When to Worry About Back Pain

Back pain is a common complain among people. Everybody experiences back pain at some point in their life. But back pain in very young and older people needs special attention. If your age is below 20 years or over 55 years, the back pain can be a result of a serious disease condition. Therefore, if it is persisting and aggravating you should immediately seek for medical attention.If back pain arises suddenly in an elderly person, it too can be due to serious problem.

You should also worry about back pain if it is continuously increasing in intensity and severity. If the back pain persists even in the night, it indicates that it requires immediate medical attention. Lumbar spondylosis is a  common cause for back pain. This can lead to lumbar spondylolysthesis, if it gets worse. In such cases the intervertebral disk can compress the spinal code and the nerve roots and cause serious neurological defects. In such cases the back pain gets worse when lying in the supine position because, it puts more weight on the lumbar spine causes it bulge out.

Another serious cause of back pain is spinal tuberculosis. People with spinal tuberculosis will have night sweats, evening pyrexia, loss of appetite and loss weight in addition to back pain. Bones are common places for secondary tumor deposition which leads to back pain. Breast and prostatic cancers are the ones that are more likely to have secondary bone deposits. Therefore, you should worry about back pain if you have a past history of cancer.

If you have other symptoms such as weakness or numbness of the limbs, the nerves might have also affected. It gives rise to neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain arises when a nerve is compressed. It is very common in the legs and it  can be differentiated from claudication and venous pain by using the symptoms and signs the person has.People with reduced immunity should also take back pain seriously because they are more prone to infections.

Back pain is a very common condition. Most of the time it disappears on its own. But, especial attention should be payed if it is associated with any of above mentioned risk factors.