How To Deal With Back Pain

There are 16 million cases of lower back pain experienced in the UK each year. These include sciatica, often caused by a “slipped disc”. Low back pain, with or without sciatica, is widely recognised as one of the most severe sources of chronic pain a person can suffer from.

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Factors such as bad posture, elevated stress levels, cigarette smoking, a sedentary lifestyle and weight are all known to contribute to the onset of back pain and sciatica.

Sciatica is the collective name for a set of symptoms (including pain, weakness/ numbness in the buttocks or leg, and a burning/tingling sensation down the leg) caused by a disc bulge (also called a prolapsed, herniated or slipped disc). The predisposition to this disc bulge is genetic but the event of “slipped disc” itself can be caused by lifestyle or injury: any sudden jerking movements – from a car accident, for example – can place too much pressure on the disc, causing it to bulge. Most get better, over about three months, but some disc bulges cause long-term pain.

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