It seems like everyone I know has some type of back pain. My husband and I both suffer from back pain but mine is a dull ache at the end of the day while he seems to have shooting pain. Why are our backs so susceptible to pain and how do I know when we should talk with our doctor?
It's not your imagination: Your back has definitely gotten achier and more injury-prone as you've aged. But what's behind the growing discomfort, and is there anything you can do to make it go away?
Pain between the shoulders is common: As many as one in 10 men and one in five women experience upper back pain, according to a 2015 journal article in Occupational Medicine[1]. Often, upper back pain between the shoulders is caused by a muscle strain due to overuse, injury or poor posture, and although the resulting discomfort can range from mildly uncomfortable to severe and debilitating, the root cause can often be corrected with a combination of rest, stretching and exercise.
Results showed patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis who were released to unrestricted activity at 4 to 8 weeks after posterior spinal fusion had high return to sport rates with a rapid return to baseline performance levels.
A new treatment offers hope for people challenged with chronic back pain. It focuses on retraining how the back and the brain communicate, and was demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial. The research was performed by scientists at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney and Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA) and several other Australian and European universities.
