Back Pain Advice, Treatment & Help
Whether your bac pain stated yesterday or has been bothering you for years, you'll find clear explanations, practical advice and evidence-informed guidance to help you understand what's happening - and what you can do about it.
Why does my back hurt?
Back pain rarely has a single cause. It often develops because several factors combine over time - previous injuries, repetitive postures, stress, reduced movement/exercise, changes in strength, poor sleep, or simply doing more than your body was ready for. Understanding your own series of events that have brought you to today is often the first step to long-lasting recovery.
If you're reading this, there's a good chance you've experienced back or neck pain yourself. Whether it's a dull ache, stiffness, sharp stabbing pain, burning, throbbing, or a feeling that something has "gone," describing pain can be surprisingly difficult. The good news is that you're not alone—many people use similar words because back pain is one of the most common reasons people seek healthcare and what got me into Chiropractic in the first place!
At its simplest, back pain is your body's way of getting your attention. Pain is a protective signal created by your brain when it believes that an area of your body needs protecting. This signal may be triggered by irritation or injury to structures such as muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, discs or nerves. Sometimes there is tissue damage, but not always. Pain is influenced by many factors, including inflammation, movement, stress, sleep, previous experiences and how sensitive the nervous system has become.
One of the remarkable things about the human body is its ability to adapt. If one area becomes sore or irritated, your body will often change the way you move without you even noticing. You might compensate shift your weight to the other leg, move a little differently when bending, or use other muscles to protect the painful area. These temporary compensations are clever and often helpful in the short term, but if they continue for weeks or months they can place extra strain on other parts of the body, sometimes leading to new aches and pains.
Compensating is what the body does its best to protect you, but those protective changes can sometimes become part of the problem if they aren't addressed. Understanding why your back hurts and the accumulation of factors that could have contributed is the first step towards taking control of it. Most episodes of back pain improve with the right advice, appropriate movement and tweaks to daily habits and postures, and where needed, targeted treatment to help restore normal range of movement and therefore function.
At its simplest, back pain is your body's way of getting your attention. Pain is a protective signal created by your brain when it believes that an area of your body needs protecting. This signal may be triggered by irritation or injury to structures such as muscles, joints, ligaments, tendons, discs or nerves. Sometimes there is tissue damage, but not always. Pain is influenced by many factors, including inflammation, movement, stress, sleep, previous experiences and how sensitive the nervous system has become.
One of the remarkable things about the human body is its ability to adapt. If one area becomes sore or irritated, your body will often change the way you move without you even noticing. You might compensate shift your weight to the other leg, move a little differently when bending, or use other muscles to protect the painful area. These temporary compensations are clever and often helpful in the short term, but if they continue for weeks or months they can place extra strain on other parts of the body, sometimes leading to new aches and pains.
Compensating is what the body does its best to protect you, but those protective changes can sometimes become part of the problem if they aren't addressed. Understanding why your back hurts and the accumulation of factors that could have contributed is the first step towards taking control of it. Most episodes of back pain improve with the right advice, appropriate movement and tweaks to daily habits and postures, and where needed, targeted treatment to help restore normal range of movement and therefore function.
Back Pain by Area
Lower Back PainFrom a dull ache or stiffness to full-blown radiating sciatica, 'back pain' covers many symptoms and diagnoses.
Explore the articles in this section to find answers to common questions about back pain and how we form a 'working diagnosis' and treatment plan. |
Mid Back PainMore common than you might think, mid back pain often involves the ribs and breathing muscles.
In this section we discuss aspects of mid- back and rib pain and why it could be the limiting factor in low back and neck pain resolution. |
Upper Back & Neck PainCarrying and balancing the weight of the head whilst maintaining manoeuvrability, it's no wonder a lot of us suffer with upper back and neck pain.
Here we'll go through conditions affecting the neck-shoulder complex as a functional unit. |
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FAQHow long does back pain take to improve?
Should I rest?
Should I exercise?
Answer to question 2
Can stress affect my back?
Will treatment hurt?
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