Lower back pain usually isn’t the sign of anything serious and normally improves within a few weeks or months.
But if pain doesn’t start to improve within a few weeks or the pain is very severe or gets worse over time it can indicate that something more serious is going on.
If you experience severe pain or aching on one or both sides of your lower back, Bupa says this could be a symptom of kidney stones.
Kidney stones are a solid piece of material that occurs in the urinary tact.
They’re quite common with around three in 20 men and up to two in 20 women developing them at some stage of their lives, according to the NHS.
Kidney stones can occur when the waste products in the blood form the solid pieces of material, also referred to as crystals, and these collect inside the kidneys.
Over time, these build up to form a hard stone-like lump.
Not drinking enough fluids, taking some types of medication, or having a medical condition that raises the levels of certain substances in your urine can cause this to happen.
Symptoms of the condition, like back pain, occur if the kidney stone gets stuck in your kidney, starts to travel down the tube that attaches each kidney to the bladder (the urethra), or causes an infection.
Other symptoms of kidney stones the NHS warns to watch out for include periods of intense pain in the back or side of your abdomen, or occasionally in your groin, which may last for minutes or hours.
Others are feeling restless and unable to lie still, nausea, needing to urinate more often than normal, pain when you urinate, and blood in your urine.
But alongside kidney stones, back pain can also be a sign of other serious health conditions.
In rare cases back pain can be a symptom of pancreatic cancer.
“Almost seven out of 10 people with pancreatic cancer go to their doctors because they have pain,” explains Cancer Research UK.
“Pain is more common in cancers of the body and tail of the pancreas. People describe it as a dull pain.
“It can begin in the stomach area and spread around to the back.
“The pain is worse when you lie down and is better if you sit forward. It can be worse after meals.
“Some people may only have back pain. This is often felt in the middle of the back, and is persistent.”
While it’s not very common, back pain can be a sign of a broken bone in the spine, an infection or caudal equine syndrome (where the nerves in the lower back become severely compressed).
If you visit your GP with back pain they will look for all these signs.
