Though doctors are not very sure of the results, they believe there is some connection between back pain and emotional stress. Stress is known to affect our muscles in the shoulders and back, and they become painful.

Spinal stenosis is one of the major reasons for back problems developed in the old age. As the body grows old, the spinal canal can wear off and become constricted. With a tight spinal canal, you feel a lot of pain. Also, the discs lose their moisture with age and the smallest of accidents may cause friction and inflammation in the discs.

Harmful habits like smoking also weaken the bones, thus exposing them to the risk of developing problems. Medical experts believe that nicotine hampers the health of your bones and they soon become vulnerable to disease and medical problems. As your lower back bears the burden of most of the body, it tends to give in to the vulnerability more easily.

Obesity is also said to be one of the causes for developing back related problems. According to doctors, when the weight of your body becomes too much for the bones to bear, they become weak and prone to diseases.

Doctors have come across cases where genetic reasons have led to the weakness of bones and a tendency to develop spine-related problems. Dr Anderson claims that genes, too, play an important part in the degeneration of discs. His experiments have proved that twins often have similar MRI scan results of the spine even if they are subjected to different lifestyles and scenarios: one may have led a completely sedentary life, working on the desk while the other might have spent an extremely active life, working mostly on physical strength. According to Dr Anderson, their reasons for developing such problems are purely genetic.

The disease spondylolisthesis destabilizes the vertebrae and causes them to slip. This generates acute, inflammatory pain in the lower back. The disease is known to occur due to degeneration of the bones. Degeneration occurs often with ageing of the body. As the instability of the spine increases, the pain becomes unbearable.

Several diseases, like scoliosis, adversely affect the spinal bones and cause lower back pain. Diseases like spondylitis, ankylosing and spinal stenosis can also cause lower back pain. Osteoporosis is another ailment that weakens the bones and harms the spinal region and the back. The compression caused in the vertebrae that results in their fracture causes severe pain.

Doctors do not usually come across cases of lower back pain where infections or tumors are a cause. However, medical experts do not completely negate the occurrence of such cases. Infections of the vertebrae or discs often cause acute pain in the lower back. Infection in the vertebrae is called osteomyelitis. This disease triggers pain in the lower back at nights. It is also augmented when you hold the same posture for a long time. A disc infection is called diskitis. Tumors rarely originate in the back. Usually, cancer from elsewhere in the body spreads to the back.

External injuries, when they damage the ligaments supporting your spinal cord, also lead to lower back pain. The impact of such injuries may be chronic pain or a short lived pain. However, doctors can easily diagnose such cases with the help of an X-Ray.

Often the injury-induced lower back pain results from accidents and bad falls that you might have had. A fractured vertebrae, too, can cause lower back pain. Your vertebrae can be fractured either by a direct force on the spine or from the compression forced upon your spine from a fall on the buttocks or head.

Muscular strains caused in normal routine may also hamper the health of your lower back. Patients often forget what exactly triggered their lower back pain. In most cases, it is the normal day to day strain that your muscles suffer that gives way to lower back pain. These spasms of pain in lower back that spring due to muscular strain is often reported to wane with a few days of treatment and care.

When the discs located between the vertebrae of the spine break down, the condition is known as invertebral disc degeneration. The deterioration of the discs also causes the spinal canal to narrow. With deterioration, the discs tend to lose the ability to provide a cushioning effect to the vertebrae. When you stress your back in such conditions you experience severe pain. People with invertebral disc degeneration complain of morning stiffness or acute pain when holding one position for a long time. Spasms, ruptured discs and muscular tension may also result in disc degeneration in certain cases.

In severe cases, the disc material tends to spread into the narrower spinal canal (made narrow by the degeneration of disc itself). This unusual activity in spinal area causes the nerves to compress and calls for medical emergency. Such a person may suffer bowel or bladder dysfunction and experience loss of sensation. Such a medical emergency is called Cauda Equina syndrome and doctors must immediately be consulted when faced with such a scenario.