Suffering from back pain on the left? Or is the pain on the right? The location of your pain can help identify its cause and help determine the best treatment.

As many as 80 percent of American adults suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. And when your back hurts, usually the first thing on your mind is how you can feel better fast.

Pinpointing the exact location of your back pain can help you work out the cause, because different types of pain can affect different parts of the back. Knowing exactly where it is coming from, and determining the culprit, means you are that much closer to getting the right treatment and feeling better sooner.

Back Pain: Location, Location, Location

When you overdo it — whether it is during regular, everyday activities or during vigorous exercise or a sporting event — your back can suffer. You may sprain or strain your back, or you may even cause a disk (one of the cushions between your vertebrae) to pop out of place and press on a nerve (creating a condition also known as a herniated or bulging disk.

Depending on the mechanics of the activity causing your injury, this can affect any part of your back, causing left back pain, right back pain, upper or lower back pain. And sometimes it's not just your back that hurts — your groin or legs and feet can feel the pain, too. Classic types of back pain include:

• Back strains and sprains. While a sprain or strain can affect any part of the back, this type of injury typically causes pain that gets worse with movement. Other symptoms include muscle cramping, sudden uncontrollable muscle spasms, and difficulty standing, walking, or bending forward or sideways.
• Acute back pain. When pain comes on quickly and strong, which is often the case with a strain or sprain, this is known to doctors as acute back pain. The symptoms of acute back pain usually last less than a month to six weeks. The most common kind of acute back pain is mechanical, which means it begins in the bones, ligaments, disks, membranes, or joints of the back. As with sprains and strains, you can feel this type of pain throughout your back, depending on where the injury occurs. If you have mechanical back pain, you may also feel it in your lower back in the form of a muscle spasm that is more noticeable when you try to lift something heavy and move your back more than usual.
• Sciatica. There is a large nerve (the sciatic nerve) that runs down the backs of both your legs. Sometimes, parts of the sciatic nerve can get irritated or compressed (such as when a bulging disk presses on parts of the nerve), causing a condition known as sciatica. The pain of sciatica is pretty clear-cut: It begins in your lower spine and radiates down to your buttocks and the back of your leg. Sciatica can cause a range of other sensations, from a mild ache to extreme discomfort. Coughing or sneezing can make sciatic symptoms worse, as can sitting in one position for a long time. Numbness, muscle weakness, or a tingling sensation in the leg or foot are also commonly seen with sciatica pain.

 

Back Pain Symptoms: When Should You Worry?

Some back pain symptoms — and where these symptoms take place — are cause for greater concern. Although rare, back pain can be a symptom of a more serious medical condition, and you should seek medical attention promptly if:

• You have back pain that spreads down your legs, especially if it spreads below your knee. This could be sciatica, or it could be a herniated disk.
• Your legs are weak, numb, or tingling. This means that there is involvement of the nerves and requires immediate attention.
• You have new bowel or bladder problems. This could signal a serious but rare problem called cauda equina syndrome, a medical emergency.
• You have a fever or abdominal pain. This could mean an infection or a surgery-requiring condition such as appendicitis.
• You have had a fall or an injury to your back.
• You have been losing weight and can't explain why. This could be a sign of cancer.
• The pain is a deep, dull ache in one specific spot over a bone, or it is continuous, even when you lie down and at night. These could also be signs of a tumor in the bone.