What Causes Back Pain?

Back pain can be caused by a range of different conditions. The most common causes are:

1. Muscle spasms: sudden pain in the neck or low back due to a jerky movement or while lifting a heavy object often causes muscles to tense up and become irritated, leading to pain in that area
2. Nerve compression: Degenerative changes in the spine can cause compression of the surrounding nerves leading to pain, numbness, or tingling that may extend to the back of the thigh and leg.
3. Osteoporosis: Reduction in bone density with ageing can cause back pain with or without the occurrence of compression fractures within the vertebrae
4. Prolapsed interverterbral disk or slip disk: Degenerative changes or incorrect lifting techniques can cause the contents of the disk between 2 vertebrae to be pushed out and compress the surrounding structures leading to back pain and spasm