Cracking your back.

[Mouthwash]

I crack my back by twisting it (to 90 degrees) usually every morning or after being in one position for too long. I often do my neck, fingers and toes also. It seems to me to be something of an addiction.

This morning I woke up with light pain around my lower back. I assumed it was a particularly bad buildup of fluid or whatever, but the pain did not alleviate after cracking it, nor after changing positions. It did, however, slowly dissipate after getting up. It felt like it could be muscular, but it is concentrated in the area in which the thoracic and lumbar vertebrae meet. This is also the area where generally I feel spinal tension.

This is an odd place to ask, but Google has failed me. I'm trying to eliminate the possibility that I have a slipped disc or permanent spinal damage; I haven't found anything other than a paraphernalia of symptoms which could be made to fit anything.

 

[warpus]

Why don't you go see someone about it? Self-diagnosis can be dangerous.

 

[Rashiminos]

If you didn't go to bed with this pain I'd be hard-pressed to suspect you incurred spinal damage while sleeping, absent a case of somnambulism.

 

[Mouthwash]

If you didn't go to bed with this pain I'd be hard-pressed to suspect you incurred spinal damage while sleeping, absent a case of somnambulism.

Does spinal damage cause instant pain? I can't remember the dreams I had, but they were much more active than usual. I may have simply laid in an bad position.

 

[Rashiminos]

Does spinal damage cause instant pain? I can't remember the dreams I had, but they were much more active than usual. I may have simply laid in an bad position.

Not necessarily, but it does tend to be persistent and present nerve-related symptoms (numbness, tingling,...).

 

[Mouthwash]

Not necessarily, but it does tend to be persistent and present nerve-related symptoms (numbness, tingling,...).

My back feels totally normal right now. Does that make it unlikely?

 

[Darkflight]

A pain that goes away by itself fairly fast and does not return is nothing to worry about. If it returns or persist for a while go see a doctor about it when it is in an area like that.

 

[LamaGT]

I remember having lower back pain after sleeping in a crappy bed.

 

[bhsup]

We're not physicians. Well, most of us aren't. Probably best not to ask us advice about the part of your body with the spinal cord running through it.

 

[Loppan Torkel]

I'd try to break the habit of cracking, but if there's something that feels out of place and cracking makes it feel better - crack away. From my own experience, if there's a vertebra (or whatever it's your cracking) in your back that you can't fix yourself, you might end up with a muscle that strains, increasing your back issues. I had it for a few weeks, sought help and it was fixed.

Given your description and the resolution of the issue, I'd do nothing.

 

[Hygro]

The need to crack is closely related to posture and musculature imbalance. Neck cracking has become incredibly common in the past ten+ years thanks to computers. Basically, work your ab muscles and your upper back muscles and your throat-adjacent neck muscles, and not your back-of-neck, chest, and lower back muscles (stretch them instead) until you have better alignment.

 

[Antilogic]

Instead of cracking your back, you should do a backflip when you get out of bed every morning. It'll wake you up and cure your back problem simultaneously.