With the advent of recent advances in medical science, we now know about a lot of new diseases which were undiagnosed previously. And one of the most common complaints is low back pain in young adults, typically between age group of 20-40.
A lot of time it is attributed to prolonged sitting, sedentary lifestyle or after some muscle spasm, but then there are more sinister conditions hidden beneath. One of them is arthritis of the spine. Not every back pain is an arthritis pain, but there are a few signs which every individual should know so they can approach their doctor early.
Signs like constant pain for more than 3 months, unable to turn position at night, early morning stiffness lasting more than 30 minutes. People keep popping up painkillers and managing their activities, but we need to understand that chronic use of these drugs without supervision can be harmful. The disease I am talking about is Ankylosing Spondylitis. It is typically an autoimmune disease (meaning your body attacks your own self rather than protecting you). A lot of times genetic factors and stomach infections act as a trigger. It is not only limited to the spine, it can affect your knee, hip, shoulder joints. Apart from the joints, it can also cause eye inflammation, skin involvement and at times our intestines.
A lot of times we see young individuals who start developing change in posture with forward bending of spine. It is mostly this disease which is going on in the background. So if you feel these symptoms, do approach your rheumatologist early. Early diagnosis will help prevent the disease progression and it will help arrest the disease at an early stage. There are good medicines available which halt the disease progress. Although not a curable disease, we can still control it and provide a normal lifestyle.