Lower Back Pain Self Diagnosis

What You Need To Know About Diagnosing Yourself

By Jarrett Kruse

Lower back pain is so common that your own experience with it may have led you to a level of self-diagnosis that is somewhat reliable. You may know that a back injury has left you with a particular lower or upper back pain, for example, or that a particular activity always produces the same back pain. Common sense tells you to try a treatment that has worked in the past or avoid the activity that causes the low back pain. While back pain medicine, acupuncture, back pain exercises, or chiropractics may ease lower back pain and you may combine different elements as part of a program of pain management, a precise diagnosis made in consultation with your health care provider may be the key to long-term relief.

Recognizing and properly identifying some of the most common symptoms of lower back pain can speed diagnosis and treatment. Just as important as knowing what condition may cause a particular symptom, it’s important to be able to know when pain indicates that you should seek further treatment. Any time pain is associated with nausea, loss of appetitive, fever, dizziness or changes in bowel or bladder habits, it’s critical to seek medical attention. Some examples of general guidelines for aiding in diagnosing back pain are contained in the following descriptions:

Sciatica: pain along the sciatic nerve, which runs from your lower back through your hip and buttock and down the back of your leg and into your foot. Possible herniated disc or spinal disease or abnormality.
Sharp, focal pain, increased by pressure. Possible herniated disc, muscle strain, or spinal tumor.
Chronic pain accompanied worsened by movement can mean osteoarthritis, herniated discs, osteoporosis, problems with spinal joints, or a number of other conditions
Sharp lower back pain in a spot where there’s been no injury can be a sign of a kidney tumor.