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Writer's pictureMarinus van Aarle, DOMP

Lower back pain…types, causes…. and Relief

Updated: Jun 4, 2018

Many people will experience lower back pain at some point in their life.

In the past Statistics Canada reported that in any 6 months 50% of Canadians will experience lower back pain and 85% of Canadians will experience back pain in their lifetime.

Lower back pain can be divided into different categories:


  • Specific: The lower back pain is linked to a specific cause.The underlying cause can be an illness or injury (like a hernia or sciatica problems) or food sensitivity (like gluten intolerance).

  • Non-Specific: The lower back pain is caused by multiple underlying causes which are not always clear at first glance. Many factors like: a desk job, posture, nutrition and activity level can be an underlying cause for lower back pain.

  • Acute lower back pain. This is lower back pain lasting less than one month. The causes for acute Lower back pain can be specific or non specific.

  • Sub-acute lower back pain. This last between one and three months and can be both specific on non-specific.

  • Chronic lower back pain. Chronic pain last more than three months. The original cause can be specific or non-specific.

Lower back pain can have a large impact on people’s lives.

Often it is always there and affects functioning and stress levels.

Pain levels can sometimes be managed with medication, but medication does not address

the underlying cause or causes.

Plus medication can have side-effects.


Treatment of lower back pain by a Manual Osteopath usually combines different ways of treatment and prevention of pain.

The gentle stretching techniques applied by the Manual Osteopath work really well for lower back pain and usually give an instant relief and drop in pain levels.

Often there is tightness in either the Psoas-muscle or the Piriformis-muscle forming an underlying cause to lower back pain.


The treatment is combined with tips for self-care.

Self-care can include specific exercises, workplace ergonomics or even things as not sitting on your wallet in case of Sciatica pain.



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