Body has a very simple way of telling us that something is wrong and before it becomes serious, we should ideally deal with it. Body will develop a condition which we can call as symptom which can be a starting of a disease and back pain is also a symptom in some cases, it is not a disease, so, understanding the real cause of the back pain is very important.
Before you google about your back pain and make an analysis of the underlying disease, let us tell you the method our doctors use at Sreeragam Ayurveda Health retreat to treat back pain from its root.

• Initial consultation

During the physical consultation or a phone consultation we try to identify if there is any inflammation and if the inflammation is due to any injury. Understanding the patient’s past history and current condition is very important during the consultation to identify which of the following can be the leading cause of back pain.

• Muscle or ligament strain, awkward movements, lifting something heavy
• Disc injury: With increase in age, the risk of injury of disc also increases. A slipped disc, also called ruptured or herniated disc, occurs when the cartilage surrounding the disc pushes against spinal cord or nerve roots. Sciatica can occur in association with slipped disc, which is the compression of sciatic nerve, which connects the spine to the legs, thus leading to low back pain radiating to legs.
• Compression fracture: A fracture of the vertebrae due to weakness of bones can lead to sudden onset of low back pain.

• Ruling out certain conditions

Just to be safe, we need to rule out the below mentioned disease because the treatment for one disease might be different from another, this will avoid any further complication and save time of patients while undergoing treatment. We ask patient to collect a few medical reports such as CBC, ESR, CRP, KFT etc. based on the description of the condition of the patient.

• Fibromyalgia: It is a complex disorder characterised by widespread musculoskeletal pain along with fatigue, sleep, memory and mood issues.
• Osteomyelitis: It is an infection of spinal vertebrae, leading to severe back pain, tenderness, fever, and muscle spasm.
• Cauda equina syndrome: It is a rare condition in which the bundles of nerves at the lower part of spinal cord gets compressed or damaged, usually caused by herniated disc, spinal stenosis, infections and tumours.
• Osteoarthritis: Wear and tear of disc and facet joints causes pain, inflammation and stenosis in a variable degree, at multiple levels of spine.
• Spondylitis: Infection, injury or age-related wear and tear of spine leads to pain, inflammation and stiffness of spine.  Over time, this inflammation can lead to ankylosis or new bone formation causing sections of spine to fuse in a fixed, immobile position.
• Spondylosis: It refers to degenerative changes in spine such as bone spurs and degenerating intervertebral discs between the vertebrae.
• Spinal stenosis: Due to degeneration of discs, spinal column narrows, causing compression of nerve roots or spinal cord, leading to numbness and weakness.
• Abnormal spine curvatures: Scoliosis, kyphosis and lordosis are all congenital abnormal curvatures in the spine leading to poor posture and pain in tendons, muscles and ligaments.
• Pregnancy, endometriosis, ovarian cysts, uterine fibroids Tumours, Kidney stones and bladder issues

• Back pain cure

Understanding the health of patient’s metabolism is very important in Ayurveda to achieve a complete cure instead of just a temporary fix. Once the treatment is over, the patients body needs to take care of itself and if their immunity and metabolism are functioning efficiently then the body will repair the damage itself. It is very important to understand the pattern of patients sleep, motion and eating habits in order to predict the patient’s overall health.
If the back pain is not attributed to any of the above condition than back pain might have been caused due to the external factors. By conducting the test, we make sure that the patient is receiving the right treatment to avoid any side effects or to avoid any wastage of time. This particular step helps us in treating a chronic elderly patient, why?
60% of the patients visiting Sreeragam Ayurveda Health retreat receives a different diagnosis as compared to their previous doctors and sometimes it is hard for us to convince the patients but once the treatment is in progress, the patient can feel the difference in their health. This change not only help the patients in believing in us but also help them understand their body better. 
Metabolism of the patient is what defines the duration of treatment and it can lower it or increase it, the more the patients support us the better the results of the back pain treatment.

Now, if you can follow all these steps, you can try diagnosing yourself but if are smart enough to let the doctors do their job then write to us at sreeragamvaidya@gmail.com with your complaints brief and past history. Just FYI, if you start feeling tensed trying to diagnose yourself, the back pain might increase, why?