Muscle sprain or spasm is the most common cause of back pain. Over 140 muscles attach to the spinal column and help support it. These muscles work interdependently. People who use these muscles frequently such as day laborers, athletes sometimes tend to suffer from back pain. But people who make a heavy demand on these muscles every once in a while like weekend athletes and employees whose jobs require occasional lifting – might be in extra trouble.
Too much demand on a weak muscle can cause it to spasm. Sometimes a group of muscles gets into the act, contracting in pain and immobilizing the injured area. You experience that contraction as pain. As these contracted muscles tighten, the small blood vessels in them narrow, and that means less oxygen and nutrition from the blood get carried into the muscle cells and more wastes remain. Chronic tension caused by emotion can create the same constricted circulation.
Other times, the problems concerns the relationship of the vertebrae to each other and to the disks. A prolapsed or slipped disk can pinch a peripheral nerve. That pinched nerve may cause problems elsewhere in the body. A disk can become so badly squeezed that part of it is forced out from between the vertebrae. If the disk in question is pressing on the sciatic nerve, a major nerve in the body with branches throughout the lower body and legs, you have sciatica.
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