Back Pain Facts to Know About
Facts About Back Pain
Back pain and lower back pain, as well as chronic neck pain, sciatica, arm pain and shoulder pain or degenerative discs, spinal stenosis, hip pain, and herniated disc problems are a huge billion dollar industry. It is the world’s leading disability, workman’s comp case, and affects ninety-percent of American adults. As far as surgical procedures for chronic back pain, it comes in second place.
Here a few back pain facts to think about:
- Back pain puts about 6.5 million people on bed rest on any day.
- Back pain annually disables 5.4 million Americans.
- Yearly, back pain puts about 93 million workdays at a loss.
- 6-12 weeks can resolve 90 percent of back pain.
- Lower back pain becomes chronic 5-10 percent of the time.
- A total of 500,000 spine surgeries are done in the United States every year.
- Yearly, about $50 billion is spent on lower back pain treatments.
Causes of Back Pain
Common causes can not always be figured out due to the complicated nature of the back. The vertebrae in the lower back are made of joints and discs, and over our lifetimes, they can become damaged or weak simply from just living. The damaged or weakened joints or discs causes pressure to be put on the nerves in the spinal column near the joints or discs. This is one cause of chronic back pain in the lower back.
Ligament and muscle injuries, overuse of the lower back, and muscle strain can also trigger lower back pain.
Risk Factors
There are many risk factors including: being older or middle-aged, being pregnant, having had spinal compression fractures, other spine problems, had back surgery before, and being male.
Other risk factors that are changeable, however, are: smoking, exercise, doing jobs for long periods of time, being overweight, poor posture, being under stress, depression for long periods of time, and the use of corticosteroids or other medicines that weaken the bones when being used long-term.
Back Pain Treatment/ Remedies
What this means for you is to watch your stress both at home and work, be sure to get proper nutrition through a healthy diet, try different sleeping positions, increase your core stability, and of course when sitting, protect your back. These simple little changes can help make a difference on how to treat back pain.
Warning:
If you are experiencing chronic lower back pain, neck pain, sciatica, arm and shoulder pain or degenerative discs, spinal stenosis, hip pain and/or herniated disc, be sure to consult with a doctor.
