Lower Back Pain: A Best Practices Approach

Lower back pain is classified as pain within the lower two quadrants of the back, typically starting from the twelfth rib, down to the pelvis. It can also include the back of the hip – or sacral area. For this reason, sacroiliac pain and lower back pain are often grouped together.

How Common is Lower Back Pain?

It’s estimated up to 80% of people will experience back pain in their life. Globally, and at any point in time, 18% of the population has lower back pain. Over a one-month period, that number is 31%. Lower back pain is found to be more common in women. (Lin et al. 2013)

This chronic health problem forces more people out of the workforce than heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, neoplasm, respiratory disease, and asthma combined. It is also the leading cause of years lived with a disability and the sixth highest cause of global overall disease burden. (Meyer et al. 2017; Schofield et al. 2015)

Lower back pain often requires older workers to retire prematurely. As a result, people with lower back pain retiring earlier have 87% less total wealth than those who are employed full-time.

READ MORE: Managing and Preventing Lower Back Injury

What Contributes to Lower Back Pain?

While lower back pain is common, there is no conclusive data as to what causes it. 80 – 90% of low-back pain is non-specific, meaning clinical diagnostic tests don’t reliably tell why we experience most types of pain.

Researchers speculate that contributing factors include sedentary lifestyles, carrying more weight on our trunk than needed, and not being able to engage stabilizing muscles in the correct way.

Movement & Lower Back Pain

Every movement we make requires stabilization in the back, which is why lower back pain can be so profoundly disabling. When you experience back pain, your first instinct might be to rest and resist moving. However, moving around might help more when it comes to easing back pain.

In fact, research has shown that lower back pain wasn’t as disabling until the introduction of Western Medicine. Historically, Western Medicine relied on diagnostic imaging to determine structural pathology and recommended bed rest and medication for treatment. Studies further suggest that reducing activity without a corresponding reduction in pain can then promote a fear of movement making the pain even more difficult to treat. (Krestiansen et al. 2014; Bergbom at al. 2011; Bergsten et al. 2012)

We now know that the best thing you can do for lower back pain is to incorporate simple – but effective – motions into your daily routine, such as standing and walking. If even simple everyday movements are too painful, or if the pain is not improving noticeably in seven days, we recommend consulting a medical professional.

A physiotherapist or a physician with sports medicine training can perform a more thorough assessment of your back and prescribe a more specific set of movement progressions. If these motions are too difficult for you, there are tools to help you achieve your daily activity goals as prescribed by a professional.

WATCH: 3 Devices To Help Treat Lower Back Pain (2:16)

4 Devices to Help Manage Lower Back Pain

Foot orthotics, back braces, proper footwear, and trekking poles can help you achieve your daily activity goals if you find it difficult to move as much as you need to.

Talk to a Team of Specialists

If your lower back pain hasn’t shown signs of improvement, work with a team of various specialists to manage your symptoms.

Using a multi-disciplinary approach, a pedorthist can help connect you with a team of professionals who can help you manage your back pain. Physiotherapists, sports-medicine trained physicians and physiatrists can be important partners in both building, and evaluating your treatment plan; they can help provide a structured approach and determine where to start you, with regard to exercise and activity management.