Low Back Ache / Slipped Disc

Lower back pain is pain in the area of your back from the bottom of your ribs to the top of your legs. It can come from any of the many structures that make up your back. These include bones, joints, muscles, ligaments, nerves and tendons.

Your spine supports your back. It’s made up of 24 separate bones called vertebrae stacked on top of one another. The lower section of your spine is called the lumbar spine. Below the vertebrae, at the bottom of your spine, are bones called your sacrum and coccyx. You may hear lower back pain referred to as lumbosacral pain.

enquiry now

Causes of lower back pain

Lower back pain can be classed in two different ways: specific back pain and non-specific back pain.

Specific back pain

Sometimes, there may be a specific cause of your back pain. These can include the following.

  • A slipped (herniated) disc. This means one of the discs between your vertebrae bulges out of shape and presses on the spinal nerves surrounding it. It’s a common cause of sciatica.
  • A fracture – a crack or break in one of your vertebrae. This can happen after trauma to your spine, or if you have osteoporosis (a condition that weakens your bones).
  • Facet joint pain. This is pain in one of the joints that link the bones in your spine together.
  • Inflammatory lower back pain. This can be caused by a condition such as ankylosing spondylitis, which causes inflammation in your spinal joints and ligaments.

Sometimes, you may feel problems affecting other organs in your body, such as your kidneys, pancreas or bowel, as back pain. And occasionally, a more serious condition, such as an infection or cancer, can cause pain in your lower back. These things are much less common causes of lower back pain.