The Demon Back Pain

A couple of weeks ago we posted a blog about posture and we had some feedback about backs in general, and questions about back pain in particular. So we thought we'd write another wee note about the demon that is back pain...

www.lower-back-pain-answers.com http://goo.gl/D26Sz

Why oh why are you afflicted with back pain and everyone else is fine? Don't worry, you're not alone by any means: two thirds of us will suffer back pain at some point in our lives.

Happy days.

But why is back pain so common? What causes it? And how the heck do you get rid of it?!

Let's start with a wee bit of background (no pun intended...)

First we need to know what makes up the back so we can get an idea of which structures are causing the problem. The spine is made up of 33 bones or vertebrae, separated into the cervical spine (at neck level), thoracic spine (where your ribs attach), lumbar spine (in your lower back) along with the sacrum and coccyx (tailbone) which are fused together.

The vertebrae are narrow and smaller at the top of your spine (below left), growing thicker and wider towards the bottom of your spine, where they bear more weight (below right). The spinal cord passes through the middle of these vertebrae so that it is protected by the bone on each side.

The Cervical Vertebra (Neck) http://goo.gl/iSXS2