A difficult period of life comes for a person when his back often starts to hurt. This is not easy to bring discomfort and give a lot of inconvenience, but it can also bother a person for a long time.
With the pace of modern life, people often neglect their health, referring to the lack of time. People try not to ask the question: why does the back hurt in the shoulder blade area?
They prefer not to waste precious time going to the clinic and are treated at home, not suspecting that this signal can be a symptom of the presence of a serious or dangerous disease.
Main reason
Why can there be a dull ache between the shoulder blades? Symptoms of pain in the back in many people are associated with various mechanical injuries of the spine, pinched nerves or muscle tension.
Keep in mind that pain syndrome can be triggered by chest organ pathology.
The causes of back pain between the shoulder blades can be conditionally divided into three categories:
- Diseases of the spine;
- diseases of internal organs;
- Other factors.
It should be clearly and clearly understood that pain is a symptom, and not an independent disease. Before you start using the medicines found in your home medicine cabinet, you should know the reason: why does it hurt in the back between the shoulder blades?
To do this, you should visit a medical institution, consult a doctor and explain in detail the symptoms, the time of their occurrence and possible provoking factors: injury, professional activity, etc.
This information should help the specialist determine the direction of the examination and make a diagnosis.
Inaccurate or untimely diagnosis can be harmful to human health. Therapy may be prescribed, which will not have a positive effect and result in the loss of valuable time in treating the root cause of the pain.
It is important that a person himself understands the causes of pain and knows the list of possible pathologies that cause it.
muscle tension
Spasm or overstrain of muscle tissue does not belong to pathology, but rather is a symptom of excessive physiological stress, or on the contrary, its absence.
According to experts, back pain in the shoulder blade is often experienced by patients whose professional activities are associated with prolonged static muscle tension.
The risk group includes, first of all, people from the following specialties:
- cashier;
- Office worker;
- Programmer
- Drivers, etc.
However, doctors say that a person's professional activity is not always the main cause of these symptoms. In many cases, when examining patients with complaints of pain in the scapular region, most of them are found to have dysplasia.
Hereditary pathology, characterized by defects in the fibrous structure due to insufficient production of collagen - the substance responsible for the strength and elasticity of connective tissue.
For this reason, muscle fibers and ligaments cannot withstand prolonged physiological stress.
injury
Perhaps the most obvious factor that causes back pain in the shoulder blade area is injury. Various types of hematomas, fractures, sprains that occur in the back due to mechanical damage are necessarily accompanied by a strong pain syndrome.
Spinal cord injuries can pose a real threat to human health. Displacement of the vertebral disc or violation of the spinal cord can trigger complete or partial sensitivity of the limbs, limitation of motor function, and in special situations lead to complete paralysis.
If the spine between the shoulder blades hurts for a long time due to a mechanical injury due to an emergency, you should immediately seek medical help, even if the injury seems minor.
Any bruise or unsuccessful landing from a height can cause damage to the vertebral disc, which can be diagnosed only with the help of special equipment.
Only a specialist after a visual examination and additional X-ray examination, magnetic resonance or computed tomography can assess the severity of the injury and prescribe the appropriate treatment.
Intercostal neuralgia
The second name for this disease is thoracalgia. A disease that can be said not to develop in children, but affects older people due to age-related changes, bruises, and hypothermia.
It is indicated by symptoms of acute pain and pain in the rib area. Back pain in the scapular region is also a concomitant symptom, often occurring and intensifying when the body position changes.
The patient may hear complaints of pain during breathing, especially when inhaling or exhaling sharply.
Attention! Back pain between the shoulder blades and other symptoms similar to neuralgia may be a signal that the patient has heart pathology. It is important to recognize the problem in time and take appropriate measures - this will save valuable time and possibly save the patient's life.
The main factor that causes bursting pain in the upper back with this disease is pinching or squeezing the nerve root.
This disease develops against the background of many factors: bruises, osteochondrosis, excessive physiological stress, metabolic disorders, stress, colds.
Muscle spasms or, conversely, excessive muscle tone in the back extensors, shoulders, and shoulder blades can also contribute to the development of this disease.
The symptomatology of neuralgia is very similar to the manifestations of some heart pathologies - ischemic disease, angina pectoris. Timely diagnosis and timely response can save a person's life.
First you need to learn to distinguish between neuralgia and heart disease. For quick diagnosis, two main differences between these pathologies are used.
Neuralgia is characterized by:
- Pain syndrome continues for a long period of time;
- Symptoms are aggravated by movement of the body, when trying to inhale or exhale sharply and press on the ribs.
The difference, for example, angina pectoris, is that body movement, or sneezing does not increase the pain syndrome. However, dynamic physical movement can affect heart rate and blood pressure.
Symptoms partially or completely disappear within a few minutes after the use of vasodilator drugs, such as nitroglycerin. To exclude the possibility of heart disease, contact a cardiologist and perform an electrocardiogram.
Osteochondritis of the spine
Pain in the spine between the shoulder blades is considered one of the main symptoms of osteochondrosis. This disease is characterized by damage to the intervertebral disc.
In its development, the disease begins to affect other areas of the musculoskeletal system, and can also affect the body's nervous system. According to the localization of the development of the disease, lumbar, thoracic and cervical osteochondrosis are distinguished.
The main factor in the development of pathology is the lack of nutrition of the joint cartilage tissue. Previously, it was believed that this disease only affects the older patient group, associating this with age-related changes in the body.
However, experts today note an increase in patients at a younger age.
Experts refer to the main factors in the development of the disease: inactive lifestyle, hereditary factors, salt deposition, unbalanced diet.
Attention! If your back hurts in the shoulder blade area due to the diagnosis of osteochondrosis, remember: physical activity, arranging a comfortable workplace and a balanced diet are effective methods of treating and preventing the disease.
Therefore, severe pain rarely appears due to osteochondrosis of the thoracic region. This part of the spine is the least mobile, and degenerative tissue changes there proceed more slowly than in the cervical or lumbar regions.
Most often, it is cervical osteochondrosis that is a very common cause of pain between the shoulder blades in the spine. The pain "shoots" through the entire spinal column, going down from the upper part of the spine to the lower part of the back.
Spinal herniated disc
Herniated intervertebral discs, according to some experts, are present in 30-40% of the population at one stage or another.
Most often, this pathology affects young people who lead an active physical lifestyle. It is an injury or heavy physical effort that is the main cause of the development of this disease.
The mechanism of this disease is simple. The intervertebral disc is a semi-liquid jelly-like substance, surrounded by a relatively dense shell. The main job of the disc is to soften and absorb the movement of the vertebrae.
Caused by various factors: injury, skeletal muscle weakness, severe physiological stress, spinal pathology, etc. There is compression or decompression of the spinal column and tears in the outer skin of the disc.
At the same time, the jelly-like contents protrude into the spinal canal and compress one, two or more nerve endings, causing numbness in the legs and pain.
Important! In the acute phase of the course of the disease, massage or heating sessions are categorically contraindicated.
Contrary to popular belief, in the treatment of the disease, it is not recommended to stop doing physical exercises.
It has been proven that the refusal of physical activity leads to muscle atrophy and prolongs the duration of the disease.
In the early stages of development, the hernia is treated conservatively, but if there is no positive dynamics of recovery within six months, the question of surgical intervention can be considered.
Pathology of internal organs
Pain between the shoulder blades and the spine can cause a person to suffer from diseases of the internal organs.
First of all, this applies to the organs of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The most common respiratory problems are: tuberculosis, pneumonia.
A common pathology of the cardiovascular system is ischemic disease or, in common people, "angina pectoris". Refers to a potentially life-threatening pathology.
It has similar symptoms to neuralgia and it is important to learn to distinguish between them.
If you have symptoms: severe pain in the back between the shoulder blades, shortness of breath, cold sweats and a fast pulse, seek medical help immediately.
With some diseases of the gastrointestinal tract, the back between the shoulder blades also hurts. The main reasons for this: peptic ulcer, gastroesophageal reflux, diffuse spasm of the esophagus.
This pathology often causes the following symptoms: burning in the esophagus, pain in the chest.
The patient complains that it hurts in the middle of the solar plexus and gives in the back between the shoulder blades. Also, it cannot be ruled out that back pain in the area of the shoulder blade can have an oncological cause.
Prevention and treatment
To determine an effective course of treatment for a particular disease, first of all it is necessary to answer the question: why does the back hurt between the shoulder blades? To do this, you need to undergo a comprehensive examination by a specialist.
Treatment is prescribed after passing all the necessary procedures and based on the diagnosis made by the specialist. With the development of certain diseases, the drugs themselves are not only ineffective, but also dangerous.
As you know, any disease is easier to prevent than to cure. Back pain in the shoulder blade can have different causes. What should be done to eliminate them?
The answer is simple - to engage in prevention. Most diseases develop against the background of an unhealthy lifestyle: give up bad habits, exercise, eat a balanced diet and this will reduce the risk of getting various diseases by at least half.