Written by Dr. Andrew J. Haig. Back pain is very common. Almost everyone you will meet will have had some personal experience with back pain at some point in their lives.
Most people get their first episode as a teen.
Almost all adults go through a period where they may miss work because of a backache. People who experience back pain have many different stories. You may have heard your friends or family complain about a pain in the lower back, stiffness in the neck, or even shooting pain down an arm or a leg that feels like it starts somewhere in the back. Most back pain results from problems associated with the muscles, nerves or bones around the spine. Focusing on a person's spine is, for lack of better words, getting to the heart of the matter of back pain.