If you suffer from back pain, you are not alone, back pain is extremely widespread affecting about 80% of the UK’s population at some point in their lives, and it is one of the most common reasons people consult osteopaths.
In most cases back pain is caused by a minor injury or a strain, rather than anything more serious, and can be referred to as 'simple back pain'.
The symptoms often occur suddenly and can be triggered by a particular movement, but the causes may have been building for some time.
Some of the most common causes of stress and strain on the spine include:
In some cases, there may be a more severe underlying causes of your pain, but these are less common. These causes include:
Using manual techniques, osteopaths examine the whole body to identify sources of pain and restricted movement that may indicate injury or impaired function.
Osteopathy aims to relieve back pain by:
An osteopath may also advise a patient on techniques for avoiding and relieving furure episodes of back pain, including: