How to Diagnose Lower Back Pain

Your lower back ultimately bears the brunt of your weight. It's the part of the body that basically connects your two halves. It's where you bend, twist, straighten and extend. Really, your lower back is a portion of the body that gets a lot of use, which makes it one of the areas that can be overused. This overuse can easily lead to strains and injuries. When you start to feel lower back pain from a strain or injury, there are a number of things you can do to help with a diagnosis.

Instructions

• 1

  Consider the symptoms you are experiencing. This will usually involve some level of pain that can feel dull, sharp or even burning. It may also include any stiffness or spasms, the area of the pain, the development of this pain (sudden or gradual) and any neighboring pain or numbness, namely in the leg due to pressure placed on the sciatic nerve.

• 2

  Take into account the nature of the pain. Determine if the pain is acute, meaning it has been present for a relatively short period of time (a few weeks), or if the pain is recurrent, meaning that it comes and goes and then comes back again, or even if the pain is chronic, in that it has been a constant condition for longer than 3 months.

• 3

  Think about your physical activities. According to the Mayo Clinic, most of lower back pain cases are caused by a strain of the muscles in the lower back due to lifting objects improperly or some sort of movement that is sudden or awkward. Usually, a person who has strained a muscle of the back, more specifically the extensor muscles, will experience a dull to sharp pain on the left, right or both sides of the back.

• 4

  Bear in mind to location of the pain. When you are feeling pain in your lower back that also emanates down one of your legs, it will usually be due to a herniated disc, which is essentially a disc in your spine that has slipped or bulged and is now placing pressure on your sciatic nerve. This pain, according to the Mayo Clinic, will ordinarily worsen when you are sitting or actually hit you when you cough or sneeze. It may also cause some tingling or numbness in the affected leg.

• 5

  Consider your current range of motion. When you are suffering from pain in your lower back that ultimately affects your range of motion, such as difficulty bending or twisting, you may have suffered a strain or injury to your flexor muscles, which are those muscles attached to the front of your spine and run down to your hip.

• 6

  Take into account the origin of pain. If you experience pain when your back is placed under some sort of stress, like when you hold tension in your back or bear a certain amount of weight, this may be an indication of intervertebral disc degeneration, which means that the composition of a disc between the vertebrae has deteriorated. The pain can be dull to sharp, but will usually not greatly affect your range of motion.

• 7

  Look at the curvature of your spine. Sometimes lower back pain may be caused by irregularities in your spine. If you're experiencing lower back pain and can visually see a pronounced and deep curvature in your lower spine while your upper back is quite rounded, this can be an indication of a skeletal irregularity due to genetics.

• 8

  Take into account your posture. If you've noticed a change in your posture, like stooping or hunching, that is accompanied by a fairly severe pain in your lower back, this could be an indication of osteoporosis, which can prompt a compression fracture in the lower back due to the porous nature of the bones.

• 9

  Regard your work environment. Sometimes, people will suffer an injury to the lower back from simply sitting at their desk. This has a lot to do with proper ergonomics. Look at the position of your keyboard in relation to your wrists and forearms, the position of your feet due to your chair, the support of your lumbar, and even the position of monitor in relation to your eyes. All of these factors can play a role in a lower back injury.