities (standing, carrying heavy objects, etc.). This is when pain in the muscles of the back starts. We usually ignore it, which is the first mistake, as the body unmistakably gives us signals that there is a problem. By continuing the activity while in pain, and without preparing the muscles, the process that leads to degenerative changes on the vertebral body and the disc located between the vertebrae is accelerated. As the last phase, there is neurological pain which is caused by pressing the displaced disc onto the root of the nerve that passes along the spine, more precisely due to migration, i.e., moving the disc into the spinal canal that presses the nerve root. Back pain very often "descends" along the leg and backside, goes to the back of the thigh, all the way to the calf, and even to the toes. Certainly, the pain that spreads laterally, which indicates central pressure on the spinal cord, is not be ignored. This is a more difficult phase, to which people very often do not pay much attention.
Pressure on the spinal cord or nerve root can cause the foot to fall or uncontrollable urination
After the brain and heart, the spine is the center of life!
In the video clip, you can watch an MRI scan with examples of all forms of disc herniation.
Also, the video shows incorrect and then correct ways to:
- lift heavy objects,
- take and turn with heavy objects,
- get up from a lying position.
Preventive exercises for back and lower back pain:
In addition, we will share with you some preventive exercises:
- exercise 1 – lifting the torso
- exercise 2 - hand pressure on the opposite knee
- exercise 3 - lifting the pelvis off the mat
- exercise 4 - pressure with both hands on both knees
- exercise 5 - lifting the torso along the opposite knee
- exercise 6 - abdominal contraction
- exercise 7 - raising the opposite arm and opposite leg
How are back pains that lead to disc herniation treated?
If the last phase of disc herniation pain has occurred, if the back pain became unbearable, both during the day and at night, you can solve this problem in our Center. In the Physiotherapy Center Fizionova, there are Protocols according to which treatment for certain diagnoses is performed.
For disc herniation treatment, Protocol number 4 is applied. This Protocol contains many therapeutic procedures. Let’s go through its process:
The first and very important therapy is the manipulation and after that, the decompression of the spine itself, which is done on a Chattanooga Triton DTS traction table.
The next therapy that’s applied is the RSQ1 device treatment. After that, we do kinesitherapy, where the RSQ1 treatment with high-frequency current increases the number of motor units and reduces the inflammatory process - 21 minutes of this treatment substitutes an hour and a half of exercise time.
The next therapeutic procedure is combination therapy, which represents the application of electrotherapy and ultrasound at the same time. With this combination of electricity and ultrasound, with one gel, we get the so-called sonophoresis.
This is followed by Irradia cold laser treatment, where we affect precisely the site of pain and the reduction of inflammatory processes, both at the nerve root and at the site of injury.
The last therapeutic procedure which is indispensable for this problem is Salus Talent - a high-frequency magnet. With its penetration of over 10 cm, we manage to repair the damage to the disc itself, act on inflammatory processes and accelerate collagen production.
With more severe forms of disc herniation, which are accompanied by severe radiculopathy, hypobaric therapy is included after the 4th or 5th therapy.
SCHEDULE A PHYSIATRIST'S EXAMINATION
Dr Jelena Kluz-Đurđević, a specialist in physical medicine
After a conversation with the patient, Dr. Jelena will conduct an examination to obtain a more comprehensive view of your health status, helping to determine whether it's an injury or a diagnosis.
The examination lasts for 30 minutes and includes:
Schedule a specialist examination by calling 011 2100 588 for the cost of 4,000 RSD.