Listen in or read the partial transcript below as R. Dylan Morris, DO, Spine Surgeon at Skagit Regional Health, discusses back pain being a very common source of discomfort for many people, the possible treatment methods and more.

Joey Wahler (Host): This podcast is for informational purposes only. That is not intended to be used for personal medical advice. It's a common source of discomfort for many. So we're discussing back pain and how it's treated. Our guest, Dr. Dylan Morris, spine surgeon at Skagit Regional Health. This is be Well with Skagit Regional Health. Thanks for listening. I'm Joey Wahler, Dr. Morris. Hi there. Thanks for joining.

Dr. Dylan Morris: Yeah, thanks for having me.

Joey Wahler (Host): Great to have you with us. So first, just how common is back pain and who does it usually affect most?

Dr. Dylan Morris: Back pain is fairly common. The people that it usually affects most are anywhere from adolescents, early to mid-teens, up to, the oxyginarians.

Joey Wahler (Host): And what are the typical causes of it?

Dr. Dylan Morris: There's various causes of back pain. Most common would be, a muscle strain, which occurs after, heavy lifting or heavy workout. You can also have some inflammation or arthritic type pain that affects the little joints in your back called your facet joints. And then also you can have stenotic type back pain from all of the nerves being compressed in your back. That's called neurogenic claudication. Most of those people have pain in their back and their butt source when they walk and stand. It gets better when they sit down. Those are the most, three main causes of back pain.

Joey Wahler (Host): How about upper back pain versus lower back pain, which is more common and which is harder to get rid of?

Dr. Dylan Morris: Lower back pain is more common just because there's more flexibility in movement within your lumbar spine compared to your thoracic spine. Low back pain in the lumbar spine tends to be a little bit more easy to treat than pain in your mid-back. Pain in your neck, cervical type pain is more common than your thoracic pain. It's more on the scale of or frequency of your low back pain.

To listen to the podcast or read the full transcript, visit here.