Simple Back Pain
Simple Back Pain is by far the most common type of back pain, 97% of all back pain comes in this category but when you are suffering it does not feel simple. It may be very painful, even completely disabling but it is not serious if it is handled correctly.
Simple Back pain is a reaction of the soft tissues in the back, the muscles or ligaments, to an injury which in most cases is minor. The injury may come on through lifting or falling, or maybe an accident as in whiplash, but very often it is an innocuous bend to pick up something light. The majority of the pain is due to the reaction of the body to the injury, not the injury itself.
Simple Back Pain can also lead to referred pain to the leg, arm or head. This can be due to nerve root irritation where a normal sensory signal is interrupted and the brain interprets this as pain in the area the nerve came from, or ‘deep referred pain’ where a problem occurs which sends a signal down a normal nerve giving pain into the tissues, commonly muscles, that the nerve supplies. These need to be distinguished from ‘Nerve Root Pain’ caused by an injury or derangement inside the spine.
In Simple Back Pain it is important that you understand what is happening and why, and therefore an important part of your treatment is an explanation of your problem. Research has shown that it is the fear of pain causing a tightening against it and the tendency to avoid activity that makes recovery difficult. Therefore it is important to understand that if you feel pain, even if it is very painful, it is not a sign of further injury.
If Simple Back Pain persists even if it is not severe it can develop into Chronic Pain, normally classified as pain lasting longer than 8 weeks. This is a problem because it is beginning to last longer than the original injury should take to heal and therefore your body is starting to process it in a different way. Effectively your body is regarding the pain as the problem rather than the damage that caused it and it is therefore self-perpetuating.
