Kulkarni Hospital

A lot of people today experience back pain and it is mostly the working professionals or students who complain about it. Most of us experience back pain due to incorrect posture or longer duration of sitting. Sometimes you may experience back pain because of exertion as you spend the entire day doing the same kind of job or maybe you bend in a wrong manner while picking up your child or some stuff.

Lower back pain is a very common condition that occurs anywhere on the back below the ribs and above the legs. The pain is very common and it is faced by most individuals at least once during their lifetime.

Try these home solutions for backache:

1. Harness the power of Basil: Add 10 Basil leaves to a boiling cup of water and continue to boil it until it reduces to half. You can add a dash of salt to this and drink it through the day.
2. Exercise: Not only should you stretch between long sitting hours, you should also get some back exercise suggested by a physical trainer with expertise in the field.Trigger your inner healing by releasing endorphins. Endorphins act as a pain blocking mechanism in the body and doing certain activities you like can help release them. From walking for 20 minutes to aerobics, to yoga to meditation to chiropractic care, you can try whatever makes you happy and calm to trigger your inner healing.
3. Garlic: These tiny cloves are powerful healing agents and can cure a variety of body ailments, including blood pressure. Take a couple of garlic cloves early in the morning on empty stomach or a massage with garlic oil will help relieve back ache.
4. Cut down on spices: We may think of it as unrelated, but low back pain is often accompanied by indigestion. Spinal cord nerves connect to back muscles and digestive organs. Hence, a small change in your diet can have a great impact on your health. Spicy food aggravates the digestive system and has a drying effect on the body. By cutting down on spices and oil, the digestive system can work better and there will be less stress on the nerves connecting the spinal cord and back muscles and thus result in lesser back aches. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult an ayurveda.

Tendinitis is a discomfort of the tendon. It results in pain outside the joint. There are many tendons in the body, but this condition is mainly witnessed in wrists, heels, shoulders and elbows. Some frequently used names for different kinds of tendinitis includes pitcher’s shoulder, tennis elbow, jumper’s knee, golfer’s elbow and swimmer’s shoulder.

Symptoms of tendinitis:
Symptoms of tendinitis are witnessed at the point of contact between bone and the muscle. Some of the visible signs of tendinitis are tenderness, swelling and a dull ache while moving the affected joint. Even constant pain can be felt in some cases.

What are the causes of tendinitis?
Tendinitis is frequently observed among sportsmen and athletes. If a job involves repetitive motion of a particular joint, the stress on the tendons can result in tendinitis. It is therefore very important for sportsmen to use the right technique in order to refrain from tendon related problems. Sudden accidents can also result in an injury to the tendon.

Risk factor of tendinitis:
Risk factors for this condition include job, occupation, and sports. As a person gets older, tendons tend to lose their flexibility which can lead to an injury of the tendon. If the job of a person involves frequent reaching of the overhead, vibration, repetitive motion and forceful exertion, he might face an injury to the tendon resulting in tendinitis. Last but not the least, tendinitis is very common among players who are involved in sports such as basketball, tennis, golf, baseball, running , cricket and bowling.

What are the complications involved?
Tendinitis can aggravate to tendon rupture of proper treatment is not done on time. Tendon rupture needs a surgical procedure to fix. If tendon pain lasts for few weeks at stretch, there is a good chance that the condition has turned into tendinitis.

Diagnosis:
Diagnosis of tendinitis can be done with the physical exam itself. A doctor might want to look at an X-ray scan to negate other condition that might be causing the pain.

Treatment:
Treatment includes the prescription of pain relievers, such as ibuprofen and aspirin. Tropical creams can also be prescribed to relieve the pain. Doctors often suggest corticosteroids be injected along the tendon in order to relieve tendinitis. If the condition is not very serious, a doctor might suggest specific exercise such as eccentric strengthening to fix the condition.

If the condition is severe, the doctor might want to go for a surgical procedure to fix tendinitis. Especially in conditions where there is a tear in the tendon and the bone. Another invasive technique to treat tendinitis is the focused aspiration of scar tissue. This procedure is performed under anesthesia thereby causing less pain to the patient. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult an orthopaedic.

Patients experiencing low back pain are regularly recommended to a physiotherapist for exercise based recovery. This is done before a patient considers other aggressive options like back surgery. The objectives of exercise based recovery are to eliminate back pain, increase functioning and educate the patient about a regular pain prevention program for back pain in the future.

Low back stiffness is to a great extent dependent on the abdomen and lower back muscles. The abdominal muscles give support by putting pressure on the abdomen, which is then exerted, on the spine. This provides an external support column from the front of the spine. The low back muscles balance out the spine. Simply put, the hard spine and circles are surrounded by muscles, and the stronger these particular muscles are, the less strain is put on the plates and joints of the spine. The patient needs to develop a belt of muscles around the spine.

Most physiotherapy methods that are intended to treat low back pain and some radicular pain (pain extending down the leg), include a number of the following kinds of activities:

1. Stretching: Appropriate stretching of the muscles alongside dynamic activity will keep up the usual scope of movement and give alleviation to muscles. These are the muscles that are gradually shrinking or are an ill fit from wrong stance or nerve aggravation. For some patients it is best to follow a stretching schedule that has been exclusively made for them by their physiotherapist.
2. Dynamic exercises: These activities include the use of a number of activities that might include exercising balls, adjusting machines or particular balancing out activities. The purpose of stabilization activity is to strengthen the muscles of the spine and backing the spine through different scopes of movement.
3. Core strengthening exercises: These are particular activities to strengthen the abs and low back muscles (erector spinae) to give the previously mentioned 'belt of muscle' around the spine.
4. Abdominal strengthening: These kinds of exercises include sit-ups, crunches, stomach machines, and leg raises.
5. Hyperextensions: These can be performed on machines or by lying on the stomach and gradually raising the stomach off the ground. This activity uses the lower back muscles to "hyperextend" the spine. Make sure not to do it with sudden jerks. The stretch should be slow and gradual to prevent ligament tear from happening.
6. Lumbar traction: With lumbar traction, the patient lies on his back and is secured on a special table with a link or cable coming from the foot-end of the table that joins to a strap that has been set around the patient's hips. The link or cable is connected to weights at the foot-end of the table that gives a consistent and soft pulling power on the hips toward the foot-end of the table.

Pain in two or more joints in the body is known as multiple joint pain. Pain may occur either when a joint moves or when it is at rest. Sometimes, the pain might stem from the muscles, ligaments, or tendons. Examples of such conditions include tendinitis and bursitis.

Arthritis may be associated with the pelvis or spine joints. Different disorders affect different joints and the causes and treatment options vary accordingly. There are some disorders which affect the same joint on both the sides of the body, such as both hands and the knees. In certain disorders, the pain resulting from arthritis keeps on moving from one joint to another (migratory arthritis).

Causes:

1. Most of the time, the root cause is arthritis. However, the reasons which cause arthritis are different from each other, in the way:

   • The types of joints involved.

   • The number of joints involved.

   • Whether the central area of the skeleton is involved or not.

   • Whether it is chronic arthritis (longstanding) or acute arthritis (sudden).

2. Acute arthritis which affects multiple joints can be due to:

   • Viral infections

   • A chronic disorder which was already present or any joint-related condition (such as psoriatic arthritis; occurring in combination with skin psoriasis or rheumatoid arthritis).

3. Chronic arthritis causing pain in multiple joints is most commonly due to:

   • Inflammatory disorders including psoriatic arthritis or systemic lupus erythematosus (combination of several auto-immune disorders).

   • Osteoarthritis or non-inflammatory disorder (adult joint disorder).

   • Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (children joint disorder).

The most common joint disorders are:

1. Fibromyalgia (widespread tenderness and pain in the muscles)

2. Bursitis (inflammation of the joint cushions) or tendinitis (inflammation of the tissues which connect the bone to the muscle)

3. Polymyalgia rheumatica (stiffness and muscle pain, primarily in the shoulders)

Warning Signs Include:

1. Swelling and redness of the joints.

2. Fever, chills or sweat.

3. Chest pain or severe cough.

4. Abdominal pain.

Treatment Methods:

1. Drugs and medications are needed to treat autoimmune disorders. The autoimmune response of the immune system is suppressed with the help of these drugs. These medications include immunosuppressive medications, pain relievers and anti-inflammatory medicines.

2. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) help in reducing inflammation.

3. A sling or splint bag immobilizes the joint, which relieves the pain.

4. The application of heat with a heating pad will lessen the pain to a great extent.

5. Cold application with ice cubes wrapped in a cloth will provide relief.

Consult an orthopaedic doctor to know you type of multiple joint pain and an accurate treatment for it.