Back pain can be caused by a range of different conditions. The most common causes are:
- 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
- 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.
- Osteoporosis: Reduction in bone density with ageing can cause back pain with or without the occurrence of compression fractures within the vertebrae
- 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