6 Common Back Pain Causes Everyone Should Be Aware Of

Sometimes, the culprit behind back pain can stay undiagnosed even after checkups and medical tests. Partially, that’s due to an underlying problem resulting in extreme back pain in one person and leading to no symptoms at all in another. The majority of back pain culprits aren’t dangerous or life-threatening. However, in some cases, back pain can be a sign of a more severe medical condition. 

Keep on reading to discover the six most common possible causes of pain in your back. 

1. Overuse injuries
It's possible that your back will hurt as a result of your first workout after a long period of inactivity, or after a day of heavy snow shoveling or working in your yard. You may pull or strain a muscle or ligament in your back due to these factors. Bending, lifting, and twisting are among the most common movements that cause back pain. However, even a prolonged period of sitting might cause discomfort in your back. Back discomfort resulting from overuse normally goes away on its own after a few days. Strained muscles in your back can be helped by using warm compresses and mild stretching.

2. Alignment issues
Scoliosis, or an unnatural curve in the spine, commonly occurs in childhood or adolescence. However, it may not produce discomfort until the middle of your life or later, when it begins to pressure the nerves in your backbone. When the ligaments that hold your spine in place break down over time, it's called degenerative spondylolisthesis. Backbones can move out of alignment, slipping forward until one reaches over the top of the other. When the bones begin to compress the spinal nerves, the condition becomes painful. Many of those suffering from deformity-induced back pain often benefit from undergoing spinal deformity correction surgery. 

Problems with alignment don't usually start at the back. The way you walk can be altered by pain or deformities in your foot or ankle, stretching ligaments and tendons beyond their usual range of motion. You may experience pain and arthritis in your lower back as a result of this.

3. Disc Injuries or degeneration
The flat, spherical discs that sit between each of your vertebrae wear out as you become older. As they lose their cushioning ability and one backbone scrapes against another, you may experience pain. This is referred to as degenerative disc disease by doctors. A herniated disc occurs when the jelly-like filling squeezes through the rigid outer shell of the disc. The pressure of the fluid against the outer ring can induce lower back pain, and leaking fluid might irritate surrounding nerves, producing pain down one or both legs.

4. Fractures
A fall or other accident can cause a vertebra to break. However, fractures are most usually caused by a bone-thinning disease called osteoporosis. Your vertebrae might deteriorate over time, resulting in moderate to severe back discomfort when you move or when the bones squeeze your nerves.

5. Health problems in your other body parts 
Pain in or around your lower back might be caused by conditions that affect different organs, not simply the muscles and joints in your back. Kidney stones or infections, pancreatitis, sexually transmitted diseases, and endometriosis, a condition in which the tissue that borders the uterus develops elsewhere in the body, are just a few examples. Back pain is common in expectant mothers and those with fibromyalgia, a condition that causes fatigue and muscle aches throughout your whole body.

6. Spinal stenosis 
The mechanical loading on your backbone changes if you have degenerative disc disease. When your spine endures too much pressure, it may respond by growing new bones. These bone growths (osteophytes) can pressure the nerves in your spinal cord, causing back pain and loss of sensation in your legs. This disorder often limits the patient’s ability to walk and requires surgery.