The Cause of Back Pain - A Mystery No More

What is the cause of back pain? Well, before we can begin to understand the cause of back pain we need to understand a little bit about back pain itself. Back pain is one of the biggest causes of lost days at work; it is second only to the common cold and most people will be affected by back pain at some time in their life.

The problem is that the cause of back pain can be a result of many different factors, like the muscles, joints, nerves and bones located in the back. Back pain doesn’t have to be constant either; it can start or stop at any time making you miserable morning, noon and night. Back pain can even move to different areas of the back, it doesn’t have to center around the area the initial pain started. It can radiate down one leg or the other. Muscle strains are the most common form of back pain. You don’t even have to be active to have muscle strain; it is something that can happen in your sleep. Now that just doesn’t seem right, does it!

The cause of back pain can be the result of something traumatic such as a car accident or a fall. This is called acute back pain. In cases like this the pain results from a specific event and the person suffering with back pain can tell you exactly what happened and when it happened as it relates to the pain they are experiencing. 

The cause of back pain can also be of a more chronic nature. This is called chronic back pain. For example, patients who have arthritis can develop back pain slowly over a long period of time. Both rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis can cause back pain, as can degenerative disc disease, or even spinal disc herniation.

Other causes of back pain include spinal stenosis where the spinal canal begins to narrow age a result of aging, spondylolisthesis, which occurs as a result of the vertebrae becoming unstable and begin to slip, and osteoporosis, which occurs as the bones weaken and may result in compression fractures.

While the causes of back pain are many, the treatments for back pain vary as well, with a combination of therapies generally working the best for most people. Ice, heat, gentle stretching, light exercise and medications can be used to help alleviate or reduce most back pain.