In most cases the operations suceed with 70 percent returning to their normal jobs and routines and even more former patients needing no more of their pain medicine.

Unusual pain around your back is a normal first sign of the need for surgery, just like people say.

In older people, pain in the back is probably going to be felt. As the muscles degenerate, or if bad posture that has relentlessly weighed on the spine catches up with them, older people will get back pain. Further, all the normal wear and tear in the spine at places that previously have been hit, or overweight that causes the discs to be less flexible, will have their effects. And the consequences might need surgery.

You need not race off for surgery when you first notice your pain, of course, because frequently pain can be dealt with by a good physiotherapist or similar health professional -- not a surgeon.

When the pain refuses to go and surgery appears to be necessary, your doctor needs to determine this for sure by using traditional examinations and x-ray techniques. Request these be used first. Those costly MRI machines will help if it is sure that spinal surgery is required, but studies show that in some 85 percent of cases a scanner won't reveal anything extra that the simple examination and x-ray missed.

Of course, when it's clear you're going to have to have surgery then the MRI scanner will give your doctor essential information concerning your back.

Question your doctor about that information, though. This is because research shows that five years later those who took surgery claimed to have as much relief from pain, or better movement, than those who didn't. So if your surgeon is talking about surgery, get a second opinion.