Over a 3 month period of time, nearly 1/4 of people in the United States experience at least 1 day of back pain. Although it is a common medical problem, there are a few rare causes of back pain.
Considering that most back pain is associated with aging, stress and strain, (according to the Mayo Clinic) any other cause of back pain is validated as rare. In this article you will find some rare causes of back pain.
Another thing to keep in mind is if you don’t stay physically fit, you are more likely to damage your back. Keeping fit, helps prevent back pain by counteracting the main causes, as mentioned above.
1.) One of these rare causes of back pain is a spinal tumor. A spinal tumor can be cancerous or it can be non-cancerous. A cancerous tumor is obviously the worst case scenario however a non-cancerous tumor is just as life threatening if not taken care of.
The reason is because of the impact it poses on your spinal cord. It can have a high impinging affect on the nerves, severe back pain and also can lead to paralysis. A spinal tumor can lead to ineradicable (permanent) damage. To read more about a spinal tumor you can click here. Be sure to follow the arrow links at the bottom to read the causes, symptoms and find out much more information about spinal tumors.
2.) Back pain can be caused by certain types of infections and viruses as well. Bacteria can invade the vertebra or cause sores inside the spine. Infections, such as Lyme disease, can involve the inside of the spine. Viruses, such as the herpes zoster virus causing shingles, can attach to particular nerves of the spine and cause back pain.
Diseases of other organs, such as kidney infections, pelvic infections, and gastrointestinal diseases like pancreatitis also can divert the pain to the lower back.
3.) Another rare cause of back pain is hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) which affects the large blood vessles that run right in front of the spine. This would include the aorta and some patients have a lot of back pain expected to be caused by this. One example is when there is an abdominal aortic aneurysm, which is a complication of precocious atherosclerosis, sometimes causes unsteady back pain for a period of time. It is not known how often atherosclerosis affects the onset of chronic lower back pain.
There are several other reasons for prolonged back pain that makes you wonder why it has anything to do with the back. Also, there are quite a few unlikely and rare causes of back pain. You can find more subject matter on uncommon causes of back pain here.
Sources:
http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Back_Pain/default.asp
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/back-pain/DS00171
http://www.healingchronicpain.org/content/backpain/causes.asp
