Frequently Asked Questions

What causes lower back pain?

Strained muscles often cause lower back pain due to lifting a heavy object, overuse injuries, and everyday activities that stretch or tear soft tissues.

The most common causes of back pain include:

• Injuries due to sports, an accident, or overuse
• Disc herniation
• Osteoarthritis
• Spinal degeneration
• Spondylolisthesis (slipped disc)
• Spinal stenosis (narrowing of the spinal canal)
• Compression fracture due to osteoporosis
• Radiculopathy (compressed nerves)

As you age, you’re more likely to develop back pain from age-related degenerative changes, such as arthritis and the degeneration of spinal discs, which dehydrate and break down over time.

What causes upper back pain?

Although your upper back is more stable than your lower back because the vertebrae are attached to your ribs, it can still develop pain due to problems such as:

• Muscle tension and spasms
• Poor posture
• Facet joint degeneration
• Arthritis
• Kyphosis (hunchback)

Many patients end up with upper back pain from spending time hunched over and looking down at their electronic devices.

How is back pain treated?

Back pain ranges from a dull ache to a sharp, incapacitating pain. When a nerve is involved, you may also feel tingling, numbness, or muscle weakness in your arms or legs. In some patients, the pain is constant, while others experience random attacks.

In many cases, back pain resolves within 12 weeks, but in about 20% of all adults, it becomes a chronic problem that’s notoriously hard to treat with traditional medical methods.

Dr. Landrum specializes in interventional pain management, which first identifies the precise source of your pain, then uses different types of treatments that go directly to the cause. As a result, patients often find back pain relief for the first time in years.

A few examples of back pain treatments available at Cutting Edge Integrative Pain Centers include:

• Nerve block therapies, such as fluoroscopic, ultrasound-guided injections into your nerves that block the pain signals from getting to your brain
• Spinal cord stimulation, which uses mild electrical stimulation to interrupt nerve signals that cause pain
• Epidural injections to reduce inflammation and alleviate pain
• Regenerative medicine procedures can help promote your body’s natural healing process
• Minimally invasive spine surgery, which helps: decompress nerves or stabilize your spine

You don’t need to continue suffering from back pain — call Cutting Edge Integrative Pain Centers in Elkhart, Indiana, or book an appointment online.