Pain that is worst when you wake up and gets better once you are moving usually is related to arthritis. Pain in the upper back that makes it hard to breath could be coming form your back, neck, ribs or all of the above. There is also a small possibility that it is something more serious. Your best bet is to go to your doctor of chiropractic to see if they can help you wake up feeling better and breathe easier. If it is more complicated your chiropractor will send you to the right doctor to take care of your problem.

First thing that comes to my mind is a rib head subluxation. If its painful when you breathe in and feel like a stabbing pain that goes through your back and chest at the same intersecting points it might well be a rib head. Having your age in mind is always good to clear out any red flags, and an MRI or plain X-rays would be recommended before anything. I see plenty of rib problems, they come after many other treatments have failed and the only solution is chiropractic care.

Keeping your age in mind, the first thing that would come to mind without any other history would be general osteo-arthritis in the thoracic spine with secondary spasm or hypertonicity of the muscles in this area. You may also have some dysfunction of one or more of the rib attachments at the spine. When you say it is hard to breath, do you mean 'painful" to breath or is it difficult to actually get a breath. In any case, considering your age (no offense) you should see a medical doctor first to rule out a more serious underlying condition. Then if you check out with a clean bill of health, you could contact a good chiropractor who uses a multifaceted approach to care.

The thoracic spine (also called upper back, middle back, or mid-back) is very different in form and function than the cervical spine (neck) or the lumbar spine (lower back). While the neck and lower back are designed to provide us with mobility, the thoracic spine is designed to be very strong and stable to allow us to stand upright and to protect the vital internal organs in the chest. Because this section of the spinal column has a great deal of stability and only limited movement, there is generally little risk of injury or degeneration over time in the upper back. There can be an injury to a disc in the upper back (such as a thoracic herniated disc or degenerated disc) that causes upper back pain, but such injuries are not common.

Your ribs attach to a long, flat bone in the center of the chest called the sternum and attach to and wrap around your back. If a nerve in this area is pinched, irritated, or injured, you may also feel pain in other places where the nerve travels, such as your arms, legs, chest, and belly.

Overuse, muscle strain, or injury to the muscles, ligaments, and discs that support your spine as well as poor posture are the most common causes of pain in the area. Osteoarthritis or breakdown of cartilage that cushions the small facet joints in the spine is also a factor.

Whenever it is difficult to breathe, it is imperitive to see your doctor. Sometimes pain with breathing could be from a broken rib or compression fracture of a vertebrae. However, if the pain is mostly in the morning and improves throughout the day it could be as simple as your mattress causing a muscle spasm which can appear as a variety of other severe problems. The type of pillow you use could also be a problem.

At the Healing Center of Scottsdale, we offer a unique treatment program with the ATM2 device. ATM2 stands for Active Theraputic Movement which is based off of Mulligan theory, a joint mobilization technique.

Jeff Juraska, PT

http://healingcenteraz.com/

I would suggest seeing doctor to determine the cause. Important to listen to your body!

Could be old injury healed out of place, pinched nerve, disc irritation, rib head misalignment, trauma or several other things. Need to have a chiropractor examine the condition causing your mid back pain.

An interesting dilemma indeed. One would hope that after resting all night that he or she would feel great in the morning! There are indeed a number of options, and sometimes more than one thing at a time, that could be causing this situation. Certainly it would be wise to have the lungs checked for possible fluid, especially based on any other symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, wheezing, coughing, etc. During the day, fluids may settle and be less irritating while at night they may disperse in the lung fields causing symptoms by morning.

Arthritis in the middle back can be sore in the morning, therefore hindering and/or making breathing difficult, but will improve as the joints in the spine limber up. Short of arthritis, the middle and upper back may be affected by poor posture, that "hump" we often develop in our spine over time, a significantly poor mattress, misuse/overuse in day to day activities, etc.

There are some other rare situations that can cause this so it is wise to have a proper and thorough investigation. Given the nature and location of the symptoms, a chiropractor would indeed be a wise choice to start, however any qualified health care provider should be able to point you in the right direction and/or provide treatment depending on the identified source of the problem. Hope you feel better soon!

When you take a breath the ribs moves. If a rib head is out of alignment, it may be causing your pain. Find a good chiropractor who specializes in low force treatments to evaluate your condition.

Well...could it be a rib maybe, but generally ribs that are subluxated don't go away in a few hours. Didn't mention how many days/weeks/months this has been going on. Could be any number of things that is causing your problem so you need to get in to see someone about it. Chiropractor is not a bad place to start and if needed you can be referred to a different care provider. Don't wait!!