Low Back and Mid back Conditions/Pathology

You should always seek a professional healthcare provider if you are unsure of your pain for assessment and management.

You may have been diagnosed with one or more of these however they may not tell the whole story about your pain. Often the pain is from something else. The findings on your scans may be incidental.

If you have mid or low back pain with other symptoms you should seek a healthcare practitioner immediately for triage.

Low Back Pain is one of the most common and debilitating musculoskeletal conditions that cause most days off from work. It costs millions in lost revenue every year. Some common sayings on for back pain are: putting out their back, back spasm, feels out of alignment.

The back is actually very strong and can deal with compression very well and often the source of the pain is multifactorial. Some contributors to your back pain may be: muscle guarding , over use, poor conditioning, ergonomics, inefficient mechanics of movement. There may be some pathological considerations such as listed below.

Sometimes there can be unusual symptoms that come along with back pain as there are nerves which exit from the spine. Nerves send signals to and from the brain and sometimes those with low back pain can feel decreased sensation, pins and needles and weakness away from their low back pain.

Similarly to the low back pain, you may have symptoms away from the site of pain.   Mid back pain requires the consideration of the rib (costovertebral) joints.

General term for wear of the joints of the spine and the disc This is common and it is prevelant in the 30+ demographic and becomes more so with age. Part of the degeneration/aging may be osteophyte/bone spur formation which may/may not be the reason you are in pain. 

This is defined as a 'slipping' of the vertebral body forward or back. It is not fully known what the cause is but a few theories as to why are: genetics, repeated stress, weakness, diet. There are a few categories for listhesis/slipping where the higher the category means the more travel of the spinal segment from the one above. Typically this would happen on the lower segments of the Lumbar Spine 

This type of pain is from the nerves. This may also result in alterations to your touch, strange sensations and weakness. There are a few ways your nerves may be irritated such as stretch, compression or chemically. There are structures in the body which may irritate or provoke the above symptoms.  There are other nerves than the sciatic nerve which can irritate other parts of body. 

These can cause swelling and bony spurs in the joints. If these occur in the neck these may be symptomatic and cause stiffness and pain. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition where the body attacks itself. As there are peaks, plateaus and lows of the severity of these conditions the aim is to mobilise and condition in the plateaus and lows to decrease the load on your joints.