Back Pain:
How Back Pain Affects Your Life?
Back pain like chronic back pain affects life more than just the physical body, it can disturb emotional well-being, social interactions, work life, and daily routine.
This is one of the most common disturbing medical issues which is affecting individuals globally. People with back pain suffer from sleep disturbance, low flexibility, stress, which can lead to anxiety, depression that hampers quality of life.
It also affects professional duties by limiting social interactions with financial pressure due to ongoing medical expenses.
How Can Back Pain Affect Your Quality of life?
Limitation of the body (Physically)
Continuous pain and disability can affect daily work routine, which can lead to low physical functioning.
Physiologically
Chronic back pain can cause depression, and fear of ignorance which can increase pain perception and reduce mental health.
Professionally
Pain affects work productivity and even loss of jobs with financial instability and low self esteem.
Isolation
Low mobility and discomfort may result in social isolation with a feeling of loneliness.
No quality sleep
Pain disturbs quality of sleep which can lead to fatigue.
Is Back Pain a leading cause of Disability?
Yes, especially lower back pain is a major cause of disability. Below are the points, why??
- This is caused by incorrect posture, sitting for a longer period of time, smoking, obesity, and sedentary work life.
- Back pain is the main source of disability in every group of ages.
- Older peoples are more affected due to degenerative disc disease.
- This results in low word productivity, job loss and sometimes early retirement because chronic back pain increases medical costs that affect overall quality of life.
What lifestyle changes can help manage chronic back pain?
Treating and managing chronic back pain needs lifestyle modifications to address causes and promote overall health.
These are some lifestyle changes:
- Incorporate Anti-inflammatory foods in regular diet by reducing intake of sugars, refined carbohydrates, and junk foods. Increase consumption of green vegetables and health fats to reduce inflammation and maintain spinal health.
- Try to manage emotional stress which causes muscle tension, which leads to reduced blood flow and increased perception of pain.
- Quality of sleep is important for recovery and managing pain because lack of sleep can decrease the pain tolerance and worsen the condition.
- Practicing to engage in gentle physical activities like walking, swimming, or yoga can be effective.
- Acupuncture has been used for centuries to manage several types of pain in the body, which also includes chronic back pain by reducing pain and improving overall functionality through the body's process of natural healing.
Conclusion
- Early intervention is required if the pain is persistent in nature or radiating pain. Consult a medical professional for early diagnosis and attention.
- A conservative treatment plan can help in most of herniated discs cases without any surgical interventions.
- Tailor or personalise the treatment based on severity, symptoms and so on.
- Lifestyle changes including regular exercises, ergonomic practices, dietary supplements and so on can help manage herniated discs.
References
- Agnus Tom A, Rajkumar E, John R, Joshua George A. Determinants of quality of life in individuals with chronic low back pain: a systematic review. Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine. 2022 Jan 5;10(1):124–44.
- Ferreira ML, Katie de Luca, Haile LM, Steinmetz JD, Culbreth GT, Cross M, et al. Global, regional, and national burden of low back pain, 1990–2020, its attributable risk factors, and projections to 2050: a systematic analysis of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2021. The Lancet Rheumatology. 2023 Jun 1;5(6):e316–29
- Lifestyle Changes To Ease Back Pain. Cleveland Clinic. Available from: