Hey, DMO. Sorry your back's hurting you. If it's OK, I'll move this to our Medical area.

Back pain is a mystery to me. I have trouble with it on and off, too. Mine's in my lower back, and it troubles me sometimes if I've taken an overly long break from exercising and have let my abdominal muscles get a tad out of shape. Your core muscles in your abdomen do a lot of work in supporting your back, at least your lower back, and when my lower back starts to hurt, working up some strength on the back extension machine at the gym and doing crunches to tone my abdominal muscles always makes it get gradually better. I find anti-inflammatory over-the-counter meds like ibuprofen work a lot better than hard-core pain meds, too.

Some people get a lot of relief from chiropractors. I've found they can do good things where heat, massage and touch-therapy are concerned, but I don't trust them if they begin claiming they can heal all sorts of systemic diseases by manipulation and adjustment of the spine. Most mainstream medicine still regards those claims as malarkey. But I do know lots of people who've gotten lots of relief by going to them, so I always tell people to keep an open mind. It's easy to get back sprains and to pull muscles back there, which can account for back pain. My doctor always does this thing where she has me lie down and then raises one of my legs at a time and asks me if I have any tingling or numbness anywhere as she does that. Somehow that helps her rule out a slipped disk. I gather when people have serious disk or nerve injuries, they get numbness and/or tingling, but I really know next to nothing yet about diagnosis of back trouble. I do know that it's one of the top 5 ailments that sends people to the doctor in this country.

If your pain's in your lower back, try doing a little research on back-strengthening abdominal exercises and do those for a few days and see if that helps. Sorry not to be of more help. Hope you start feeling better soon!