Back pain is a very common occurrence in today's society, with our stagnant lifestyle and prolonged sitting postures, whether it is sitting in your office chair from nine to five or sitting in front of a television, or just sitting down on a couch, we spend a majority of awake time sitting and this prolonged sitting contributes towards back pain.
There can be other sources of back pain too, such as kidney problems. In this blog we will discuss how you can figure out if the back pain that you're experiencing comes from the back itself or from the kidneys?
We have a pair of kidneys that are present on either side of the spine right under the last rib/the ribcage. Kidney pain can indicate an anything from a kidney stone to a urinary tract infection to cancer to an injury etc. We are not going to go into the details of kidney problems as it is beyond the scope of this blog. However, kidney pain can often be mistaken for back pain and vice versa.
Generally, kidney pain is usually higher up in the back right under the ribcage where the ribcage ends, and it feels deeper than back pain.
Kidney pain can travel into your abdominal or groin areas whereas a back pain will usually be either centrally on the spine (known as a central back pain) or one sided. Back pain due to the spine can be two sided but is not very common. Back Pain can radiate down to the bottom the legs and even up to the feet. Kidney pain does not go up to your feet and legs.
Some other symptoms of kidney issues can be oddly coloured urine or pain while passing urine, frequent trips to the toilet to pass urine etc.
If you suspect that your back pain maybe caused by your kidneys go and see your doctor. This blog intends to give you an outline about the differences between back and kidney pain. Once you have this baseline you can discuss it better with your health care professional.
If you think your back pain is not related to your kidneys and you are wondering what is the source of your back pain, whether it is due to a disc issue or stenosis or osteoarthritis, etc (long list here!) you can click HERE to grab my free PDF on "What is the source of your back pain?" It will take you to a link that asks for your email but that is only so that I can email the pdf to you (no junk email!)
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