Lower back pain is frequently due to muscle or tendon strains from lifting, twisting, sports injuries, or overuse. Poor posture can play a part, too. One of the most common reasons for developing chronic lower back pain is the way your body changes as part of the aging process.
Conditions the Town Center Orthopaedics team sees most frequently include:
Disc problems
Degenerative disc disease is a condition in which the shock-absorbing discs between your vertebrae slowly dry out, becoming thinner and more rigid. That might cause few if any symptoms at first but can lead to herniated discs and spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal column), which, in turn, causes painful radiculopathy (pinched nerves).
Lumbar radiculopathy or sciatica is a widespread cause of lower back pain due to pressure on the sciatic nerve. It causes pain in your hip and buttock that often travels down one leg.
Arthritis
Osteoarthritis is the type of arthritis that’s most likely to be the cause of lower back pain. It’s another age-related condition, developing after years of wear-and-tear on your spine, which causes the facet joints that link your vertebrae to lose their protective cartilage.
As a result, the bones start rubbing together, causing chronic inflammation and pain. You might also develop bone spurs – little bony growths in your facet joints that your body produces to support arthritic vertebrae. Bone spurs are another common cause of spinal stenosis.
Degenerative changes can also cause conditions like spondylolisthesis, in which weakened ligaments in your spine allow the vertebrae to slide over each other.