“Scans rarely show the cause of low back pain,” says Prof Kieran O’Sullivan, chartered physiotherapist and head of the school of physiotherapy at the University of Limerick. He points out that so-called “abnormal findings” on scans such disc bulges, disc degeneration and arthritis are common and normal for most people without pain, especially as they get older.

So why do some people experience back pain when others don’t? O’Sullivan says 90 per cent of lower back pain is caused by a combination of physical and non-physical factors including poor sleep, relationship or family stress, job dissatisfaction or financial pressures.

It’s finding ways first to understand the cause of the pain and then ways to treat it that’s the key to successful management.

O’Sullivan talks to In the News about how to understand your lower back pain and what to do about it.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Suzanne Brennan.

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