The health and strength of your lower back area is absolutely fundamental to your body’s overall health and strength, as it’s a key support area.
Many people fall into the trap of thinking that back pain will only be a problem for us if we don’t take care when we are lifting heavy objects, or if we contract some disease or condition that affects the bones or muscles in that area. But, low back pain has many causes and one of these is stress. Stress, in fact, can be considered the silent cause of low back pain, and is often overlooked when trying to determine the cause of someone’s back woes.
It should be mentioned that not all stress is bad, but we are facing increases in both emotional and psychological stress, and only recently has medical science been looking at the link between stress and the physical effect on low back pain. Back pain can be either initiated by, or worsened by, emotional and psychological factors. The pain is very real and has all the limiting and debilitating effects of pain caused by mechanical or physiological factors. Stress can release hormones that cause blood vessels to constrict and reduce blood flow to muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves in that area, starving them of nutrients and oxygen and increasing build up of biochemical waste products. This can manifest itself in muscle tension and then back pain.
We see that emotional situations can cause an actual physical change in the back that leads to pain. This, in itself, can cause the patient to become more anxious about doing simple daily activities or any physical exercise that will aggravate the pain; which, in turn, worsens the stress that caused the pain in the first place and also worsens the condition of the muscles that support the back.
You can see that it becomes a cycle of gradually deteriorating condition, and increased stress. So, what can we do about it? Ask yourself if stress is a possible cause of your problems if most of the other common causes have been ruled out, as it may be something that he or she hasn’t considered. Obviously, a correct diagnosis is key to tackling the problem of stress-related low back pain.
Source: www.feelingprettyremarkable.com; Kevin Jardine; May 11, 2014.
