20 Things You Didn't Know About ... Your Back

Neanderthals apparently suffered from less lower back pain — and if you’ve got a lot of it, you might have more in common with chimpanzees than your fellow humans.

By Gemma Tarlach
Feb 5, 2016 10:56 PMNov 12, 2019 4:16 AM
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1. Thanks to evolution, your back is a marvel of load-bearing support and flexibility — and kind of a mess. Our species is prone to back pain, for example, because our ancestors’ imperfect transition to upright walking essentially took a spine similar to that of our nearest living relatives, knuckle-walking chimpanzees, and forced it vertical with piecemeal adaptations.

2. A 2015 study found that some people are, well, chimpier than others. Humans prone to certain back problems have vertebrae closer in shape to those of a chimpanzee than those of pain-free humans.

3. Regardless of shape, you might have more (or fewer) of the bones than your neighbor. Not everyone has the standard 33 vertebrae: From top to tail, that’s seven cervical, 12 thoracic, five lumbar, five sacral and four coccygeal.

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