What Is Back Pain? Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Publications for the Public. Who Gets Back Pain? What Are the Causes of Back Pain?

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1 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic Back pain can range from a du, constant ache to a sudden, sharp pain that makes it hard to move. It can start quicky if you fa or ift something too heavy, or it can get worse sowy. Who Gets Back Pain? Anyone can have back pain, but some things that increase your risk are: Getting oder. Back pain is more common the oder you get. You may first have back pain when you are 30 to 40 years od. Poor physica fitness. Back pain is more common in peope who are not fit. Being overweight. A diet high in caories and fat can make you gain weight. Too much weight can stress the back and cause pain. Heredity. Some causes of back pain, such as ankyosing spondyitis, a form of arthritis that affects the spine, can have a genetic component. Other diseases. Some types of arthritis and cancer can cause back pain. Your job. If you have to ift, push, or pu whie twisting your spine, you may get back pain. If you work at a desk a day and do not sit up straight, you may aso get back pain. Smoking. Your body may not be abe to get enough nutrients to the disks in your back if you smoke. Smoker s cough may aso cause back pain. Peope who smoke are sow to hea, so back pain may ast onger. U.S. Department of Heath and Human Services Pubic Heath Service Nationa Institute of Arthritis and Muscuoskeeta and Skin Diseases Nationa Institutes of Heath 1 AMS Circe Bethesda, MD Phone: To free: NIAMS TTY: Fax: Emai: NIAMSinfo@mai.nih.gov Web site: Another factor is race. For exampe, back women are two to three times more ikey than white women to have part of the ower spine sip out of pace. What Are the Causes of Back Pain? There are many causes of back pain. Mechanica probems with the back itsef can cause pain. Exampes are: Disk breakdown Spasms Tense musces Ruptured disks. Injuries from sprains, fractures, accidents, and fas can resut in back pain. Updated September

2 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic Back pain can aso occur with some conditions and diseases, such as: Scoiosis Spondyoisthesis Arthritis Spina stenosis Pregnancy Kidney stones Infections Endometriosis Fibromyagia. Other possibe causes of back pain are infections, tumors, or stress. Can Back Pain Be Prevented? The best things you can do to prevent back pain are: Exercise often and keep your back musces strong. Maintain a heathy weight or ose weight if you weigh too much. To have strong bones, you need to get enough cacium and vitamin D every day. Try to stand up straight and avoid heavy ifting when you can. If you do ift something heavy, bend your egs and keep your back straight. When Shoud I See a Doctor for Pain? You shoud see a doctor if you have: Numbness or tinging Severe pain that does not improve with rest Pain after a fa or an injury Pain pus any of these probems: Troube urinating Weakness Numbness in your egs Fever Weight oss when not on a diet. How Is Back Pain Diagnosed? To diagnose back pain, your doctor wi take your medica history and do a physica exam. Your doctor may order other tests, such as: X rays 2

3 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Computed tomography (CT) scan Bood tests. Medica tests may not show the cause of your back pain. Many times, the cause of back pain is never known. Back pain can get better even if you do not know the cause. What Is the Difference Between Acute and Chronic Pain? Acute pain starts quicky and asts ess than 6 weeks. It is the most common type of back pain. Acute pain may be caused by things ike faing, being tacked in footba, or ifting something heavy. Chronic pain asts for more than 3 months and is much ess common than acute pain. How Is Back Pain Treated? Treatment for back pain depends on what kind of pain you have. Acute back pain usuay gets better without any treatment, but you may want to take acetaminophen, aspirin, or ibuprofen to hep ease the pain. Exercise and surgery are not usuay used to treat acute back pain. Foowing are some types of treatments for chronic back pain. Hot or Cod Packs (or Both) Hot or cod packs can soothe sore, stiff backs. Heat reduces musce spasms and pain. Cod heps reduce sweing and numbs deep pain. Using hot or cod packs may reieve pain, but this treatment does not fix the cause of chronic back pain. Exercise Proper exercise can hep ease chronic pain but shoud not be used for acute back pain. Your doctor or physica therapist can te you the best types of exercise to do. Medications The foowing are the main types of medications used for back pain: Anagesic medications are over-the-counter drugs such as acetaminophen and aspirin or prescription pain medications. Topica anagesics are creams, ointments, and saves rubbed onto the skin over the site of pain. Nonsteroida anti-infammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are drugs that reduce both pain and sweing. NSAIDs incude over-the-counter drugs such as ibuprofen, ketoprofen, and naproxen sodium. Your doctor may prescribe stronger NSAIDs. Musce reaxants and some antidepressants may be prescribed for some types of chronic back pain, but these do not work for every type of chronic back pain. Behavior Changes You can earn to ift, push, and pu with ess stress on your back. Changing how you exercise, reax, and seep can hep essen back pain. Eating a heathy diet and not smoking aso hep. 3

4 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic Injections Your doctor may suggest steroid or numbing shots to essen your pain. Compementary and Aternative Medica Treatments When back pain becomes chronic or when other treatments do not reieve it, some peope try compementary and aternative treatments. The most common of these treatments are: Manipuation. Professionas use their hands to adjust or massage the spine or nearby tissues. Transcutaneous eectrica nerve stimuation (TENS). A sma box over the painfu area sends mid eectrica puses to nerves. Studies have shown that TENS treatments are not aways effective for reducing pain. Acupuncture. This Chinese practice uses thin needes to reieve pain and restore heath. Acupunture may be effective when used as a part of a comprehensive treatment pan for ow back pain. Acupressure. A therapist appies pressure to certain paces in the body to reieve pain. Acupressure has not been we studied for back pain. Surgery Most peope with chronic back pain do not need surgery. It is usuay used for chronic back pain if other treatments do not work. You may need surgery if you have: Herniated disk. When one or more of the disks that cushion the bones of the spine are damaged, the jey-ike center of the disk eaks, causing pain. Spina stenosis. This condition causes the spina cana to become narrow. Spondyoisthesis. This occurs when one or more bones of the spine sip out of pace. Vertebra fractures. A fracture can be caused by a bow to the spine or by crumbing of the bone due to osteoporosis. Degenerative disk disease. As peope age, some have disks that break down and cause severe pain. Rarey, when back pain is caused by a tumor, an infection, or a nerve root probem caed cauda equina syndrome, surgery is needed right away to ease the pain and prevent more probems. What Kind of Research Is Being Done? Highights of recent research incude: Cost and effectiveness comparisons of surgica versus nonsurgica treatments for various types of back pain Factors that go into patients decisions about whether or not to have surgery for herniated disks Nationa statistics on back pain costs Socioeconomic factors that reate to back pain costs and treatment. 4

5 Fast Facts: An Easy-to-Read Series of Pubications for the Pubic Goas of current research are to: Understand the many factors that can cause back pain Identify ways to prevent back pain Improve surgica and nonsurgica treatments for back pain Prevent disabiity in peope who suffer from back pain. For More Information About Back Pain and Other Reated Conditions: Nationa Institute of Arthritis and Muscuoskeeta and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) Nationa Institutes of Heath 1 AMS Circe Bethesda, MD Phone: To free: NIAMS ( ) TTY: Fax: Emai: NIAMSinfo@mai.nih.gov Web site: The information in this pubication was summarized in easy-to-read format from information in a more detaied NIAMS pubication. To order the Back Pain Q&A fu-text version, pease contact NIAMS using the contact information above. To view the compete text or to order onine, visit For Your Information This fact sheet contains information about medications used to treat the heath condition discussed here. When this fact sheet was printed, we incuded the most up-to-date (accurate) information avaiabe. Occasionay, new information on medication is reeased. For updates and for any questions about any medications you are taking, pease contact the U.S. Food and Drug Administration at 888 INFO FDA ( , a to-free ca) or visit its Web site at 5