Backaches and Chiropractic: Back pain often attacks without warning. It can be a sharp stabbing thrust or it may sneak up on you as a dull throbbing that does not seem to ease up. Findings have shown, in one survey� 1) That pain is the number one health complaint, and that back pain is the second most common pain. A large percent of the population will experience disabling low back pain at least once during their lives! The problem is so bad that at any one time, according to one researcher, almost 7 percent of the U.S. adult population is suffering from an episode of back pain lasting more than two weeks. 2) The estimated cost of lower back problems in the U.S. is more than $50 billion a year. Many Conditions Can Precipitate Back Pain. Back pain can result from: muscle and tendon strain and sprain; muscle tension, brought on by emotional stress; poor posture, brought on by weak or unexercised muscles; muscle spasms caused by over-exertion or over-use. Back pain can result from disease of the spine such as the various types of arthritis and tuberculosis. Back pain also can be brought on by disease elsewhere in the body, called referred pain. And that there are so many other things that can precipitate back pain that a person suffering from this condition can become very confused about what to do. What Causes Back Pain? Most conditions that can precipitate back pain, and there are more than those mentioned above, have at least one thing in common - nerve irritation. Dorland's Medical Dictionary defines pain as "a feeling of distress, suffering or agony caused by stimulation of specialized nerve endings." There can be no pain unless these specialized sensory nerves are stimulated (irritated), resulting in the transmission of nerve impulses to the brain.