by Reverend Ashira Goddard

Created on: May 05, 2008

Upper back arthritis has been called the 'curse of the posture'. The structure of the upper back is one of the most complicated bone structures in our bodies. It has literally hundreds of ligaments, dozens of small joints, not to mention the soft cartalidge and nerves that can also be affected by a small joint becoming inflamed or deformed due to arthritis.

Each of the vertebrae in the back is connected by a ligament to each of the disks. Each one of these is a small joint that has synovial tissue in it. Synovial tissue is what becomes inflamed and leads to arthritis is some cases. This can also lead to muscle spasms, server nerve pain and even nerve damage.

Considering how many small joints that there are in the upper back, the reality of arthritis sufferers is that most will incur some degree of upper back arthritic pain. It is not just osteoarthritis that it is seen in. Just as the cause of arthritis in general is not scientifically known to be a single item, neither is there a single item that can be determined that relates to why some develop upper back arthritis more severely than others. There are many things, however, that can attribute to the condition accelerating it and defining the extent.

The ligaments, muscles, and joints themselves can have other conditions within themselves that only cause the arthritis to become aggressively worse. If this were not harsh enough, there can also be small pockets of fat in the back tissue or even small areas of scar tissue that can form causing even more severe pain. Any injury to the upper back can further cause pressure of the nerves in the back, resulting in even more pain.

Chronic re injury is another leading cause for muscle sprain, constant spasms and eventually lead to degeneration of the small joints.

The real difficulty is that the upper back small joints are not specific joints that a person can consciously use or not use. They rotate without direct involvement. Walking on the ankle joints or knees or even writing moving the fingers and wrists, an arthritis suffer can isolate and consciously not use to allow recuperation. The upper back is different. Every time we breath we move some of the small joints. This results to the upper back bing much more difficult to treat and to heal.

The additional element that comes into play is stress. Believe it or not, stress is also a factor in arthritis. This is even more true when speaking of the upper back. Think about it. This is the area that many people hold there stress. Tight shoulders, lower neck pain and trigger points along the spinal cord are frequent even in those without arthritis. This tightness puts pressure on the nerves that run along the side of the spinal cord and with every turn if the small joint is inflamed, can cause excruciating pain. This alone can increase not only the level of pain but the loss of functional ability in the back.

The end result is that one of the forgotten, yet most complex ad common areas of arthritis is the upper back area.

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