How to Identify and Treat Back Muscle Spasms
Muscle spasms in your back can be more than just a nuisance – they can be downright painful and can even signal a serious problem. If you are having back muscle spasms, make sure to tune into your body. Your back is trying to tell you something, whether it is simply not to do a strenuous activity again or that you are suffering from a serious underlying issue.
Muscle Spasm Causes
People experience muscle spasms for a number of reasons. For example, your muscles may spasm in an effort to try to protect themselves from a muscle strain or sprain. Spasms can also occur in response to an underlying condition.
In addition, muscles may sense that they are about to be torn as a result of a sudden movement, amazingly, they will contract and spasm in an effort to protect themselves. Fortunately, spasms resulting from this condition will respond to rest and feel better in a week or two.
However, if your back spasm doesn’t improve in 1 to 2 weeks, or if it comes and goes in the same spot, you may have an underlying condition such as pain from a herniated disc or facet joint osteoarthritis. If one of these conditions are present, your back muscle reacts to the pain by going into a spasm.
Muscle Spasm Treatments
To treat muscle spasms, you must first get the muscle to relax. At that point, the pain will be relieved. Effective muscle spasm treatments include massage therapy, muscle relaxants, and hot and cold therapy. These treatments will help treat a spasm if it results from an injury such as a strain or a sprain.
But if you are suffering from an underlying spine or disc dysfunction, the treatments above will help to ease the pain, but they will not treat the underlying cause. That’s why it is very important to see your back doctor if your muscle spasms last more than a week or two, or if they come and go.
Spine specialists like Dr. Sharma can help get you on the right path to a healthy back that is spasm- and pain-free.
