Prevent and Improve Each Type of Low Back Pain (1)

In the western medicine, it is said that the cause of 85 % of low back pain is unknown, but within 15 % of low back pain which causes are known, there are 2 types of low back pain.

​To improve low back pain, it is important to know the type of low back pain, to grasp which stage the pain is at.
 
Low Back Pain Type 1
 
Stage 1
63 years old woman. When she got up in the morning, she felt heavy and dull ache in her low back. The low back pain went away over time. But after that, she started to feel the heavy and dull ache in her lower back when she tried to move her body like standing up from a chair.
 
Stage 2
6 years after she started to feel heavy dull ache in her lower back, when she lifted up her small dog and bent her back backward a little, she felt shooting and sharp pain in her lower back along with heavy and dull ache. But as soon as she sat down, the shooting pain disappeared so she didn’t care so much. But since then, every time she bent backward, she felt shooting pain in her lower back. In addition to the low back pain, she started to feel tingling sensation and sharp pain in her both legs. But when she took a rest with bending forward, the pain and tingling sensation disappeared.
 
Stage 3
6 months later when she took her dog for a walk, she felt the pain and tingling sensation in her legs while she was walking. She stopped walking and sat down on a bench. Several ten seconds after sitting down the pain and tingling sensation went away. But the pain and tingling sensation in her legs got worse day by day and she at last became unable to walk. Low back pain and pain and tingling sensation in the legs appears only by walking, and unable to walk without taking a rest.
 
This type of low back pain is lumbar spinal canal stenosis, which is a disease that the spinal canal narrows and compresses the spinal cord and nerves at the level of the lumbar vertebra, causing pain and tingling sensation.
 
Counter measure to prevent Stage 3
 
Stage 1
The characteristic symptom of Stage 1 is heave and dull ache in the lower back when starting to move the body like getting up in the morning. Our lower back is supported by the muscles and tendons. When we are young, they are elastic like rubber and can move freely. But with aging, the elasticity of the muscles and joints get lost. When the hardened muscles and joints are pulled forcefully when they are moved, the heavy and dull ache appears. So stretching the muscles and joints around the lower back is effective to prevent and cure the low back pain at this stage.
 
Stretching sitting on a chair
 
1. Sit on a chair with your feet shoulder-width apart and bend your upper body forward. (Fig. 1)
2. Keep the posture that makes you feel tight in your lower back for 5 seconds and go back to original state. (Fig. 2)
3. Clasp your hands behind your head. (Fig. 3)
4. Lean your back on the chair. (Fig. 4)
5. Keep the posture which makes your abdomen tight for 5 seconds and go back to the original state.
6. Twist your body toward the left side as far as you can and keep the posture for 5 seconds. (Fig. 5)
7. Twist your body toward the right side as far as you can and keep the posture for 5 seconds. (Fig. 6)
 
If you do the above exercise 3 times a day, it is expected that you can maintain soft muscles and joints.
 
Stage 2.
The spinal canal narrows more because the joints are enlarged and the tendons are deformed by aging. When you bend your back backward, the joints and tendons compress the nerve around, causing shooting sharp pain in the lower back and pain and tingling sensation in the both legs.
 
Navel exercise
​
To reduce the pain caused by movements, it is important to stabilize the lower back by strengthening the muscles of the abdomen and back.
 
1. Lie on your back, bend your knees lightly and put your hands on your thighs. (Fig. 7)
2. Raise your head up slowly like looking at your navel and keep the posture for 5 seconds. (Fig. 8)
3. Put your hands sides of your body and raise your buttocks like lifting up your navel and keep the posture for 5 seconds. (Fig. 9)
 
The point of this exercise is to strengthen the muscles without moving the spine a lot.
Repeating this exercise 10 to 30 sets a day is effective, but it is not necessary to do all 30 times at once.