Top Symptoms of Spinal Stenosis
For the uninitiated, Spinal stenosis is a type of back condition, which is more prevalent for people of both genders once they have crossed 50. Plus, the condition may further aggravate as these patients grow older. The condition can occur at different points in a person's spine. It happens if the spinal canal that holds a person's spinal cord and the spinal nerves narrow down. Due to this narrowing, there is more pressure on the nerves and the spinal cord, leading to back pain.
Symptoms of spinal stenosis
As the narrowing of this spinal canal typically takes place over a period
of several years, the patents may not observe it immediately, Read on to
know the most common signs of spinal stenosis one should look out for:
1. Symptoms of Sciatica
A patient may experience tingling, weakness, a feeling of pins-and-needles
or radiating numbness from his or her low back to the legs and buttocks.
2. Back pain keeps appearing and disappearing
You may sometimes feel severe back pain, at times mild while it may also
disappear completely on other occasions.
3. You can feel a big difference by making small changes
You experience great relief while trying to lean forward such as while on
bike handlebars or while using shopping cart handles.
4. The pain ebbs gradually
You find the pain stops after taking rest for only a few minutes.
5. Different positions relieve your pain
When you embrace different positions like leaning forward, lie down or sit,
your pain is eased. It is because all these postures give additional room
to your affected nerves.
6. Exercises and certain positions cause you pain
Exercises like riding a cycle or a bike, standing upright or walking can
trigger back pain or pain in your legs and muscle cramps. Such pain may
deteriorate with even a slight amount of physical exercise.
Stenosis may cause leg pain
If you have developed stenosis in your lower back, you can also develop leg
pain while walking. When you experience pain in your legs while walking, it
is defined as claudication in medical terminology. The condition may be
caused by insufficiency of arterial circulatory or due to spinal stenosis.
Taking rest can alleviate your leg pain caused due to either of the
above-mentioned condition. However, if a patient is suffering from spinal
stenosis, he or she needs to sit for some minutes so that the leg is eased.
When you have a condition such as lumbar stenosis, sitting or leaning
forward can open up your spinal canal. It is so as the ligamentum flavum
gets stretched to relieve various symptoms including leg pain. However,
such symptoms may recur when a patient returns or adopts an upright
posture. The pain may be accompanied by feelings such as tingling and
numbness. However real weakness is a very rare sign of spinal stenosis.
Spinal Stenosis treatment
In case you feel that these symptoms are sounding quite familiar get in
touch with a reputable clinic as spinal stenosis may aggravate if not
treated on time. There are many treatments to manage treatments. Your
physician may recommend you to go through certain imaging tests to detect
the actual site of the problem to pinpoint the required training.