Archivos mensuales: Mayo 2014

If you have back pain as you are reading this you are certainly not alone. In fact, four out of every five adults in the UK will experience back pain at some point during their life. If you are aged between 35 years and 55 years you are especially likely to be affected. Persistent back pain (lasting more than 3 months) has a significant impact on the sufferer’s quality of life; affecting social and family relationships. So what exactly is back pain and is there anything that can be done to prevent it? To answer these questions we have to examine both the nature of pain and the way that our backs work. This allows us to investigate some of the potential causes of back pain and, perhaps more importantly, the ways to prevent it.

The perception of pain

The highly respected International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) defines pain as follows, ‘An unpleasant