Home > Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine > Low Back Pain

Definition

Low back pain (LBP) is a common complaint—second only to cold and flu as a reason why patients seek care from their family doctor. It may be a limited musculoskeletal symptom or caused by a variety of diseases and disorders that affect or extend from the lumbar spine. Low back pain is sometimes accompanied by sciatica, which is pain that involves the sciatic nerve and is felt in the lower back, the buttocks, the backs and sides of the thighs, and possibly the calves. More serious causes of LBP may be accompanied by fever, night pain that awakens a person from sleep, loss of bladder or bowel control, numbness, burning urination, swelling or sharp pain.

Description

Low back pain is a symptom that affects 80% of the general United States population at some point in life with sufficient severity to cause absence from work. As...