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28 March 2024

Facts you should know about back pain

Published

If you constantly complain of back pain, you are not alone. Majority (8 out 10) people will be affected by it at some point in their lives and 90 per cent say low back pain is recurrent.

The peak age of incidence of low back pain is 30 to 50 years old. Majority (80 per cent) of the time acute neck and back pain will improve without treatment in 8-12 weeks. Ninety per cent of the population has bulging discs, which are synonymous with degenerative discs, and are not a problem.

On an average, human beings flex 3,000 to 5,000 times a day. Back pain can affect any part of the spine but the most commonly affected area is the lower back or the lumbar.

Back pain can come as a dull, constant or sudden sharp pain. Nonspecific back pain which excludes pain due to neurological compromise or tumors constitute of 85 per cent of all back pain.

Causes of back pain could be varied like sedentary lifestyles, lack of exercise, wrong postures while sitting, standing or lifting weights, inappropriate footwear to name a few.

Chronic low back pain is more than mere body pain and it has far reaching consequences which affect your physical, emotional and psychosocial health.

Therefore, it is very important that you manage your pain in the right way and find correct solutions to it.

Research in recent years have brought out something interesting. They found out that many a times treatment to chronic low back pain was not effective due to other bio psychosocial factors.

It’s very important that you have a good team, which includes specialist doctors, physiotherapists and nurses.

A good team will be able to pick up the musculoskeletal, bio psychosocial or the combination of these or even additional factors to guide you to the correct solution.

Most importantly, you should be on the look-out for symptoms and consult a doctor if these persist.

If you have low back pain which is getting worse each week, you seem to be in constant pain even after being rested, your legs feel weak and you seem to be in chronic pain for more than 3 months – these are red signals that you need to see a doctor and you might be referred for physiotherapy.

Physiotherapist will do a detailed assessment and give a treatment plan which may include exercises, modalities to reduce pain, manipulation techniques. Many a times physiotherapist have to deal with secondary manifestations of the problem before coming to the root of the issue like muscular spasm, trigger point, joint stiffness to name a few.

[This information has been provided by Dennis Daniel (Physiotherapist MPT MSK (UK)]