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What low back pain is and why we need to pay attention

Low back pain is now the leading cause of disability worldwide. For nearly all people with low back pain, it is not possible to identify a specific nociceptive cause. Only a small proportion of people have a well understood pathological cause—eg, a vertebral fracture, malignancy, or infection. People with physically demanding jobs, physical and mental comorbidities, smokers, and obese individuals are at greatest risk of reporting low back pain. Disabling low back pain is over-represented among people with low socioeconomic status. Most people with new episodes of low back pain recover quickly; however, recurrence is common and in a small proportion of people, low back pain becomes persistent…

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Featured

 The $100 billion per year back pain industry is mostly a hoax

Anyone who has endured back pain knows it is an erratic dictator. It takes hold of your psyche, demanding your attention and devotion before all else—before you can plan a hike, return to a work routine, pick up your child for a hug. So when someone offers to make that dictator disappear, it’s hard to resist—no matter what the price.

 UC San Diego Researchers Discover Why Chronic Low Back Pain Feels “Personal”

Movement-triggered pain flares activate the brain's "self network," suggesting that treatments like mindfulness and psilocybin may be more effective than traditional symptom-based approaches.

Articles of Interest

A comprehensive guide to the new science of treating lower back pain

A review of 80-plus studies upends the conventional wisdom.

Acute low back pain: diagnosis and management

Most low back pain is non-specific, whereby no causes or structures can be identified to account for the patient’s perceived pain. In many patients, the pain is self-limiting and resolves within two weeks with minimal intervention.

America’s most famous back pain doctor said pain is in your head. Thousands think he's right.

Beloved by his patients, Dr. John Sarno was derided by his medical peers.

Back Pain During Pregnancy

Back pain or discomfort is common during pregnancy and should be expected to some degree by most women. Back pain may be experienced during any point of your pregnancy; however, it most commonly occurs later in the pregnancy as the weight of the baby increases. Back pain can disrupt your daily routine or interfere with a good night of sleep. The good news is there are steps you can take to manage the back pain that you experience.

Disc Herniation

Lumbar disc herniation (LDH) is a common low back disorder. It is one of the most common diseases that produces low back pain and/or leg pain in adults.

Got neck and back pain? Break up your work day with these 5 exercises for relief

To fix the problem, you might have gotten advice to focus on posture or ergonomics, but exercise research points to another strategy as well – taking short spurts of movement throughout the day to release tension and stress in the body.

How a Back Injury Changed Jillian Michaels' Approach to Fitness

Her biggest piece of advice for anyone dealing with an injury is to stay off of the internet and find a medical professional who can give you a specific diagnosis. She also recommends taking your time to rehabilitate your body gradually.

How Tiger Woods Won the Back Surgery Lottery

An outcome like his from fusion surgery is so rare it is “like winning the lottery,” Dr. Sohail K. Mirza, a spine surgeon at Dartmouth, said.

Lower Back Ache? Be Active and Wait It Out, New Guidelines Say

“For acute back pain, the analogy is to the common cold,” Dr. Deyo said. “It is very common and very annoying when it happens. But most of the time it will not result in anything major or serious. ”

Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease: Current and Future Concepts of Diagnosis and Management

Low back pain as a result of degenerative disc disease imparts a large socioeconomic impact on the health care system. Traditional concepts for treatment of lumbar disc degeneration have aimed at symptomatic relief by limiting motion in the lumbar spine, but novel treatment strategies involving stem cells, growth factors, and gene therapy have the theoretical potential to prevent, slow, or even reverse disc degeneration.

Most Back Pain Treatments Are Useless. Here’s What Actually Helps.

You’ve been through a thousand different treatments for your lower back pain and nothing seems to work. In your darkest moments, you think maybe you’re just going to have to deal with this for the rest of your life if no treatment seems to do anything to alleviate the pain.

Needless treatments: spinal fusion surgery for lower back pain is costly and there’s little evidence it’ll work

There is little high-quality evidence to support the use of spinal fusion for most back-related conditions, including spinal stenosis. And there is disagreement between surgeons on when spinal fusion surgery should be performed, not only for back pain but also for more acute conditions such as tumours and spine fractures.

Spinal Fusion for Chronic Low Back Pain: A ‘Magic Bullet’ or Wishful Thinking?

Low back pain represents a common disabling and costly health problem. Unfortunately the cause of back pain can be accurately diagnosed and treated in only a small proportion of the patients, where specific spinal pathology such as tumours, infection, fractures and nerve root pain caused by prolapsed disc or spinal stenosis, is present. In vast majority of the patients the cause of the pain is not known and such pain has been unscientifically labelled as non-specific back pain.

The psychology of low back pain

Yet even though back pain is incredibly common, not all people respond in the same way to this often-disabling condition. In fact, even if two people have the same level of pain, their responses to that pain can be very different. These differing responses are due in part to different people's psychological attitudes and outlooks.

This Type of Workout Can Help You Avoid Back Pain

"The truth is, the spine is a robust structure. We're just using it incorrectly."

Why Back Pain Is Nearly Non-Existent In Some Populations

In other words, indigenous people around the world don't have a magic bullet for stopping back pain. They've just got beefy abdominal muscles, and their lifestyle helps to keep them that way even as they age.

Why doctors are still studying JFK’s chronic back pain

Did his back trouble help kill him?

Why Does My Back Pain Keep Coming Back?

Recurrent back pain does not necessarily mean that an injury has failed to heal or that something serious has been overlooked. Back pain often fluctuates, and many episodes occur without a single identifiable structural cause. However, when pain repeatedly returns, changes in character, or develops alongside other symptoms, it may be worth reconsidering the original diagnosis.

Resources

5 signs your back pain might be an emergency

If back pain can be associated with a specific activity, such as lifting or twisting wrong, and the pain goes away within 72 hours after resting and applying ice, it’s usually nothing to worry about. However, if pain creeps on gradually, appears suddenly, or doesn't go away, you might have a more serious condition.

Six Exercises to Avoid Neck and Back Pain

A former Olympic medalist and world champion cyclist shares a maintenance routine to keep aches at bay.

Low Back Pain Fact Sheet

Acute or short-term low back pain generally lasts from a few days to a few weeks. Most acute back pain is the result of trauma to the lower back or a disorder such as arthritis.

WHO

LBP is the single leading cause of disability worldwide and the condition for which the greatest number of people may benefit from rehabilitation.