Where does back pain come from?
Over 80% of the population will suffer from lower back pain during their lives. Most cases of lower back pain can be linked to a general cause, such as muscle strain, injury, or overuse—or can be attributed to a specific condition of the spine, most commonly:
- Herniated disc
- Degenerative disc disease
- Spondylolisthesis
- Spinal stenosis
- Osteoarthritis
A number of less common conditions can cause low back pain as well, such as sacroiliac joint dysfunction, spinal tumours, fibromyalgia, and piriformis syndrome.
These conditions tend to cause additional symptoms – such as numbness, weakness or a tingling sensation – and they're treated differently to non-specific back pain.
Your physiotherapist may ask you questions relevant to lower back pain and perform various physical test to identify the structure at fault and subsequently develop as treatment plan to address the cause of pain.
Treatment of lower back pain may involve manual, exercise, soft tissue and electrotherapy. Treatment is tailor-made for every single patient to achieve the goals set by patient.