Nearly 80 percent of Americans will suffer from low back pain at some time in their lives. You probably didn’t know that low back pain is the second most common neurological disorder (after headaches), the second most common reason for why people see a doctor (after colds and flu) and the No. 1 ailment that causes people to miss work.
According to statistics from the National Institutes of Health, we spend about $50 billion a year on low back pain. We search constantly for tips on how to alleviate it. In fact, Amazon.com lists 14,192 books on low back pain.
Low back pain reduces the quality of life, according to respondents in a 2011 survey for the American Physical Therapy Association. Low back pain interferes most with their exercise regimen (38 percent), their sleep (37 percent) and their ability to work (24 percent).
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In a survey by Consumer Reports magazine of more than 14,000 subscribers who complained of low back pain in the previous year, 46 percent said it interfered with their sleep, 31 percent reported that it thwarted their efforts to maintain a healthy weight and 24 percent said that it hampered their sex life.
What we do most often to alleviate low back pain is to take over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicines such as Motrin, Aleve and Tylenol. What seems to work the best are chiropractic manipulation of the spine, massage and physical therapy, the Consumer Reports survey indicated.
