The seat of the chair for working should be deep enough (front to back) so that the thighs are fully supported, and the front edge of the seat should not dig into the thigh; this could cause pressure on the sciatic nerve. The chair seat should be inclined about 5 degrees to the horizontal, forwards, [...]

Many people seeking relief from back pain try out therapies which do not form part of orthodox medicine (although a number of doctors have had training in them, and practise them as a specialty). Remember having the correct diagnosis is the first step towards successful treatment. You do not need to go through your GP [...]

The first thing the specialist will ask is where the pain and other symptoms are, and how far they extend. Try to point them out as clearly as possible. Be prepared to go into considerable detail, if asked. The specialist will want to know how long ago the trouble began; what you were doing when [...]

The muscles which support the spine and control its movements are liable to injury by the same stresses that damage the vertebrae and joints. Muscular injury may be related to postural stress, or to excessive or miscalculated effort. An example is bending with a sudden jerking movement without allowing the back muscles to arrange themselves [...]

One of the difficulties about curing back pain is that diagnosis is problematic: a great number of possible causes may manifest themselves as back pain. There is also the problem of why pain persists with no structural causes. There is a tendency to attribute most back pain to the minority of causes that are understood. [...]