If you’re experiencing your first really bad backache, you’re probably panicking a little about the pain and its implications — what if it’s cancer? What if it never goes away? If it feels this bad at the age of 30, what will it be like when I’m 60?!
My first piece of advice is, take a deep breath and relax. Low back pain is very common. About 80% of Australian adults will miss work at some point because of it. And most of the time, it’s neither permanent nor serious: 95% of backaches go away within six weeks, with no specific treatment, and potentially much faster if you seek treatment, advice and management strategies from an expert in the field of manual medicine. Following are 7 essential things to know about dealing with a bad back…