Low Back Pain

Low back pain is not a diagnosis. It is a symptom. Different conditions can cause the very same symptoms, even though these underlying conditions may have opposite treatments, and what is good for one of these conditions is bad for the other. For example, herniated disc and spinal stenosis may produce exactly the same symptoms: back pain calf tingling and pain going down the back of the leg, but they have diametrically opposite treatments: back bends for herniated disc and forward bends for spinal stenosis. Moreover, back bends usually worsen the pain of spinal stenosis, and forward bends can actually extend a herniated disc, making things permanently worse. There are essentially seven major causes of lower back pain. They fit into three categories: Neurological: Herniated lumbar disc Spinal stenosis Musculoskeletal: Quadratus lumborum spasm Facet syndrome Sacroiiac joint derangement Mixed: Piriformis syndrome Spondylolisthesis The neurological causes produce numbness, tingling, weakness and/or sciatic pain The musculoskeletal have none of these features, but are often painful to the touch. The mixed group have neurological symptoms that are caused by a muscular or skeletal abnormality that affects a nerve or nerve root. More detail is given in the images below.