totally agree - proper assesment - core function here is paramount also.

water should not be under estimated in back pain either... nor should correct breathing.

Proper breathing expands and contracts the spine, keeping it mobile and healthy. It sucks fluid into the disks and flushes it out, it pumps cerebral spinal fluid, massages the internal organs etc Few of us breath properly (first2/3rds of breath should swell the belly - this is day to day breathing not training - last third is when the chest should move) breathing through the nose is key to getting the breath into the bottom of the lungs.

IF breathing is out the whole body will compensate to try to correct. This means the spine can move and adjust to try to correct improper breathing habits.. if one segment moves then all others are effected (and everything connected at those segments).

One of the easiest examples is the head migrating forward and mouth opening to get more air in (mouth breathing) - head goes forward means your spine has to move. Has to! If checked closely you'll see that the bottom end of the spine adjusts to compensate the cervical movement.

Learning to breath as we were designed to (stop doing so due to stress, social conditioning, poor nutrition in key developmental periods starting in the womb - trauma etc) has huge effects on health, energy levels and body function. Breathing is the key to life, health, function etc and plays huge roles in back pain.

Water
Effects all body functions from spinal health to the pain pathways.
In short water is a big part of the fluid in your disks... if dehydrated the body can scavenge water from the disks to go to more important functions.

That is in brief for sure. "The Body's Many Cries For Water" and "You're Not Sick You're Thirsty" are good resources in this area.

proper assesment of back pain starts with breathing, then your jaw (bite is out whole body will adjust to try to maintain ability to eat) then eyes, ears, C-1 etc etc

can't breath - die in minutes
Can't eat - die in days

this is the bodies order of importance in survival... and it will do anything it can to correct poor function. It will sacrifice any and all body functions for the higher importance ones...

I am not saying all back pain is caused by poor breathing habits. I am saying that in my opinion they must be assessed and no matter what, correcting in these areas has huge effects on all body functions- including the energy it takes to constantly check, balance and try to correct.

Bite for example - had my jaw lined up with a mouth piece designed to hold my jaw in its proper place... felt good, neck and back pain started to go away etc... I was doing an exercise (supine lateral ball roll) with my strength coach (who talked my dentist - his friend - into learning about neuromuscular dentistry (rare among dentists) and who made me the mouth piece)...

As I was doing it he was asking how the mouth piece was working.. he said to take it out and do another couple reps. Not word of a lie I almost fell of the ball. My strength, stability and balance was way way worse.

When my jaw washeld in proper alignment my body could focus energy else where and wasn't trying to correct everything.

Often athletes get 10-15% increase in performance by having the jaw lined up this way (most dentists do it an old school way that doesn't look into where the jaw naturally wants to rest)

Now keep in mind the jaw is second in importance the breathing!

Core is huge huge huge in stabilizing the whole body - it activate a criss cross connectiong through the fascia that stabilze the shoulders and legs.

Huge effects on potential core function from food too. Explained more indepth on "dislocated shoulder" thread.

arthritis - water is huge too... cartilage has a fair amount of water in its make up and of course the joints lube has even more. Water is also used to flush acid out of the joints etc

start drinking water consistently and cool things happen with joint pain.