I remember when I first hurt my back and my doctor told me that I had two herniated discs. He got me to a physical therapist who tried a large catalog of exercises with me and some of them worked a little and some did not work at all. My pain was left side back pain and it shot down my left leg and affected mostly my ankle. But when it was flaring up at its worst my left side back pain caused me to not be able to get off my couch for months.

There are many different causes for left side back pain and some of those causes can be indications of larger problems potentially developing within your body. One of the conditions that left side back pain could be an indicator of is cancer so if you start to feel left side back pain please get to your doctor immediately. Left side back pain could also be an indication that you have a spine fracture so have that looked at immediately by a doctor.

So What Causes It?

Unfortunately there is no one thing that causes back pain and there is no one solution. One of the specialists I was seeing for my back told me that he could take 10 people with seemingly the same exact back problem, give them the same treatment, and he would get 10 different results. So back pain is still a difficult thing for medical science to deal with. But many Americans have some level of back pain and there are some more common causes that you can discuss with your doctor.

One cause is a degenerative condition in the discs of your spine. Over time your discs could just start to wear out and soon they begin to degenerate in their condition. Over time you will start to have a situation where you have bone on bone in your spine without the cushion of a disc and this causes back pain. Sometimes a pulled muscle in your back causes back pain. Compared to the ordeal of a damaged spine, a muscle pull is something that is relatively easy to repair even though it does take time. A herniated disc due to excessive lifting or bending can also cause back pain. The causes for back pain are many, the cures for back pain are sometimes futile, but back pain is a fact of life for many Americans.