Lower Back Pain That Radiates Down Both Legs: Surgery Isn’t Your Only Option!
Are you experiencing lower back pain as well as pain that is radiating down both legs or pain that starts in your back and spreads down your legs?
It's one of the most common things we treat at Resilience Physiotherapy and we know how frustrating and debilitating it can be.
In this blog post, you'll learn what could be causing this pain as well as what to do about it.
Spoiler alert: the sooner you can see someone who specializes in treating this type of pain and these symptoms, the better. Get your questions answered before you commit to treatment by booking a free 10 minute phone consult with one of our physiotherapists.
Possible things that can cause lower back pain that radiates down both legs
When we try to figure out "what's the cause", it's important to understand that there are many things that can cause this, which also means there are many treatment options and ways to decrease your pain and symptoms long term.
It's also highly individualized. After experiencing my own bout of serious lower back pain and radiating symptoms, I understand first hand what it's like to not only go through the process of getting help, but also the process of getting relief.
Some of the common things that can cause lower back pain and radiating symptoms into the butt, legs, and feet:
Spinal stenosis — this is narrowing of the spinal canal, where your spinal cord runs. When the space inside this canal gets smaller, nerve roots/spinal nerves can get compressed. When that compression occurs, we will see symptoms like numbness, tingling, pins and needles, and pain radiate to the hip and buttock, wrapping around the side of your body, down the legs, and sometimes into the feet. The reason the pain and symptoms follows this path is because it is the path of the sciatic nerve, which is the nerve that is affected. This is why this pathology is called "sciatica".
Herniated discs — a well-known pathology that is sometimes called a "slipped disc", a "disc bulge", or"bulging disc". When disc material protrudes and moves away from it's most ideal location inside of the spine, it can cause that same compression on the nerves that we noted above with spinal stenosis.
Bone spurs — sometimes we can have bone spurs that will protrude into the spinal canal which can cause pain and the same referred symptoms mentioned above.
There can be other serious conditions, like cancer, that can cause these symptoms as well, but without any other signs of serious pathology (unexplained loss of weight, night sweats), then we won't jump to conclusions here.
Common side effects of lower back pain with radiating symptoms
It's pretty obvious that the side effects here are, of course, that we have pain (both in your back and nerve pain in general), numbness, tingling, burning, pins and needles, and sometimes a dense ache in our back, hips, butt, thigh, down the lower leg, and into the foot at times.
Each person can experience different severities of pain, different radiating symptoms (some folks only feel pain into their butt, others into their feet, etc.), and different relieving patterns of movement.
If you are experiencing any loss of bowel or bladder symptoms (ie: uncontrollable loss or urine or feces), please see a medical professional right away.
Treatment options for Lower Back Pain That Radiates Down Both Legs
If you are experiencing these symptoms, know that this is not something you have to live with forever and surgery is NOT your only option. Is it an option? Yes. But we need to make sure that we try all non-surgical methods first.
One of the best ways to get started is with physiotherapy.
Physiotherapists who are specialized in treating these symptoms can help you alleviate pain in the short term and the long term.
One of the best things they can help you with almost immediately is alleviating fear around what is going on and where the pain is coming from as well as helping you find pain-relieving positions so that you can live your day-to-day life without being in pain 24/7.
Your physio will help you get back to living life without pain over the course of treatment through the use of manual therapy and exercise techniques that are specific to what is specifically going on for you (which is different for each person).
It's important that you see someone sooner rather than later to prevent muscle weakness secondary to decreased movement and exercise because of excrutiating pain.
We know that having lower back pain and pain and symptoms that radiate down into your legs is frustrating and, at times, completely unbearable and we'd love to help you get back to baseline and living life without pain.
At Resilience Physiotherapy we have helped many patients successfully rehabilitate their low back pain over the past seven years.
Our team has various tools in our toolbox from manual hands on therapy, acupuncture, dry needling, exercise rehabilitation and clinical pilates to help you achieve a full recovery and return you to the activities you love to do!
Book in with one of our very skilled therapists here to start feeling better today!
We are centrally located in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto and very accessible to TTC!
