Lower Back Pain Eighty percent (80%) of people will experience lower back pain at some stage of their life. Back pain is a symptom caused by numerous biopsychosocial conditions. It is one of the most common reasons for people missing work and seeing a doctor or physiotherapist. Fortunately, most back pain is caused by musculoskeletal conditions and can be readily treated with great success. Generally, lower back pain is something you can avoid with the added knowledge of some back education, back care strategies and back exercises. Please seek advice specific to your low back pain. What Can Cause Severe Low Back Pain? Acute low back pain is most often caused by a sudden injury to the muscles and ligaments supporting the back. The pain may be caused by muscle spasms or a strain or tear in the muscles and ligaments. But occasionally, it can have a more sinister cause. Sudden Low Back Pain Causes 1. Muscle Strain or Muscle Spasms 2. Spinal Disc Injury 3. Compression fractures eg Osteoporosis 4. Sciatica 5. Spine Cancer Non-Musculoskeletal Causes of Low Back Pain Despite most low back pain is musculoskeletal in origin, other health conditions can cause low back pain. 1. Abdominal aortic aneurysm 2. Infection of the spine (osteomyelitis, discitis) 3. Kidney infection or kidney stones 4. Spondyloarthropathies: eg rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis. 5. Female reproductive organs: eg pregnancy complications, ovarian cysts or cancer, endometriosis Please seek the professional advice of your trusted and experienced healthcare practitioner to diagnose the cause of your lower back pain. Suffering Back Pain. What Should You Do? As you can see while lower back pain is common, the diagnosis of the cause of your back pain is specific to you and therefore the treatment or investigation pathway does vary from case to case. A spinal health care professional can assist you a prompt diagnosis, early referral, acute and chronic back pain relief, plus long-term self-management or back pain prevention strategies specific to your back pain. You should feel confident that your practitioner has screened you for specific pathologies that require urgent medical attention. Plus they should also assess you for any neurological deficits such as loss of bowel or bladder function, leg muscle weakness, loss of sensation, diminished reflexes and day-to-day function to determine whether you have a radiculopathy or stenosis, which may require different treatment options to NSLBP or radicular pain. For specific guidance regarding your condition, please seek the individual assessment from a health practitioner with a special interest in back pain, such as a musculoskeletal physiotherapist. A well skilled physiotherapist can actually finish your back pain completely. #slipdisc #sciatica #nervecompression #lowbackpain #spinepain