Statistically speaking, it is said that about 90% of people have experienced back pain at some point in their life. For adult and aging individual, it is commonly felt during the stage that different health problems started to pop out. For busy people whose work is physically demanding, this may give your back a strain that it can no longer handle resulting to having the pain. There are actually a lot of possible reasons on why each of us has experienced back pain. The back part of our body is divided into parts when determining the location of the pain. They are the pelvic, lumbar, thoracic and cervical. With these, we will focus on the thoracic pain also known as the upper back pain.
Upper back pain can be felt from the area between the shoulders up to the back of the ribs. The role of our upper back in supporting the upper part of the body’s weight may often times cause the pain. Muscle strain, and soft tissue problems are also some of the possible reasons why back pain may arise. Below we listed some of the usual source of upper back pain. Check and see, where your pain is coming from the list and start to learn on how to improve it to remove and prevent it from coming back:
- Improper posture and movements – This includes a person’s position or stance and how they use their back in moving. Examples are:
- Incorrect bending of the back
- Bad posture in sitting or standing
- Sitting and standing for a long time
- Sleeping in a wrong and uncomfortable position
- Weak muscle and body strength – Is the most common reasons on why a person experiences back pain. This is true most especially if you are one of those who do not exert some effort to exercise and strengthen your body. The muscle and other parts of the back that surrounds the spine when weak can cause pain in just a little force exerted in doing a thing. And since the upper back serves as a support to carry weight in our body, it is not impossible that one can feel this often.
- Repetitive movement – When your job requires you to use most of your upper back in doing most of the time, overuse of it is a possible cause of the pain. Individual who have muscle sprain due to its repetitive use, would have difficulty moving it.
- Accident and injury that causes the upper part of your back to receive an impact from hitting something or due to a wrong movement. Moreover, extreme use of the back when it comes to sports results to aches that when not treated can worsen.
- Muscle spasms are also seen to cause pain in the upper back. It is an involuntary movement that results to a muscle strain.
- Herniated Disc is a problem wherein a ripped part of the outer part of the inter vertebral disc allowing an opening for the soft portion in its center to bulge out.
- Osteoarthritis – is a disease affecting the joints making individual experience tenderness in the area, locking and pain. This can be inherited or have just developed due to aging and other diseases such as diabetes and inflammation disease.
- Fibromyalagia arises pain in the muscle and connective body tissues. No definite answers were yet found on what causes one to have such condition. In this regard, the cure given to a patient is basically to handle the symptoms that he or she is experiencing in relation to this medical disorder.
- Osteoporosis – may affect not just the upper back. It causes pain for once the bones are weaken, your upper back that serves as support to carry body’s weight may have difficulty performing its job.
- Big-breasted ladies also tend to experience upper back pain. This is for the fact that this part of the back helps in pulling the weight of the front/ bust.
The thoracic part of our body is important for it protects vital organs. That is why when we feel pain in the area; it is just proper that we seek for remedy to improve its condition. More often, medical experts would only recommend you with a combination of physical treatment and some medication when pain makes it hard for the person to perform the treatment. Solutions are commonly non-surgical.
- Physical treatment
- Acupuncture has been known as an early medical procedure done by Chinese wherein needles are inserted in certain points that is said to create an effect to relieve the pain an individual is experiencing.
- Exercise to strengthen or stretch muscles (Pilates). More than just helping the whole body to maintain being health and functioning well. Exercise could also contribute in making your upper back strong to carry out its job to support the body. Stretching the muscles would make it stronger and able to perform tasks easily without resulting to pain that is commonly felt by one who lacks exercise.
- Massage as we all know is a good way to relax. It helps to remove tension that muscles feel and stress caused by our busy life. In return, pain is also lessened
- Chiropractic/ Physical Therapist Treatment – certain conditions would require you to undergo treatments done by chiropractors and physical therapists. The treatments done by these experts aim to manipulate joints to function properly.
- Others
- Hot or Cold Treatment – compress to relax the muscle. It is up to the person suffering from the pain whether to use hot or cold one.
- Medications such analgesics and anti-inflammatory relieves the pain.
- Herbal Remedies
- Practice proper posture
- Get the right support for your back to reduce the exertion that it needs to do to pull your body’s weight.
- Surgery is always the last option in healing upper back pain since most of it can be easily remedied with the use of the previous solutions mentioned. Surgery is only done during instances that the pain did not diminish after exhausting all the solutions. This is especially true when the problem is caused by herniated disc.
Now that you have a better understanding on the upper back pain causes, it would be easier for you to determine what is causing your problem and find the right solution. Just always remember that before taking actions, especially if pain is severe, turn to the help of experts.