[Cowperson]

I've had lower back pain before but have it mostly under control now. About a year and a half ago it came up quite suddenly and was quite debilitating for about nine months.

Doctor explanation . . . . . your spine has large doughnuts in your lower back. As we age, these deteriorate. If we tweak our back wrong, jelly from the doughnut squirts out and creates pressure on the nerves in the lower back, which creates a great deal of pain and debilitation.

You need to keep the jelly in the doughnuts. I understand squirting jelly from doughnuts!!!

Went to physio and they stretched out the spine (cool device) and that was a great relief but only temporary. Eventually I'd tweak things again.

This wasn't getting much better for a long time and while I could still run my legs were definitely noticeably weaker . . . . which is scary.

Finally, after about nine months, I bought an exercise ball and did some situps as described in the instructions. Within the first two sessions - not kidding - of this my back was mostly fine. It was like something had snapped back in place. It was like a miracle cure.

Tweaked it one more time but got that back in place as well.

Legs are fine. Running lots. Biking lots. You can feel it a little bit on occasion but not much.

Keep your weight under control, tighten your core (stomach muscles), get an exercise ball (although that may or may not work in your circumstances as effectively as mine) and watch your posture when you are sitting or lying down.

Lower back deterioration seems more normal than not as you age. Its about management of the problem once you get it under control. Good habits. But its depressing when its not getting better for sure.

Hope that helps. Again, everyone is different. Just relating my experience.

EDIT: And strangely, cutting out salty snacks like Cheezies, etc seemed to have a direct relationship to back pain coming back or not. So, no salty snacks, which is probably a good thing to do anyway.

Cowperson