I had regular back pains already from my early 20's and for 20 years, I come from a family with a lot of discos prolapses, (if that's the name for it in English), My mother has 4, my sister got her first in her 20's, and my brother got on in his early 30's. I exercised a lot for many years, and I am not diagnosed with it, but would regularly get sudden sharp pains from even minor movements, that would last for days and sometimes several weeks. It all magically vanished about 6 or 7 years ago, when I began to take vitamin D, after I was tested seriously deficient. I read up on vitamin D, and learned that many researchers recommend more than the official numbers, I took what is probably considered the maximum dose considered safe dose of 10000 ie daily for ½ a year, and was tested again, and was at max of what they could meassure, so I reduced to 5000 ie daily, I haven't had a problem with my back since.
Thank you for sharing you experience, glad to hear that you don't have the pain anymore. Very few people are so lucky, and most of them have tried all the treatments.
I think when it becomes chronic, it's a lot harder, my mother and sister have had chronic back pains mostly all their life, I heeded that as a warning already as a teen that I was probably at high risk for the same, and have tried to exercise regularly and to not eat too unhealthy. I've always used multi vitamin and mineral supplements, despite the statistics are not too good for that, and about 10 years ago I started taking fish oil in triple dose. Maybe vitamin D was just the missing piece for me, and I was lucky to find out before it was too late. My story is of course anecdotal, but it is also perfectly in line with some of the research that has been done on vitamin D for the past 10-15 years. The reason I mention fish oil is that both my mother and sister have both dieted heavily towards avoiding meat and fat, and I suspect that to have been actively harmful. Essential fatty acids are now known to be crucial for our health, particularly for brain and nerves, and they are both diagnosed with MS now.