Upper, middle, and lower back pain can be sharp and stabbing, dull and aching, or burning. In addition, it can cause bladder or bowel dysfunction, radiating pain in the legs, stiffness or tightness, weakness, numbness, or tingling in the legs, and even accidents or falls.
You will likely experience muscle guarding, where the larger muscles in the body “guard” to protect you from more serious injuries causing extreme tightness and/or muscle spasms. Smaller muscles then turn off, producing weakness and feelings of tiredness. As a result, pain is experienced even when trying to perform everyday regular activities.
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Did you sleep wrong and wake up with a stiff back? When you have slept wrong, you typically have compressed and irritated one of the joints in your back. This irritation manifests as stiffness that makes it difficult for you to move. Do you need to see a physical therapist? Read more, or reach out today to find out if we should pay you a visit.
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What is Postural Dysfunction? Discomfort that comes from your daily work, posture, or activities around the home. This is not an orthopedic condition in and of itself, but there are so many people looking to decrease their soreness in their everyday life.
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Discs are shock-absorbing structures (often likened to jelly donuts or water balloons) that serve as spaces between the vertebra (bones) of the spine. When we bend, lift, and/ or twist with poor mechanics we can herniate a disc or cause it to essentially pop and squish out the side.
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Arthritis is common degenerative disc/joint disease, but adding physical therapy to your routine can relieve your symptoms, build strength for fall risk prevention, and vastly improve your quality of life. You read that right, less mobile joints lead to more pain. Physical activity increases joint lubrication, joint nourishment, and circulation. It may be uncomfortable at first, but a physical therapist can help you find the next best step to ease you into exercise.
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Discs are shock-absorbing structures (often likened to jelly donuts or water balloons) that serve as spaces between the vertebra (bones) of the spine. When we bend, lift, and/or twist with poor mechanics we can irritate a disc. Common symptoms of disc irritation are sudden onset of pain, caused by bending, lifting, and/or twisting, cause pain with coughing or sneezing, if you find yourself saying “I threw my back out” or “My back gave out on me.”
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A thoracic herniated disc can cause many different types of pain or no symptoms at all. The pain can range from an aching in the back or legs to electric-like pain that radiates into these same areas. Sometimes numbness or weakness may also be present.
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Spondylosis happens when there is excessive wear on the spine’s vertebrae and discs. Thoracic spondylosis and lumbar spondylosis occur in the middle and lower back, respectively.
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Radiculopathy is defined by John Hopkins Medicine as symptoms that occur as the result of a compressed nerve. You may be wondering, is radiculopathy the same as sciatica? There are many types of radiculopathy, given that we have so many nerves in the body, but sciatica specifically refers to lumbar radiculopathy. Lumbar radiculopathy typically refers to the feeling of radiating nerve pain caused by a compressed sciatic nerve.
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Sciatica is a condition that is caused by a pinched nerve in the lower back, usually caused by a herniated disk. This pressure on the nerve can send radiating pain down one or both legs. There are millions of cases per year, in fact physical therapy for sciatica is one most common reasons people seek out care from their physical therapist. Most can self-diagnose their own sciatica, and thankfully it’s very treatable. Click here to read more about sciatica.
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