What is Kidney Pain?
Kidney pain can be a debilitating problem for some people. The nature of the pain is often chronic and severe. The pain may feel like a stabbing sensation. Many equate it to being stabbed or punched really hard in the lower back. Relief is often impossible to achieve without solving the root cause of the kidney pain. The pain may make it difficult to sit or stand comfortably. In some cases, both kidneys are affected, resulting in back or kidney pain on both sides. Generally, only one kidney is afflicted, resulting in a right or left side pain.
Acute flank pain
True kidney pain is just underneath the ribs, around the waist in the back area. The flank pain is usually severe and accompanied with nausea and/or vomiting. The pain is often severe enough that a person will be unable to function normally. Daily tasks, school, work and physical activity may prove to be too much for somebody suffering from kidney pain. Kidney pain may also be felt in the groin area.
Dull lower back ache
A dull ache that extends throughout the entire back area is most likely not kidney pain but a generic lower back pain. Any pain that is relieved with a heating pad or a good hot soak in the bathtub is probably not kidney pain either. It is not uncommon for people to mistake lower or mid back pain for kidney pain. Strained muscles or ligaments on the side of the body where a person is feeling the pain, may also be mistaken for kidney pain. Pain that radiates from the center of the back is most likely disc or vertebrae pain and not actually kidney pain.
Kidney pain is often associated with several other symptoms that will help a person determine if the pain they are experiencing is truly kidney pain and seek appropriate medical attention.
To help a person understand what true kidney pain is, a person needs to know where the kidneys are, and what they do.
