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People have known negative effects of chronic back pain to health and human performance. Besides anxiety and depression, chronic back pain also limits our capability to work, rest, or any other daily activities.

Recently, a research from Northwestern University found that chronic back pain also limits our brain power, since it can cause significant and long-lasting damage to the brain.

Chronic back pain actually shrinks the gray matter of the brain—the part responsible for memory and information processing—by as much as 11 percent each year. In contrast, normal aging of the brain results in just a 0.5 percent loss of gray matter a year. Large decrease in gray matter is that chronic pain forces nerve cells to work overtime.

The findings should sound a warning to patients with back pain to seek care as soon as possible.

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