Low back pain - Definition and Overview

Low back pain can be either an acute or chronic disabling condition. It will affect most people on the planet at some stage in their life and accounts for more sick leave taken than any other single condition.

An acute lower back injury may be caused by a traumatic event, like a car accident or a fall. It occurs suddenly and its victims will usually be able to pinpoint exactly when it happened. In acute cases, the structures damaged will more than likely be soft tissue like muscles, ligaments and tendons. If it's a serious accident, vertebral fractures in the lumber spine may also occur.

Chronic lower back pain usually has a more insidious onset, occurring over a long period of time. Causes may be rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis, tumors (e.g. cancer) or degeneration of the discs between the vertebrae.

According to a recent survey (http://nccam.nih.gov/news/2004/052704.htm), 16.8% of the adult American population ([1] (http://nccam.nih.gov/news/report.pdf) p9) use complementary and alternative medicine to treat back pain.