As a nation our lifestyles are tending to become more sedentary. We may spend long periods of time sitting, working at computers or performing repetitive tasks. Fatigue and stress can compound the problem. These can all increase the strain placed on our muscles, spinal column and ultimately the discs and nerves. Fatigue, stress and poor posture can compound the problem and start to cause pain, such as back pain.

Four out of five people suffer with back pain at some time and 15% of those suffer from constant back pain. It causes millions of people to take time off work, costing the British industry over £6 billion a year.

Back pain can be caused by:

The bones of your spine protect your spinal cord; loss of normal motion or position of these bones can irritate the nerve roots that exit from the spine to go to organs and tissues of the body. Flexibility of the spine is achieved through discs and ligaments joining together the vertebrae. A disc is made up from a central softer core and surrounded by outer rings of tough cartilage.

The disc allows shock absorption and movement. A ‘slipped disc’ is an inaccurate term used to describe the damage to the outer rings of cartilage allowing the softer core to squeeze outwards. This can eventually lead to a bulge which can press on or cause chemical irritation to the nerve, nerve root or spinal cord itself. A disc bulge (prolapse) can cause excruciating pain, either in the back or elsewhere, often low back disc problems cause pain, pins and needles or numbness into the leg or foot.

Sciatica is a syndrome characterised by pain from the back to the buttock and into the back or side of the leg and most commonly is caused by a bulging of one of the discs at the bottom of the back, the term may also be used to describe pain along the course of the sciatic nerve. The irritation of a nerve in one area can sometimes lead to pain in another area of the body; this is termed ‘referred pain’. Similar may occur in the neck and arm, this is termed Brachialgia.