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Lumbago (Lumbago) - Causes, Symptoms and Therapy
- The lumbago is an acute low back pain.
- Often he has passed after a week, almost always after six weeks.
- 85 percent of all Germans experience such pain at least once in their lives.
- Older people are less affected than younger people between the ages of 20 and 40 years.
- In acute low back pain is not a disease, but a complaint.
- His name is "lumbago" because people used to think that a witch with a spell caused the pain.
contents
- The reasons
- Factor lack of exercise
- symptoms
- When you should definitely go to the doctor
- diagnosis
- What you can do yourself
- Prevent acute low back pain
- The shot of the witch
- Elves and witches
- False suspicion and real death
The reasons
Often, acute disorders of the back are preceded by functional disorders. These can be tense muscles or a weak musculature in the back. Now a harmless trigger such as the jerky lifting of a full beer crate, so that the shortened muscles contract and block the back.
When a sudden pain shoots us in the back, it is called a lumbago. 85 percent of Germans have such an experience in their lives. (Image: astrosystem / fotolia.com) "The cause of a lumbago does not exist. Mental factors, damp cold, wrong postures or unfamiliar movements come into question. In addition to tension in the back muscles, the vertebral joints or joints may also shift between the spine and the pelvis. Or there is a tear in the intervertebral disc. A herniated disc is also possible. The connection with displacements of the vertebral joints also explains the apparent paradox that younger, more mobile people, more often suffer from acute low back pain than older ones. Just because the boys are not stiff in the joints, they can move. In older people, the intervertebral discs are also partially dried, and thus they can tear less.
Factor lack of exercise
In the absence of exercise, the back muscles weaken because they are not trained. Shorten or harden muscles, overload ligaments, nerve fibers are irritated. Certain movements now lead to a very painful blocking. By the way, the same problem can also occur in other parts of the body, for example when you do strength training without having to prepare your muscles step by step.
symptoms
The acute low back pain comes suddenly and strongly in the area of the lumbar vertebrae. He pulls, drills or stings. Mostly it comes so strong that those affected can hardly straighten up.
When you should definitely go to the doctor
An acute low back pain is usually no reason to go to the doctor. But because of the intense pain you can do it. Anyway, you should go to the doctor if the pain does not subside after several days.
You must go to the doctor when the pain radiates into the leg and bring with it numbness and tingling. It can be a herniated disc that pinches the sciatic nerve.
Do you have high fever and chills in addition to backache? Then immediately call 112 the ambulance. The same is true when the pain occurs and you have a chronic illness like diabetes, osteoporosis or cancer.
Are legs paralyzed, do you feel numbness in the genital area, do you need to increase the amount of water you can or can not or do you suffer from incontinence? Then you have to call the ambulance immediately. When paralyzed, you should not be safe when the pain subsides.
If you have more serious symptoms, such as high fever or chills, for back pain, you should absolutely and urgently see a doctor. (Image: mma23 / fotolia.com) diagnosis
A lumbago is usually diagnosed by a doctor with a simple medical history, that is, when he asks them specific questions about the symptoms. In the diagnosis of "acute low back pain" a detailed knowledge of the causes is not necessary because it is a temporary complaint without consequences.
The doctor asks you when and in what activity the pain occurred, if you have pre-existing conditions such as diabetes or osteoporosis and if you have problems with bowel movements or urination. Then the doctor asks you to walk on tiptoe and heels, checking all the important muscle groups of the legs, the muscle reflexes and the sensitivity of the skin in this position.
With a sensitivity test, the doctor recognizes whether nerves are damaged. For this he strokes with a sharp object over feet and legs. Those affected now say what they feel and in what intensity they feel it. If there is evidence of a sensory disorder, a referral to the specialist is announced.
To find out the exact cause requires experience, because the pain can come from intervertebral discs, vertebral joints or back muscles. If the center of pain lies four centimeters off the midline of the spine, it is presumably the back muscles, two and a half inches below it rather a vertebral joint. If the pain is deep, it could be the intervertebral disc.
If necessary, an X-ray or magnetic resonance imaging, a neurological examination and / or laboratory tests are added. If the family doctor suspects a serious background, he directs you to a specialist for a precise diagnosis.
What you can do yourself
Earlier knew the "Volkswissen", that one should spare oneself at a lumbago, so stay in bed. Medicine knows today that this is wrong. You should move as fast as possible.
For example, you can try a step bearing to relieve the acute pain. Here are head and back stretched on a stable bed. Neck and Cross support a rolled-up towel, knees and lower legs through a pad that presses the knee to a right angle. The thighs should be perpendicular to the top, knees and lower legs resting horizontally on the pad. Now relax the core muscles.
Heat improves blood circulation and often reduces the pain, for example in the form of a blanket, which they place under the back. But do not forget to move, even if it hurts.
Prevent acute low back pain
It is best to prevent an acute low back pain by moving. The heavier you are, the greater the likelihood of suffering a lumbago - the lighter you are and the more you move, the smaller it is. Spinal gymnastics and a back school help as well.
At work, make sure you have a straight backrest in the chair, so you do not bend your back. A barely noticed but effective exercise to counter low back pain is to climb stairs, keeping your upper body straight. So instead of using the elevator to walk.
Suitable are sports such as swimming, hiking, climbing and cycling, which use the back evenly. Less suitable are, for example, golf or tennis, which stress the muscles on one side.
Movement is the alpha and omega - not just in lumbago. A good option in everyday life is to use the stairs instead of the elevator if it is possible. (Image: beeboys / fotolia.com) The shot of the witch
The pain comes suddenly and they sting - as if an arrow boring in the back. And when our ancestors did not yet have any scientific explanations for this phenomenon, they actually believed it: mythical creatures like elves or magic witches shooting at people with invisible arrows were the cause. A witch should be able to do this shot only by her "evil eye". Countless people still believe in this "evil eye" today, in Iran as well as in Italy, Morocco and Papua.
Elves and witches
This idea is very old, because even in Old English (450 to 1000 after our time) was called the phenomenon haegtessan - lumbago, but also ylfagescot, so Elfenschuss. In the 16th century, the term lumbago appeared in German-speaking countries, and not as a metaphor. Tens of thousands of innocent women were burned at the stake for conjuring up thunderstorms, magically stealing milk from cows or making people ill - for example in the form of a lumbago.
The old German word "Alpschuss" is also derived from the elves. These were in the faith of Central Europe no delicate beings with dragonfly wings, but nasty neighbors who lived underground or in the forest, their ugly children with human babies exchanged (Wechselbälger) and the people real harm. They shunned the cattle, caused diseases, or drove people off the path in the moor so that they drowned. Our nightmare comes from these albums, alps, elves or elves. Behind it is the notion that such a bad creature sat down on the chest at night, pressed on it and whispered us the bad dreams.
False suspicion and real death
In the belief in magic, the suspicion of the "evil curse" came close, when a farmer, who had just had a quarrel with a neighbor behind him, at the Heuschichten with the pitchfork suddenly felt this stinging pain in the back. Now he "remembered" that the neighbor had mumbled something before the two parted or even scolded "the devil should fetch you". The alleged victim denounced the alleged witch in court, there was hardly any way out for them. The goal of the trial was the confession and to get this, the executioner also used the torture. At some point, the defendants confessed everything. The contemporaries often did not feel sympathy for the "witches". By confessing, they believed, it would be possible to drive the demons out of their bodies and save their souls. So even Christian Christians believed that they were doing a godly work through the torture and burning of truly innocent people.