If you are suffering from any of the symptoms listed above, it’s time to take control of your lower back pain. Begin keeping a pain journal and documenting the activities or situations that trigger your irritation, as well as steps you take to relieve it. This information will help you and your doctor identify the cause and severity of your lower back pain. The most frequent factors contributing to lower back pain are:

• Strained Ligaments or Muscle Tissues

When you improperly lift heavy objects, twist your back or overstretch, you risk marring ligaments and muscle tissue. While these may sound like mild injuries, they can be surprisingly debilitating and long-lasting if ignored or not taken care of properly.

• Spinal Stenosis

Spinal stenosis occurs when the spinal column narrows, placing pressure on the spinal cord and nerves. This issue can lead to pain, numbness, leg weakness and sensory loss, and runs the risk of becoming a very serious condition if not treated right away.

• Skeletal Irregularities

Congenital anomalies of the spine can cause lower back pain as they upset weight distribution and strain tissues, ligaments and nerves. Scoliosis, a curvature of the spine, and lordosis, an abnormally accentuated arch in the lower back, are two examples of skeletal irregularities that may spur discomfort in the lower back.

• Herniated or Ruptured Discs

When a disc in the lumbar region becomes herniated, its inner, liquid-like layer seeps through its hard casing by way of an infirmity or break. As this extra matter leaks into the affected area, nerves are pinched and pain occurs. Additionally, when a disc is ruptured it is no longer able to properly cushion and stabilize the spine, causing pain as muscles and ligaments overcompensate.

• Disc Degeneration

Although some discs in the spine deteriorate naturally with age, this process can happen abnormally quickly in some patients. Disc degeneration heightens your vulnerability to a myriad of spinal problems and can lead to distressing lower back pain.

• Infection

Lower back pain can result when infections involve the vertebrae, intervertebral discs or sacroiliac joints. Bacteria, fungi or other germs maybe spread to bone from infected skin, muscles and tendons.

• Traumatic Injury

Car accidents, falls and other dramatic incidents can cause vertebral fractures, herniated discs and nerve damage. Even after the majority of injuries have healed, lower back pain may persist.

• Radiculopathy

Radiculopathy describes the pain that results when nerve roots near the spine are strained, injured or inflamed. Numbness and radiating tingling may also occur.

• Sciatica

A form of radiculopathy, sciatica causes sharp and burning lower back pain, accompanied by pain through the buttocks and down one leg — Occasionally even reaching the foot. These symptoms occur because the sciatic nerve is compressed and nerve signaling is being interrupted. Vertebral fractures, herniated discs, tumors and cysts may all incite sciatica.

• Health Issues, Such as Tumors

Tumors and other health issues can affect the spine and surrounding tissues, ligaments and nerves by pressing against components of the lower back and obstructing ideal functioning.

• Osteoporosis

This condition causes brittle, weak bones, which are more susceptible to painful fractures and inefficient weight distribution.

• Arthritis

Inflammatory diseases like arthritis and spondylitis, an irritation of the vertebrae, can cause stubborn low back pain.

• Fibromyalgia

This chronic pain syndrome involves general muscle pain and fatigue, which can translate into lower back discomfort.

• Kidney Stones

If you are experiencing sharp pain in the lower back, particularly on one side, you may be experiencing kidney stones. Also known as a renal calculus, a kidney stone is a solid piece of material formed in the kidney by minerals.

• Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms

When the large blood vessel that supplies blood to the abdomen, pelvis and legs becomes abnormally enlarged, pain may occur and an aneurysm may be imminent.

A sedentary lifestyle, obesity, pregnancy and smoking can also increase the likelihood of developing lower back pain. While this list of lower back pain instigators may seem lengthy, it is by no means comprehensive. Many circumstances can cause discomfort in the lower back, and to care for your condition you must first discover its root causes or causes.