Too Young for Back Pain?


If you’re one of the growing number of people who’s under 50 and experiencing back pain, you may feel like you’re limited in what you can find about the unique issues you may face. Chronic back pain is associated with aging, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen to younger people. If you’re experiencing something as real and debilitating as chronic back pain and all you can find is information about pain treatment in older populations, it can really feel isolating or even embarrassing. It also may not be helpful to get treatment advice that is more appropriate for someone who is much older.



Though many attribute rising rates of back pain complaints to the aging of the baby boomer generation, there are other reasons why back problems could be more common that have nothing to do with age. Increased rates of childhood obesity, lack of exercise, and a more sedentary lifestyle are all potential factors that could lead to developing back problems at a younger age. While doctors like Solomon Kamson MD, PhD of the Spine Institute Northwest are likely to mainly see older patients, the number of younger people reporting back pain is on the rise.

Back pain can’t be said to really be a positive development, but there are advantages that younger sufferers have. Making the effort to change your lifestyle, with more exercise and a nutritious diet, can not only help relieve your pain now but will also benefit your overall health as you age. Younger bodies also tend to heal more quickly than older people, although advances in back pain treatments — like minimally invasive spine surgery and regenerative medicine — mean that older back pain sufferers also have a better chance at a relatively speedy recover.

Back pain can be result from the wear-and-tear of behaviors like sitting for long hours at a desk or carrying a heavy backpack, making it hardly out of the realm of possibility for a young person. That said, you should be careful to make sure you aren’t ignoring signs of potentially more serious medical problems that can affect the back. Part of the reason that back health information tends to be targeted at older people is that older people are more likely to develop more serious issues like vertebral compression fractures or degenerative disc problems. But just because these things don’t apply to you, it doesn’t mean you should ignore signs of a more serious health problem! If you feel you are only finding information targeted at older people, make sure you are finding ways to read between the lines to get all the info that could still be relevant for you.

Back pain can have many causes, from an acute injury like an auto accident or wear-and-tear over time. In some cases though, it is symptomatic of a more serious underlying problem. In a recent bulletin from Infection Control Today, specialists encouraged doctors to be on the lookout for cases of vertebral osteomyelitis, a spinal infection that manifests first as pain in the back. Solomon Kamson MD, PhD notes that because back pain is such a common complaint, it can be easy for doctors to miss more serious problems if there are no other ongoing symptoms. In this kind of case, a patient’s biggest responsibility is to be their own first evaluator and their own best advocate.
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Call the Doctor

Don’t delay when considering medical treatment. In situations where the primary or only symptom a patient is experiencing is back pain, doctors will first choose a course of treatment that attempts to treat the pain with non-invasive measures. It’s important that you get this treatment early. Failure of conservative treatments can be an indication that there is a larger underlying issue. And of course, with serious problems, the earlier you get a diagnosis and begin treatment, the better

Know Your Body

When it comes to making an initial diagnosis and in choosing early tests, a key piece of evidence that can help is your description of symptoms. Any information you can give your doctor about unusual behaviors, changes, or issues will be useful. In particular, pay attention to the behavior of your pain, when you tend to feel pain (i.e., time of day, relation to certain activities, etc.), and the development of other symptoms like a gait problem, a fever, or pains in other parts of the body.

Be Aware of Symptoms

Should you experience more serious symptoms, take immediate action. If you develop symptoms like fever, swelling, redness, dizziness, or loss of appetite, contact your doctor immediately or seek out emergency care. These can be signals that something more serious than everyday back pain is going on.

Spinal problems caused by infectious diseases are not common, so there’s no reason to become alarmed if you experience back pain. Still, you shouldn’t neglect to pursue timely medical care. Even if you aren’t facing anything severe, pursuing timely treatment can have a dramatic impact on the time it takes for you to start to experience relief.