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You know, I haven't had a lick of back pain my entire adult life. Then I had a CT scan for my heart and found out that I have stenosis in my spine. All of a sudden, my back hurts. Is this just in my head? Or can stenosis really cause back pain all of a sudden like that?
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Spinal stenosis is a narrowing of the spinal canal, the opening where the spinal cord is located. Sometimes people are born with an anatomical variation from what's normal and live with stenosis their whole lives without knowing it.
More often, narrowing occurs as a result of degenerative, age-related changes. The disc between the vertebral bones thins out and the vertebral bones sink down and compress the spinal (facet) joints. Then the two sides of the facet joints rub together and form bone spurs. With compression of the spine, the long ligament along the back of the spine (ligamentum flavum) buckles in places, pushing into the neural tissue.
Any and all of these changes can be enough to result in stenosis. And the risk of buttock, back, and/or leg pain from pressure on the spinal cord or nerve roots goes up dramatically when stenosis is present. It's possible that there is a mind-body connection with your pain. It's also possible that the pain developed at the same time you found out that you have stenosis purely by coincidence.
But, it's even more likely that your back pain isn't caused by your stenosis at all but rather by some other cause. That's been known to happen many times. It's easy to attribute symptoms to a condition known to cause those kinds of symptoms. But there are enough people out there with a clear case of spinal stenosis and no symptoms that we now know one does not always go hand-in-hand with the other.
If your back pain does not go away with a little rest and activity modification, then it might be necessary to see a medical doctor for a proper diagnosis and directed treatment.
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