Lower back pain can be a short-term or chronic problem that can strike anyone of any age at any time.

Whether you have a desk job or are on your feet all day, you are likely to experience an episode of lower back pain at some point in your life, along with tens of millions of others. At best, lower back pain is an annoyance; at worst, it is debilitating and interferes with work, leisure activities and your overall quality of life.

“You’d be a really uncommon person never to have had an episode of back pain,” Chris Maher, a health researcher at the University of Sydney, Australia, says in an interview with National Public Radio.

Today, there are drug-free options for relief of lower back pain – with chiropractic care as an optimal, first-line option that can help people to avoid prescription painkillers.

Chiropractic care in particular has shown success at improving or eliminating lower back pain, and helping patients return to work and regular activities. Doctors of chiropractic receive a minimum of seven years of higher-level education and are well-trained to perform a variety of hands-on techniques to help enhance flexibility, muscle strength and range of motion.

As chiropractic care has become more popular and mainstream, most insurance and health plans now provide some coverage, according to Dr. Sherry McAllister of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress.