Back pain affects everyone at one time or another, with varying degree of severity and due to it being so common, it is the most ignored discomfort. People tend to avoid taking efforts to diagnose back pain and symptoms associated with it. The indicators are more or less brushed away until there is persistent and acute pain. Careful and serious analysis of various symptoms would lead to successful back pain diagnosis and treatment. Back pains usually require lots of bed rest and medications.
But self medication should be avoided since numbness in legs, weight loss, fever or weakness, back pain could be indication of a more serious ailment like tumors or kidney infection. You should consult a physician if the back pain is acute since otherwise you might end up straining your back too much and end up confining yourself to months of bed rest and medicines. Back pain is a serious condition and should not be taken lightly.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of back pain is mainly conducted by a thorough physical check up along with the analysis of your medical history. In absence of a clear indication as to the exact reason, the physician can go on to more advanced and specific tests like X-ray, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), scans, blood tests like CBC, Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate, CT scans, etc. These tests can indicate whether the back pain is associated with other problems like arthritis, infection, inflammation, etc.
Common Symptoms Associated With Back Pain
It has been found that most of the serious cases of back pain are due to pressure on the sciatic nerve or narrowing of spinal cord canal. People with these problems experience extreme sharp pain in the lower back accompanied with leg pain. There is trouble while doing normal things like walking, sitting, and moving around in general. The pain would travel down to the foot with associated pain in neck, arms, and hands. In severe cases, bladder and bowel activities are also affected. Other commonly observed symptoms include pain while coughing and sneezing, trouble going to sleep, numbness in legs, feeling of weakness, unable to lift weights, stiffness in neck, spine and hips, fever, weight loss, etc.
Ideally the symptoms should be recognized and a physician consulted at the earliest for a fast and quick cure. If diagnosis takes time, the time period of suffering increases and if the back is strained, many a time you would be left with a weak back. Back pain is treated symptomatically with pain killers and rest. Thus, the incidence of recurrence is very high in problems associated with back. Best way to keep pain at bay is to avoid straining your back by lifting heavy objects, maintaining wrong posture for prolonged periods of time, sitting, or standing for long time.