Understanding Chronic
Back Pain Causes

Understanding chronic back pain causes will make more sense once we understand how the back works. Knowing a little about the structure of the back and how it works could help you prevent back pain.

Most of us at one time or another will develop back pain Often it can be sudden, debilitating back pain that grounds us for a few days. In fact it's one of the biggest reasons for absenteeism in the work place.

Your spine seems like a simple structure but it's actually more complicated than you think. When we sit down in a chair, or turn to get an item off the shelf, or bend over to pick up to pick up our shoes in the morning, we don't think twice about our back. But when you can't do these normal daily activities without pain, you then realize how important it is to have a healthy back and avoid chronic back pain causes.

Let’s look at the mechanics of how your back functions. Underneath your skin, there are muscles, ligaments and vertebrae. These vertebrae are small round shaped bones that stack on top of one another and run the entire length of your back. These bones have an opening in the middle of them and which is called the spinal column. This is where your your spinal cord is located and it runs from the from the base of your brain all the way down to your tail-bone.

Your spinal cord is a type of communication system for the body. Because all of your nerves originate at the the spinal cord and they branch out to various places within the body carrying messages back and forth. So it's important not to damage this delicate system with chronic back pain causes.

These 5 parts of your back make up the spinal column. All of the vertebrae in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine are moveable so that you can twist and turn while doing various activities. However the sacral and coccyx vertebrae are fused vertebrae that don't allow movement.

If you've ever seen an x-ray of the spine, you've probably noticed that it has a slight curve to it. This is what allows your body to bend, twist and move. If it were fused you would be stiff and unable to twist and turn. People that have suffered with chronic back pain causes sometimes have a "spinal fusion". This leaves them with almost no range of motion in the area of the fusion.

There are soft cushions, called discs, that are located between each of the vertebrae. These discs are like gel filled sacs that are soft in the middle and they surround and protect the spinal cord. Some chronic back pain causes are from the gel leaking from the sac. Fortunately, the outer layer is made of a much tougher material.

The spaces between the vertebrae, allow nerves to pass through and communicate with every other part of your body like your organs, muscles, ligaments, tendons and skin. Faster than the blink of an eye, the nerves can carry electrical signals to the brain and back again! This is a highly complex communication system. If you've ever been burned by touching a hot skillet, think how quickly you pulled your hand back, that all stems from the body's nerve signals being sent to the brain.

Back pain can be one of the most debilitating ailments known to man. Last year, my husband developed severe lower back pain symptoms and could do almost nothing for himself for months. I too, have had times in my life when a long duration of severe back pain brought my life to a standstill. While we are better now, we know we are always just one wrong twist or turn away from another episode of back pain. So we practice good body mechanics and utilize the other tips we learned in this free book on curing back pain.

Back pain can be as simple as a pulled muscle or as complicated as a herniated disc which is one of the common chronic back pain causes.