Hyderabad: More than half the people across the globe suffer from backache and it was among the top 10 ailments, largely affecting women.
It was found that 100 million work days are lost due to backache problems, which affected around 58 per cent of the population and is one of the highest causes of disability, according to studies by the Global Disease Burden.
People are found to start suffering from this ailment from the age of 30 which worsens as age advanced.
Senior consultant neurosurgeon at Apollo Hospitals Dr Amitav Ray said, “The exact cause of back pain is often undetected. It is due to poor posture, obesity, stress, depression, decreased exposure to sunlight or a severe underlying cause.”
Experts said that the majority of people who suffer from back pain never consulted a specialist. Medicines and physiotherapy were found to be very helpful. Orthopaedic surgeon Dr B. Nagesh explained, “To prevent back pain the thumb rule is to strengthen back muscles and follow an exercise regime with an active lifestyle. People have to learn ways to de-stress themselves and underlying depression must be treated.”
Back pain, which required the intervention of specialists, was when there was an accident or fall, unexplained weight loss and pain with numbness or weakness. These were the cases where there could be underlying causes of some illness or due to some other reasons.
