Understanding your Lower Back Pain Symptoms

If you are suffering from lower back pain, the symptoms can vary depending on the cause of the pain. Because it is important to learn to manage back pain quickly in order to continue the activities that you enjoy, it is a good idea to learn how to identify and treat all of your lower back pain symptoms. Once you have pinpointed all of the accompanying symptoms to your lower back pain, you will be on the road to effective pain management. Those symptoms will be able to offer many clues as to the cause of your pain and the precise spot that the pain is originating from.

What are the Symptoms of Lower Back Pain?

In addition to the pain felt in the lumbar area of the back, you might also experience a radiating pain that can extend to your upper back region, your pelvic or abdominal area, or into your hips and legs. The pain could consist of a tingling or burning sensation, a dull ache or a sharper variety of pain. The type of pain could clue your doctor in to what the possible cause of your back pain is. Pain can be the result of injury to muscles, ligaments or nerves, or it can be a combination of factors. Sometimes there is no known cause of lower back pain, but the symptoms are still very real and need to be treated accordingly.

Another common lower back pain symptom is a shooting pain, numbness or tingling down one or both legs and even into the feet. There can be some swelling or weakness in one leg which may indicate that a nerve has been compressed or pinched somewhere in the area of the spine. You may not be able to flex your foot or raise your big toe as you normally would be able to. Lower back pain symptoms can also include muscle spasms or stiffness in the back that can be very uncomfortable and difficult to deal with. Pain can increase at night or during long periods of sitting.

What should you do for Lower Back Pain Symptoms?

The first step in treating your lower back pain symptoms should be to make an appointment with your doctor to rule out certain causes of the pain and get professional advice on the best methods of treatment for your particular problem. Your doctor may prescribe bed rest for a period of a day or two, physical therapy or prescription medication to help manage the pain until treatment begins to take effect. He may give you a series of exercises that you can do at home to help strengthen the muscles in your back and consequently decrease or eliminate the pain that you are experiencing.

Lower back pain symptoms can be uncomfortable enough to put a damper on the activities that you enjoy. The good news is that there are treatments available that can relieve or even cure many of your back pain symptoms.