Does it hurt when you bend over? Is the pain constant or does it only happened after a long day of working in the garden? The answers to these questions will be answered differently based on the type of back pain that you currently have.

Acute back pain is prevalent in almost everyone from time to time. If you spend too much time heavy lifting or are bending over in the garden all day you might wake up the next day with back pain, but it will go away. The type of back pain that is the most troubling to people today is chronic nonspecific back pain. This type of back pain is long lasting and is usually present for at least three months before it can be diagnosed as chronic and will most likely be recurring in nature. After suffering through four months of pain, you might not have any trouble for months, but it will return to the same degree or hurt even more than the last time you were inflicted by it. This type of pain is classified as nonspecific because it is difficult or nearly impossible for a doctor to diagnose the cause of it. The causes of the infliction may be social, physical or psychological in nature, so the treatment is varied.

The most important thing that a doctor will try to do is to improve your function. While it is important to reduce your pain, the number one goal is to make sure that you can live a normal life and do all of the activities that you would normally do. Doctors will start by suggesting different exercises that can improve your function and help ease the pain in your back. They will also try medications, counseling and physical therapy before even thinking about surgery. Oftentimes patients just want to get rid of their back pain and think that surgery is an easy answer. Surgery is never an easy answer and the recovery from that procedure will be more difficult to come back from then the conservative approaches that were mentioned first.

If your normal function does not improve, then your doctor might suggest that you use a back brace to help support your abdomen and take some of the load off your lower back. Long use of a back brace is not recommended, but it may help to pin-point your trouble areas. Additionally, a common cause of back pain has to do with a person being overweight or a woman having large breasts. Both the weight of your stomach and breasts add pressure to your back. Losing weight is one way to take the pressure off your back. It's never easy, but the long-term good will make your back happy once again. Some insurance companies today will play for a woman to have a breast reduction surgery if it is doctor recommended because of back pain. Since it is a type of surgery, you should know about all of the options to talk to your doctor, but for some people the relief they feel is immediate and long lasting.