A bad hip can cause back pain.
Your hip and your lower back are closely connected through a network of shared joints, nerves and muscles and when one area experiences pain or any dysfunction it can easily impact the other area including your back when you have a bad hip.
Your hip and your lower back work together to help maintain your posture and movement and if there's any issue in your hip, such as arthritis or a labral tear or weakness, it can also alter the way you move and the altered movement can strain your muscles and your joints in your lower back and lead to back pain.
Conditions that can be mistaken for hip arthritis are referred pain from your spine or knee, a labral tear, bursitis, tendonitis and even hip dysplasia can also be mistaken for hip arthritis.
Even some serious underlying conditions like lupus, ankylosing spondylitis and avascular necrosis can mimic hip arthritis and be mistaken for hip arthritis and require proper diagnosis and treatment.
Hip arthritis pain is often felt in your groin, front of your thigh, buttocks and knee or knees.
When you have hip arthritis the pain is often felt in the inner part of your thigh, near the junction of your leg and pelvis and along your upper thigh, radiating from your hip joint and on the outer side of your hip and in some cases the pain from hip arthritis can extend down to your knee.
The hip arthritis pain might be constant or even intermittent and can get worse with certain activities like climbing stairs, bending over and walking and it may also cause stiffness, a clicking or grinding sensation and even difficulty with your range of motion.
The symptoms of a worn hip joint are pain, stiffness, limited range of motion, swelling, clicking and popping sounds, weakness, difficulty walking, night pain and having difficulty with your everyday normal activities.
When your hip joint is worn out, tasks such as driving, using the bathroom, getting dressed etc, can become difficult.
Pain with a worn hip joint may also become more severe at night, especially when you lay down on the affected side.
The pain or stiffness with a worn hip joint may also make it challenging to walk or stand and the muscles in the surrounding hip can become weak and swelling may also be present around the hip joint.
With a worn hip joint, the joint when it moves can produce grinding sounds or a snapping or clicking sound and with a worn hip joint you may also have reduced ability to rotate or to move the hip joint.
A worn hip joint can also cause difficulty with movements like bending, squatting or getting out of bed or out of a chair.
And the pain with a worn hip joint is often located in your hip, groin, or upper thigh and the pain with a worn hip joint can get worse with activity, sitting for too long of periods or even standing on one leg.
A worn hip joint is also called osteoarthritis.
If you think you may have a worn hip joint you should see a doctor.
In some cases you may need to consider a hip replacement when the hip pain and stiffness limit your daily activities and reduce your quality of life significantly, if other treatments doesn't help.
If the pain with the worn hip joint prevents you from walking, sleeping, climbing stairs or doing other essential tasks it may be time to talk with your doctor about hip replacement.