In most of the cases disease or injury in muscles, bones, disc or nerves of the spine are causes of back pain. Back pain is a symptom rather than a disease in itself. Most of them are related to spine as it is one of the most intricate organs of human body.
Some times pain can be felt in the back due to abnormalities or injury and disease in the organs of abdomen, pelvis and chest. Kidney diseases, pregnancy, and infections are the reasons for this type of pain. Stress, anxiety and depression may also cause backache as stress can contract the muscles and reduce the blood flow to the tissues. Careless movements, poor bending and lifting techniques and poor postures are also common reasons.
Due to these, sometimes muscles get irritated by the acidic waste product of muscular activity and causes backache. Sudden movements or jerks may also lead to back pain by disturbing the facet joints. When facet joints lose their lubrication and become rough thus cause the back pain. Bad postures also contribute to this problem by hindering the blood flow to the tissues, leading the muscles to get stiff and prone to sprains. Torn ligaments, due to injury or stretching are also common causes. Saggy mattresses and slouches while sitting are major reasons for promoting back pains amongst healthy individuals. Slouches while sitting or bending of the back while sleeping may cause muscle fatigue and strain and may lead to backache.
Ruptured disc or herniated disc is another very common cause of back pain. When nerves attached to spine gets irritated due to bulging out of the cushion between spinal vertebras, causes backache. This type of pain may even occur due to degeneration of the disc too, by the age the disc height is reduced which causes herniated disc or may injure the intervertebral disc causing backache. Spinal chord starting from the brain and extending up to the spine may lead to backache at any part of the back. The nerves exiting the spinal chord get compressed either in the spinal chord or when they exit the chord and give rise to pain, numbness and weakness. This is also called as spinal stenosis and is most common in people involved in physical labor, arthritis and aged over 50.
Diseases like arthritis are major cause of backache. Arthritis cause pain in the joints at any part of the body but few types of arthritis particularly affect the spine and lead to serious back pain problems. Osteoporosis causes weakening of the bones may also lead to back pain by causing compression fractures. Another cause is herpes zoster virus which causes inflammation of the nerves exiting spinal chord and give rise to severe backache.
Few deformities of spine by birth or due to any disease also give rise to back pain more often than normal. People suffering from scoliosis, lordosis and kyphosis have side to side curve or inward or outward curve of the spine which causes backache.
