Image: Shutterstock/ Lisa S.
Arthritis can be a devastatingly painful condition to live with. And of all the places that you can suffer from it, having severe arthritis in the back is probably one of the worst. Your spine is vital to moving normally, so any condition that results in severe pain there can leave you effectively disabled.
So finding an effective way to treat arthritis in the back is undoubtedly extremely important to people who suffer from it. So what exactly causes arthritis? And what can you do to treat it?
What Causes Arthritis?
Arthritis is, on a basic level, any condition that causes swelling in the joints. But arthritis is really a lot more complicated than that. There are actually hundreds of different kinds of arthritis. But you can basically boil down those to two major categories: inflammatory arthritis and non-inflammatory arthritis.
Inflammatory arthritis, commonly called rheumatoid arthritis, is usually caused by an autoimmune disorder. Essentially, your immune system becomes confused and begins to attack the lining of your joints, or synovium. Over time, this inflammation begins to break down the synovium. As a result, your bones can no longer move smoothly over the joints, resulting in severe pain.
The second kind of arthritis, non-inflammatory arthritis, is caused by a sort of general wear and tear. The most common form of this type of arthritis is called osteoarthritis. Basically, every time you move, you put pressure on the joints. As you age, this can cause the synovium to wear away, which leads to your bones moving against each other instead of the smooth lining of the joints. Again, this is often very painful.
How can you Treat Arthritis in the Back?
Treating arthritis in the back first requires identifying the type of arthritis that you have. If you have inflammatory arthritis, the first step is to reduce the inflammation. And there are a few different types of medications that can do that.
First, there are basic NSAIDs or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. NSAIDs are a class of drugs that includes basic, over-the-counter painkillers like aspirin and ibuprofen. They manage pain by dampening the pain receptors in the brain. And they help reduce inflammation by triggering your body’s natural anti-inflammatory response.
But if these types of drugs aren’t enough, you can turn to corticosteroids. Your body naturally releases corticosteroids in response to inflammation. But with severe cases of inflammation, or inflammation caused by autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, your doctor can also prescribe synthetic corticosteroids to help bolster your body’s ability to fight inflammation.
Finally, if these methods aren’t enough, your doctor may even prescribe immunosuppressant drugs. Immunosuppressant drugs work by reducing the number of antibodies your body produces. Fewer antibodies mean fewer antibodies will be attacking your joints, which causes the painful inflammation. But these types of drugs also carry risks in that they leave your body more vulnerable to viral or bacterial infections.
When it comes to non-inflammatory arthritis, your options are a bit more limited. NSAIDs and other forms of pain relievers can still be valuable to help treat the pain. But some basic measures like making sure you get adequate rest to prevent pressure on your spine and applying heat packs or ice packs to the affected area can also help when it comes to arthritis in the back.
If these types of non-invasive therapies aren’t enough, surgery might be the only option to provide relief. There are a few different types of surgeries that doctors might recommend for arthritis in the back. The first is decompression surgery. In decompression surgery, the surgeon gradually removes some of the tissue in the vertebrae, which can help with pain by taking the pressure off of pinched nerves caused by osteoarthritis.
In severe cases of arthritis, the vertebrae in your spine can actually become fused when the disc between them wears away. In that event, your surgeon might actually separate the fused vertebrae and insert an artificial disc between them. This can relieve some of the pain caused by arthritis. This is similar to some of the joint replacement procedures that are performed for arthritis in other areas of the body. In these surgeries, the doctor will replace the worn down synovium with a plastic joint. This lets the bones around the joints move smoothly across the plastic, rather than scraping together.
The important thing is to not try to “tough it out” when it comes to arthritis. The longer you let arthritis go untreated, the more serious the damage can be. Make sure to see a doctor whenever you experience any pain in your back.
So let us know, do you suffer from arthritis in your back? What do you do to treat it? Tell us in the comments.
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