DENVER -- Thirty-one million Americans suffer from lower back pain but what many don't know is that just a few changes in their everyday routine could relieve the ache.

Kevin Dailey has been poked, pushed, pulled and stretched since he was 18.

"I've had problems with low back pain for 25 years," Dailey said.

He found relief where he least expected it.

"This is the first that I've ever thought about looking at my problem from a whole comprehensive standpoint," he said.

Todd Sinett, chiropractor and author of The Truth About Back Pain, is laying out the facts.

"You can have back pain that's a third structural, a third chemical, a third emotional, or percentages of different factors, but what's happening is that you're only getting, at best, you're only getting piece-meal treatment," Sinett said.

So how much do you know about back pain? Will exercising give you a strong back? The truth is sit-ups and crunches may actually cause more back pain than they prevent.

"We're all walking around with a term that we call core imbalance, and what's happening is, is that we need to balance between forward bending and backward bending," Sinett said.

So does your diet have any relation to your back pain? Turns out, you are what you eat.

"It's the easiest thing to change. Just change what you're putting in your mouth for three weeks and see what happens," Sinett said.

He said the five worst foods for back pain are caffeinated drinks like coffee and soda, foods full of sugar such as cookies, and eating too much broccoli or oatmeal can create digestive distress, which can cause back pain.

Stress is one of the most common causes of back pain.

"You can't exercise, eat well and then be so stressed out and be shocked if you have back pain," Sinett said.

Dailey adjusted his diet, lowered his stress level and changed his life.

"I'm doing things that I haven't done in 10 to 15 years," Dailey said.

Back pain costs $90 billion a year, making it the second leading cause of missed work days, the third most common surgery and the fifth most common hospitalization.

Back Pain Quiz

According to the Mayo Clinic, about four out of five people in the United States will experience low back pain at least once during their lives. Back pain is the second most common cause of missed work days. It costs us about $90 billion each year.

CAUSES: There are many potential causes of back pain. Some of these include:

Strains: Strained muscles and ligaments may result from improper lifting or after a sudden, awkward movement.

Bulging or ruptured disks: Disks act as cushions between the vertebrae in your spine. Sometimes, the soft material inside a disk may bulge out of place or rupture and press on a nerve.

Sciatica: If a bulging or herniated disk presses on the main nerve that travels down your leg, it can cause sciatica -- sharp, shooting pain through the buttock and back of the leg.

Arthritis: The joints most commonly affected by osteoarthritis are the hips, hands, knees and lower back. In some cases, arthritis in the spine can lead to a narrowing of the space around the spinal cord. This is a condition known as spinal stenosis.

Skeletal irregularities: Back pain can occur if your spine curves in an abnormal way. If the natural curves in your spine become exaggerated, your upper back may look abnormally rounded, or your lower back may arch excessively. Scoliosis, a condition in which your spine curves to the side, may also lead to back pain.

Osteoporosis: Compression fractures of your spine's vertebrae can occur if your bones become porous and brittle.

RISK FACTORS: Some risk factors for back pain include smoking, being obese, being female, having a physically strenuous job, having a stressful job, being sedentary and experiencing anxiety or depression.

TREATMENTS: Doctors may prescribe nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or muscle relaxants to relieve mild to moderate back pain that doesn't get better with over-the-counter pain relievers. Low doses of certain types of antidepressants have been shown to relieve chronic back pain as well. Physical therapists can apply a variety of treatments such as heat, ice, ultrasound, electrical stimulation and muscle-release techniques to a patient's back muscles to reduce pain. Doctors may also inject cortisone into the space around a patient's spinal cord. A cortisone injection helps decrease inflammation around the nerve roots. If all of those measures fail, patients may undergo surgery to relieve their pain.