Lower Back Pain

Back muscles get strained, disks degenerate, and nerves are pinched.

Who Gets It:
Who doesn't? A full 80 percent of the population can expect to experience significant back pain at some point.

Ways to Prevent It:
Your mother was right: Watch your posture! That ca fend off strain and pain.

How to Fix it:
Treatment runs the gamut from light exercise and a heating pad to major surgery, depending on the severity and type of pain.

The Latest Treatment:
Studies suggest that surgery helps people with degenerative spondylolisthesis with spinal stenosis (a condition in which a vertebra slips out of alignment, eventually causing the spinal column to narrow and pinching nerves). People with sciatica - pain caused by a disk pressing against a nerve - are apt to get better over time, with or without surgery.