Lower back pain radiating to legs

by Janet
(Melbourne FL)

Spinal stenosis?

Spinal stenosis?

My lower back hurts accompanied by pain in calves and back of legs higher than the knee. Sometimes the pain sits in the knee as well. ELking sometimes difficult especially after sitting. Have to sit forward to keep legs from being too painful. This has been getting worse over a period of a year. I used to be able to take an Aleve and pain would subside for awhile but not anymore.


I am a female of 66 years old and I golf 3-4 days a week. It's hard to sleep due to the pains. It does seem to lessen after moving around during the day but not much anymore.

Hello Janet,
I've tried to correct your grammar but some of it is beyond me. I didn't know that Australia had elk, and what elking is, is beyond me!

You simply don't give me enough information to make a meaningful statement; certainly a proper assessment of your condition is important. Back pain radiating to both legs is a serious problem.

I would recommend a simple, basic set of lower back exercises before getting out of bed every morning, and before golf. Don't play on consecutive days.

X-rays and an MRI are now imperative to make the diagnosis; what you describe sounds like lumbar spinal stenosis, but that's speculative, and until an accurate diagnosis is made, it's difficult to recommend any course of action.

Dr B

Click here to post comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Chiropractic help Questions (Low back pain).





Did you find this page useful? Then perhaps forward it to a suffering friend. Better still, Tweet or Face Book it.

Share this page:
Enjoy this page? Then forward it to a friend. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

  1. Click on the HTML link code below.
  2. Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.