It is very common nowadays for most elderly people to link ageing with back pain. A man found it difficult to coerce his 68 years father, who had prolonged pain in the lower back to attend a health facility for attention. He would say: “My son, don’t bother yourself about my back problem; it has been with me for decades and as I become older, I get more and more disabled, which accompanies the pain. It is the reward of old age.”
Another had this to say: “My father and mother suffered this pain in the back for more than 20 years and they all died with it; so my case should not be different at my 70s.
“Back pain is a price I know I have to pay for ageing. My father had it which made him to even bend over like the letter ‘C’ and it was never a major complaint while he lived. His complaint mostly was frequent urination.”
Common back pain may metamorphose from acute to disabling chronic stage and when this occurs the victim gradually assumes a habitual poor posture, which bent towards the pain-free side (scoliosis), a reflex reaction to avoid pain on the opposite side of the body. This could bring about structural changes in the joints of the spine if allowed to persist. Also, excessive wear will occur resulting in premature ageing in the joints.
Those of us who allow poor postures to persist throughout our life time become bent and stooped as the ageing process develops. When called to straighten and stand erect, we are unable to comply our mobility is now impaired and we are considered by others to be affected by normal ageing process. Most deformities in the elderly people and even the younger ones are the visible effects of poor postural habit or persistent back pain that was not properly addressed earlier.
There are secondary and sometimes severe consequences when their effects are transmitted to our body organs. Organs such as the lungs are constricted and breathing is affected. Stomach and other internal organs are deprived of their proper support. Furthermore, there could be interference with bowel movement, urine control and even penile erection!
Really, bones and disks in our spines can degenerate over time, causing stiffness and soreness. To be candid, in my years of practice as a physiotherapist, coupled with my postgraduate experience in Human Kinetics, back pain really doesn’t need to be an inevitable part of aging if one takes the right lifestyle approach.Top of ForBottom of Form
Nearly all of us experience back pain sometime in our lives, and the list of possible back pain causes is long — poor posture, being overweight, smoking, poor eating habits, spinal diseases, and other health conditions, including cancer. And then there’s the number-one back pain cause, which is aging, brought about by just normal wear and tear.
What is causing the pain? Your spine consists of individual bones called vertebrae, which are stacked one on top of the other. Between each vertebra are small joints that allow your spine to move and discs with jelly-like centres that act as shock absorbers and prevent your bones from rubbing against each other.
As we age, the discs between the vertebrae wear away and shrink, which causes pain and stiffness as the bones start to rub against each other. In addition, the space around our spinal cord narrows over time. This condition, known as spinal stenosis, also puts pressure on the cord and spinal nerves, causing pain.
If you overdo it, you may feel muscle soreness in your lower back. Should you break a bone or experience whiplash during your lifetime, you can accelerate a type of arthritis that can cause back or neck pain,
While disc degeneration and spinal stenosis are most commonly seen in older patients, they are becoming younger persons’ problems, too. So many more young people — people in their 20s and 30s — who, if you x-rayed their spines, would show some level of arthritis or degenerative changes. The reason is that more people, including children, are seriously overweight and have diabetes, which can create an inflammatory process in the entire body that results in neck and back pain.
If your back pain cause can be determined, the pain can be treated in three ways — with medications, especially when it is caused by infections or inflammation, physiotherapy could be applied for mechanical or non-specific back pain and surgery, used when the preceding ones fail and could be , either singly or in combination.
To keep your back from hurting as you age, it’s very important to have good posture when you stand or sit, maintain a healthy weight, eat a good diet with needed nutrients for joint and bone health, exercise to keep your back and abdomen strong and flexible, and reduce stress. Indeed People with healthy habits can age better.
If you do experience back pain, even if you think the cause is aging, don’t ignore it. It could be a sign of a serious, but treatable disease. You don’t have to live with back pain, no matter what your age. Talk to your doctor for a referral to reputable physiotherapy outfit and see what can be done to provide back pain relief.
Lest I forget, the back pain care foundation shall, as her corporate social responsibility (CSR), conduct a three-day free treatment (physiotherapy) for neck pain, mid-back pain and lower back pain sufferers in Abuja, next month.