Mayo Clinic Health Letter December 2007

New Letters flooded in after Christmas as if they had been stuck behind the deluge of Christmas cards and were now free to land in mailboxes everywhere. This month's Mayo Clinic Health Letter has its usual interesting selection of items.

One of its items covers lower back pain due to spinal stenosis and how to distinguish such a pain from pain due to poor blood flow in the legs. Some of the questions are worth remembering if you ever find yourself with lower back pain.

Does:

• leaning forward at the waist relieve pain
• pain start high and then radiate downwards
• sleeping on your back cause pain

and you can ride a bicycle with no pain:

then the pain might be due to spinal stenosis.

Now to look at the alternative possibility of pain due to poor blood flow to the legs

Does:

• stopping walking and standing still reduce the pain
• does the pain while walking start in the calf and then radiate upwards
• sleeping does not cause pain
• riding a bicycle cause pain

then the pain might be due to poor blood flow to the legs.

If the answers take you in the direction of Spinal Stenosis then there are lots of options open to you to reduce the pain and to get your life back. Exercise is going to be important as is losing weight - big surprise with that ! Learn to swim the backstroke - it could help a lot. You'll need prescriptions for the kind of pain killers that quiet irritated nerves.

Poor blood flow to the legs might sound like the better option but it is not. In a similar way to blood vessels around the heart furring up and slowing (or even stopping) blood flow, the major blood vessels to the legs can also become partially blocked. The pain you feel in the legs as a result of poor blood flow is called claudication. It means that the leg muscles are not getting enough oxygen and as a result are letting you feel pain.

There is the temptation to walk, cycle, swim less just to reduce the pain. The trouble is that every time you reduce your exercise load the poor blood flow issue becomes worse. One day the blockage in your legs could come free and block a heart blood vessel or even something in your brain.

Do not let poor blood flow to the legs be one of the things your going to do something about one day.
Get on it today. If you need any specific exercise recommendations after seeing a qualified medical specialist post a question on this blog.

One last thought: lower back pain could be due to a multitude of causes. At this time of year shoveling snow or raking leaves are obvious possibilities. The advice above on telling spinal stenosis from poor blood flow to the legs are just a couple of the possibilities.