Americans spend over $50 billion dollars each year on lower back pain, a leading expenditure of health care dollars in the U.S.
It is the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to absenteeism, affecting more than half of all working people. One quarter of U.S. adults reported having lower back pain, lasting at least one day in the past three months. Back pain is the second most common neurological ailment in the United States. Only headache are more common.
The cause of back pain is simple: a downward, inward force is being applied to the lumbar region each time that we stand. When we lift an object that is too heavy, jump off a porch, or shovel too much snow, the extra downward forces and added shocks force the lower curvature of our spine inward. Over time disks become permanently more wedged-shaped in much the same way that a piano’s hammers develop a flat side from years of striking the strings. This leads to back pain becoming progressive. Muscles behind the spine grow shorter over time because the increased spinal curve shortens the distance they need to span. As we age, less force is required to send muscles into spasm because the column becomes more curved and thus weaker.
