One of the most common complaints from men about their own health is lower back pain. Discomfort can be of different nature and duration, and sometimes the pain can be so severe that a man loses the ability to work and generally live a normal life. At the same time, a distinctive feature of the majority of representatives of the stronger sex is a persistent reluctance to seek qualified medical help, considering lower back pain to be a normal condition after physical activity. This plays into the hands of the disease, and it continues to progress, making life unbearable. Therefore, men often go to see a doctor with chronic pain. But the more advanced the pathological process, the more difficult it is to fight it, and therefore it is important to understand what provokes the appearance of pain and how to distinguish banal muscle fatigue from signs of disease.
Why does back pain occur?
How to figure out why there are unpleasant (painful) sensations in the back and lower back? A person who considers himself absolutely healthy will feel confused and make guesses. Most likely, at first he will decide that his muscles hurt from overload. When the problem does not go away after a week, new versions will be required. Back pain on the right above the lower back may have the following causes:
- Urgent treatment of the back and spine is required. Pain may indicate osteochondrosis and other similar problems.
- Your kidneys need to be checked. Kidney diseases occupy second or third place after problems with the spine and joints.
- A pinched nerve. This is also a common phenomenon - pain in the right side of the back above the lower back can occur after carrying a heavy load or falling.
- Diseases of various internal organs. The problem may appear due to pancreatitis, stomach ulcers, or intestinal problems.
- Stress. This is also one of the likely causes of pain.
If a person leads an inactive lifestyle, is constantly exposed to stress, and does not know how to relax, then problems can arise without a serious illness. But if left untreated, even regular stress will lead to serious consequences.
Kinds
Each type of pain in the right side of the lower back has characteristic signs that may indicate the cause of the syndrome:
Why may lower back pain occur in women?
- Spicy. Accompanies shocks, falls, sudden body movements and increased stress. It can be caused by hypothermia. Even if this syndrome was short-lived, it is advisable to conduct an examination at a medical institution.
- Temporary. Characteristic of physical overexertion or prolonged stay of the body in one position. It subsides on its own or is relieved with painkillers.
- Long lasting. Indicates the presence of a serious pathology in the body and requires urgent medical attention.
- Aching. It is one of the accompanying symptoms of osteomelitis, which requires careful diagnosis. Pain often accompanies degenerative processes in the lumbar spine and informs about osteochondrosis and spondyloarthrosis.
- Pulling. Possible with hepatitis and hepatomegaly. Considering the danger of these diseases, immediate examination becomes extremely necessary.
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How to find out what hurts
Having found out what causes back pain on the right above the lower back, you can move on to effective therapy. To begin with, it is worth reporting one important fact. If the pain goes from the side towards the spine, then this indicates (as a rule) kidney disease. When the pain is directed from the spinal column to the sides, it signals problems of a different nature - this requires checking the condition of the vertebrae and intervertebral discs.
If the right side hurts from the back above the lower back, and the sensation is pulling and quite intense, then it is most likely the kidneys. With a slight physical impact on the lumbar region, you can feel the pain reverberating with each blow. When the sensations are very acute, there is no longer any doubt - most often it is renal colic.
Does the right side of your back hurt above the lower back, but the sensations are blurred and unclear? This is how disorders in the spinal column usually manifest themselves. The patient may require treatment of the spine and joints. However, much depends on the nature of the disease.
“Oh, it hurts!” or “Well... It hurts”?
Diseases of the spine in general and the lower back in particular are usually accompanied by sharp, nagging or aching pain above the lower back on the right or left. It will be easier for the doctor to pre-establish the disease if you describe to him in detail what pain occurs and when.
The nature of the pain is a subjective concept, but the time of its occurrence will help determine tactics:
- after sleep, the lower back hurts due to incorrect position;
- during sleep - due to overload during the day;
- after an awkward movement, the muscles spasm most often due to osteochondrosis;
- for no apparent reason - for hernias and tumors.
The location of the pain is also important. When the lumbar region is to blame, the lower back itself will hurt or lower, while numbness and pain can radiate to the left or right legs, less often to both at once. When pain is localized above the lower back on the right or left side, this indicates a disease of the thoracic region.
Diagnostics: methods of diagnosis
If your back hurts above the lower back on the right, the causes can be found through careful diagnosis. Depending on the preliminary diagnosis, X-ray or ultrasound is chosen. Almost always, the patient needs to donate blood and urine. The process looks like this:
- Kidney problems are detected through blood and urine tests and ultrasound. Organ disorders affect the composition of urine - an increased content of salts is found in it, and sometimes blood is also found. Blood tests are also a good way to confirm (or refute) the diagnosis.
- When a patient has a spinal problem, their blood and urine are usually normal. An x-ray is required to check the condition of the vertebrae. It will show characteristic changes - osteophytes. It will also be possible to see problems with intervertebral discs.
- Ultrasound is used in most cases to diagnose internal organs. If the back hurts on the right side above the lower back, and the patient’s tests are normal, then the doctor may prescribe ultrasound diagnostics. In most cases it gives good results.
Making a diagnosis is sometimes difficult - the patient may have complex diseases. This is especially true for older people who experience degenerative changes in bone tissue, osteochondrosis, and organ diseases.
Saving your lower back
Treatment of diseases of the back and, specifically, the spine always begins in the same way - medications that relieve inflammation are prescribed in combination with muscle relaxants. These drugs relieve muscle spasm and eliminate one of the main causes of pain. In addition to them, warming ointments or gels and B vitamins may be prescribed. Some specialists prescribe chondroprotectors - medications that nourish cartilage.
After the research results have arrived and the doctors are convinced that it is the patient’s spine, joints and muscles that need treatment, they move on to procedures that will help temporarily eliminate the cause of pain in the back, right, left, above and below the lower back, as well as in this area itself . This is primarily massage and physiotherapy. Both methods are designed to improve blood flow in the muscles and relax them.
Sometimes manual therapy is necessary for treatment. The goal of the technique is to bring joints and bones to an anatomically correct position, for which it is necessary to relax some muscles and increase the tone of others. Before prescribing this technique, it is necessary to do an MRI: in most cases, it is contraindicated for herniated intervertebral discs, however, depending on the location of the defect, it can be prescribed and will lead to an improvement in the condition.
The obtained result must be consolidated. To do this, the patient needs to undergo a course of physical therapy (physical therapy) in the clinic, and then perform the necessary exercises at home. In the compulsory medical insurance system, there is a limit on the number of exercise therapy sessions per year, but commercial centers can afford to support patients with chronic lumbar pain to the extent necessary for the person.
Treatment: how to get rid of pain
Pain on the right side of the back above the lower back will go away after proper therapy. When stones are detected in the kidneys, doctors strive to break the formations or remove them surgically. But first, the cause is always identified, and only then a set of medications is prescribed.
When the back hurts on the right above the lower back in men, this can signal nervous tension, a pinched nerve under load. This requires physical therapy, various exercises, and in critical situations, surgery. Disorders in the spine are different, sometimes they require urgent treatment.
For osteochondrosis, drugs are prescribed: analgesics, antispasmodics, various vasodilators. Physiotherapy helps - the patient is offered different types of massage. They also give injections of drugs that increase muscle tone. Osteochondrosis may also require surgery.
Associated symptoms
If lower back pain radiating to the right is caused by vertebral deformity or inflammation of the spine, there is a high risk of neurological disorders. They arise due to deformation of the spinal nerve roots or damage to the spinal cord. In addition, there may be a deterioration in the blood supply to the spinal cord, which is due to damage to the blood vessels in the damaged segment.
The main symptoms of damage to the nerve roots are shooting pains, nagging pain at night, as well as increased discomfort when coughing, hiccups, sneezing, turning the body and bending in the lower back.
In addition to the above, muscle weakening, tissue wasting and atrophy, and a decrease or disappearance of sensitivity in the affected area may be observed.
If the nerve endings are compressed, the patient feels a sharp shooting pain that radiates to the lower back on the right, spreads to the buttock and further down to the foot and toes.
Weakness of the foot, disruption of the urinary system, severe pain in both legs also indicate the presence of nerve damage.
Prevention of back pain
The best prevention of diseases is an active lifestyle, proper nutrition and giving up bad habits. This will not eliminate the risk of getting sick 100%, but it will reduce the likelihood of many diseases and improve the quality of life. It is difficult to deal with hereditary factors, poor ecology, and unforeseen situations (injuries).
It is recommended to maintain good physical shape - it guarantees a high quality of life. When spinal diseases are detected, it is easier for someone who is already in good shape to stay in shape.
It is worth undergoing regular examinations at the clinic - it will help identify diseases in the early stages and prevent their development. If you have a negative hereditary factor, you should definitely contact the clinic. Heredity cannot be changed, but it can be successfully combated by preventing diseases.
Reasons why your lower back hurts when you sit
Now let’s look at the potential reasons for the development of this condition. Why does your lower back hurt when you sit and what diseases can manifest themselves with a similar clinical symptom. We would like to warn you that if you have had a traumatic impact (fall, participation in an accident, bruises, unsuccessful landing after a jump, etc.), then you must first visit a traumatologist. This specialist will use an x-ray to eliminate the possibility of fractures and cracks of the vertebral bodies and their processes. Using CT and MRI examinations, he will be able to determine the presence of a sprain or rupture of soft tissues (ligaments, tendons and muscles).
If there were no injuries, then the following possible pathologies should be excluded in the process of differential diagnosis:
- degenerative dystrophic disease of the cartilage tissue of the intervertebral discs (osteochondrosis);
- its possible complications, such as protrusion (decrease in the height of the disc), extrusion (rupture of its fibrous ring), intervertebral hernia and its sequestration;
- sclerosis of the endplates (usually accompanies long-term osteochondrosis);
- deforming spondyloarthrosis of intervertebral joints;
- curvature of the spinal column and poor posture;
- twisting or distortion of the pelvic bones;
- displacement of the vertebral bodies by the type of retrolisthesis, antelisthesis or laterolisthesis against the background of instability of their position (often due to a decrease in the height of the intervertebral discs with the development of osteochondrosis);
- development of ankylosing spondylitis, multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus and other types of rheumatic lesions of cartilage tissue in the human body;
- deforming osteoarthritis of the iliosacral and hip joints;
- piriformis or cauda equina syndrome;
- deformation of the ligamentous, tendon and muscular apparatus;
- damage to the joint between the coccyx and the sacrum;
- divergence of the pelvic bones and symphysitis (mainly affects pregnant women in the later stages of pregnancy).
There are also a number of risk factors. If they are present, the likelihood of developing a particular disease increases. Among the most important aspects are excess body weight, incorrect foot placement, stooping, heavy physical labor, smoking, drinking alcohol, and improper organization of sleeping and working spaces.
The greatest attention to the appearance of pain in the lumbar and sacral area when sitting should be given to women over the age of 50 years. In them, this symptom may indicate the development of osteoporosis. This is a common disease among women who have entered menopause. They undergo hormonal changes in their body. Against this background, the amount of calcium absorbed decreases and it is washed out of the bone tissue. The spinal column is the first to suffer. Even with a minor traumatic impact, this leads to serious fractures and cracks.
