You have back pain:

The majority of the population has had, or will have, back pain at some point through out their life. Most will get better after the pain starts, within a matter of days...with some it's a matter of weeks. A very small percentage with back pain or injury will be disabled longer than three months. The ones who endure longer usually have had a major trauma like a car accident, have fallen from a high rise or building, or maybe even have experienced too many harsh impacts from playing a sport like football.

What does it feel like?

Back pain can manifest itself in many different ways- and sometimes if there is an injury you may not feel pain at all initially. The most common symptoms of back pain are :

1) pain that pulses down your legs or arms,
 2) numbness, weakness or tingling like your arm or leg has fallen a sleep
 3) throbbing at the back of the neck, or around your shoulders
 4) an aching feeling in your tailbone area when you sit, and even
5) sharp stabbing pains that come and go intermittently in your mid an lower back
6) pulsating "electric shock" or "buring" sensations

It's important to understand that every person is different, and every back pain story is different. Each one helps doctors learn a little bit more about how to treat conditions associated with the pain. What could be causing it?There are so many different reasons a person could be experiencing back pain. I've compiled a list of the 4 most comon causes in the order of likelihood:

Muscle tension or poor posture-

In an age where people are on the go constantly, it's easy to become stressed because you have deadlines to meet, kids to pick up from school, a business to run, friends to entertain, hubpages to publish, and so much more! When all of these things start wearing you down, you become tense and your muscles tighten- usually in the shoulders first- which then in turn can cause constriction of nerves in your back. Guess what the result is once the nerves are pinched? Yep, you got it; back pain.The nerves get pinched, cause back pain, the pain causes you to tighten your mucles...causing more constriction....when could then cause more pain. It's a viscious cycle.

Sciatica-

Sciatica is caused by irritation of a major nerve that starts around the buttock area and extends down either leg. This is also due to compression of nerves, but it's usually in the lumbar area (low back where the curve is just above your buttocks). Sciatica symptoms vary, but most people describe a deep, severe pain that starts low on one side of the back and then shoots down the buttock and the leg with pecific movements. Much of the time its triggered by lifting a heavy object. You may not remember doing anything to hurt yourself, and at others, you will suddenly feel pain after lifting something heavy or moving quickly. Some people (including me) have had experiences where they go to lift a piece of paper or even just bend down (yeah the one hurt for me) and their back "goes out" and the pain starts shooting down the leg. I remember once I was cleaning out my gerbil cage and bent to pick up their bag of CareFresh and BAM!!! I could barely move for about 20-30 mins so as to avoid the pain from flairing up. Not fun.

Ruptured or compressed disc:

When people do a lot of lifting it causes pressure on the spine. Your body is designed to, and is only used to, lifting a certain amount of weight before it buckles. Core exercises (fun excercises that stregnthen the muscles in your back like CoreRhythms) help keep the muscles from being over stretched/stressed and ultimately will result in allowing you to lift more without strainging your back. When the muscles are weak and more pressure is placed on the spine, it can cause the discs (jelly like material that acts as a shock absorber between the vertebrae) to bulge out of place and put pressure on the nerve bundles the run along your spine. The end result, once again is back pain.

Osteoporosis-

In woman (especially after 40) it's common to see fractures or even shattering (ouch!) of the vertebrae due to low bone density . After 40 (and some times eariler) a woman's body changes with a process called menopause. Her hormone levels (specifically estrogen) decreases the amount of bone that is deposited on weight bearing structures; the vertebrae. So what happens basically when a person has osteoporosis, is that the bone density is sometimes so low that it's alomst like a shell. Lets say like an egg shell. A normal egg and shell
would be comparable to a normal vertebrate. If you put a lot of weight on it, the chances of it cracking aren't very likely unless you have a LOT of pressure because the egg is pretty solid. Now lets consider the egg with osteoporosis; all you have is a shell and a little bit of filling (low density) inside- which means it's not very stable. Put pressure on an egg shell with nothing inside? Oops! It cracked! The same thing happens to people with osteoporosis, but instead of being huge fractures that cause the vertebrate to just fall apart like the egg shell would have, the fractures are much smaller. These fractures are obviously and injury to the body, the body's automatic response to being injured is "Oh my god I've been hurt! I need to warn everyone else around me not to touch the fractured bone because I don't want to get hurt more!!!" The nerves in the area then send a signal warning you not to touch the effected area- more pain.

A combination of other disorders may also cause back pain but they're much less likely. These conditions include; blood clots, metabolic disorders, hormone imbalances unrelated to menopause, infection, or someting more serious like cancer. Each of the above conditions can be treated and managed.

So what can I do about my back pain?

GREAT question!! That all depends on what's causing the pain. It's important to see your doctor before any difinitive answer can be given. Physicians and other health care professionals have the ability to look inside your body or do tests to tell how your body is functioning. Depending on what sort of responses they get back from these tests, several treatment options may become availible to you!

Back pain CAN be managed. Some use medications perscribed by their doctor like cortisone injectons or muscle relaxers (like cyclobenzaprine), others use spinal decompression techniques availible through a chiropractor, and even more elect to have cervical spine surgery or spinal disc surgery (usually in the lower back) in the most severe cases.

Many patients with back pain don't like traditional doctors or hospitals, human manufactured medications or the like, and tend to gear toward alternative medicine; and that's OKAY! See the doctor that makes you feel most comfortable. It's not fair to jeopardize your health because you don't think that you have the ability to choose which phyisican will offer the best options for you. If you don't like the answer that they provide or the treatments that they provide for back pain- go find a second opinion! What most people don't realize is that medicine is a life-long learning profession...which means that the doctor is responsible for keeping with the latest
technology and treaments for your ailments. Once they're out of medical school- they have to be motivated and keep studying to make sure that their treatment for back pain is what everyone else in the field is doing too!

Some of them are not very good at this because they're too busy working. :( No one is perfect, and doctors are certainly not either. They're only human. The important thing to keep in mind is that back It's your body and your life, and the only person that knows what's best for you and your body is YOU!