Back Pain

Low back pain affects around 80% of people at least once, with many of those going on to experience future or recurrent episodes. Find effective back pain relief strategies here.

With the correct guidance and support, it is possible to recover from an acute episode of pain very quickly. However, around 70% of people find that their back pain returns within 12 months.

It’s really important that an episode of pain is managed correctly, in order to minimise the chances of your pain returning and keep you on track long-term.

Around 20% of the time, back pain persists past 12 weeks. This is called Chronic low back pain. Chronic pain is progressively less likely to spontaneously resolve the longer that it has been present.

This type of back pain generally takes longer to recover from, so treatment for chronic low back pain will likely take place over a broader timespan.

Chronic low back pain is highly influenced by factors within our lifestyle and environment. During your initial consultation, your chiropractor will spend time trying to identify the risk factors that are relevant for yourself and that could be contributing to your overall pain levels.

Some of the most common risk factors for chronic low back pain that we see are obesity, smoking, high alcohol consumption, low levels of physical exercise, previous history of back pain, mental health problems (such as anxiety and depression) and occupation.

It is important to recognise that low back pain is rarely caused by anything serious or life-threatening. In fact, over 90% of the time, low back pain is known as Multi-Factorial or Non-Specific.

This doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem that needs addressing. It simply means that it is highly likely your pain is coming from multiple different sources (both within your tissues, your environment and your lifestyle).