Back Pain Muscle Spasms – Finding the Culprits

You have long muscles that run along the spine called the erector spinae muscles.  These are often the guilty muscles when you have back pain and muscle spasms.  A spasm is an involuntary contraction of the muscle for a sustained period of time.  Usually a spasm occurs when the muscle has been suddenly stressed somehow which can include injury, sprains, tears or bruising.  The spasm can actually start in the nerves that lead into the muscle though the feeling is the same no matter where the spasm starts.

Most of the time muscle spasms are painful, but not serious.  It should be mentioned though that in some cases, the spasm may be a symptom of a more serious problem.  The back is composed of bones, muscles and ligaments, and injury or disease to any component can result in back pain muscle spasms.

Back pain and muscle spasms can occur anywhere along the spine from the neck to the lower back.  A spasm can occur once or it can happen repeatedly.  Often the spasm makes the muscle feel sore and tight even after the spasm subsides.  So when you deal with muscle spasms you have two goals.  The first goal is to attempt to prevent the reoccurrence of the spasm.  The second goal is to relive the pain and tension after the spasm.

There are many ways you can approach management of back pain and muscle spasms at home.  First, you should keep moving.  You don’t want to go to bed and lie still, because that will cause the muscle to hurt more.  Light exercises will relieve the muscle stress while strengthening and toning.  Also, you can use an ice pack applied to the area and decrease the muscle spasm pain.  In addition, you should avoid any heavy lifting or moves similar to the moves you were doing before the spasm.

If your back pain and muscle spasms don’t get better with home remedies, you may have to visit the doctor.  Frequently, muscle relaxants are prescribed to relieve muscle tightness.  Muscle relaxants are a short term solution meant to give relief from pain while the muscle heals.   Some people find enough relief by using over-the-counter anti-inflammatory pain relievers.  Many medications you can now buy yourself are what were once considered full prescription strength.  All of the drugs can reduce swelling and increase muscle flexibility.

Other forms of therapy for back pain and muscle spasms include massage or physical therapy.  But one of the most important therapies you can do yourself.  That’s to maintain good posture.  Good posture lets your spine work the way it was designed to work.  Maintaining good posture is important during any activity too and not just while standing.   You should stand, sit, walk and lift while maintaining proper spine position.  This will help you avoid muscle injury and sprains that can lead to muscle spasms.

Know what Sciatica Symptoms Are

Because sciatica does not affect just one area of the body, the sciatica symptoms are often misdiagnosed at first or difficult to diagnose. The pain may be in the lower back, the leg, buttocks or feet. The pain may be most severe in the lower back or it may be more severe in the legs. Because of this variation, many sufferers don\'t realize what is wrong and thus prolong the treatment of the illness.

Although there are a few different sciatica symptoms, the most common is pain in the posterior (back) thigh, lower part of the leg or in the foot. In most cases, pain in the lower back is also one of the sciatica symptoms. In some cases, the pain in the lower back is stronger than in the legs or feet, but in some cases, the lower back has the least severe pain. Each individual case of sciatica is different. Many times when patients suffer from sciatica they don\'t realize what it is until the pain actually gets to the thighs and legs. They feel they just have severe lower back pains from overuse or misuse of the back. Because of this, they often fail to seek medical treatment as quickly as they should have.

Sciatica symptoms usually begin in the lower back, moving down through the buttocks, back of knees, calf and into the feet. By the time the pain reaches the legs, it often becomes less painful in the lower back area. In some instances, the pain in the lower back will disappear altogether leaving only the pain in the back of the legs and to the feet. Many people that have shooting pain through their back and buttocks assume it is sciatica. True sciatica symptoms go right down to the feet, at least at the beginning of the illness.

In cases where the patient has had sciatica for a very long time, the pain may have localized in the back of the buttocks and back of the legs, but not the feet. This situation will only happen after the patient has had sciatica for a long time. In the beginning of the disease, their would have been pain shooting into the foot.

Each patient may have more or less severe sciatica symptoms depending on what position they have their bodies in for most of the day. Standing or sitting may both make the pains worse, whereas lying down often makes the pains subside. Weak or lessened bowel movements or bladder functions are occasional sciatica symptoms, but very rare.

It\'s unfortunate that many people tend to try to diagnose themselves based on similar pains a friend or family member may have experienced. Situations like this cheat the individual out of earlier and correct medical treatment.