NEW YORK (Ivanhoe Newswire) -- About 31 million Americans suffer from lower back pain, but what many don't know is that just a few changes in their everyday routine could relieve the ache.

Kevin Dailey has been poked, pushed, pulled and stretched since he was 18.

"I've had problems with low back pain for 25 years," Dailey told Ivanhoe.

Dailey found relief where he least expected it.

"This is the first that I've ever thought about looking at my problem from a whole comprehensive standpoint," he said.

Todd Sinett, chiropractor and author of The Truth About Back Pain, is laying out the facts.

"You can have back pain that's a third structural, a third chemical, a third emotional or percentages of different, but what's happening is that you're only getting, at best, you're only getting piece-meal treatment," Dr. Sinett told Ivanhoe.

So how much do you know about back pain? Will exercising give you a strong back? The truth is sit-ups and crunches may actually cause more back pain than they prevent.

"We're all walking around with a term that we call 'core imbalance,' and what's happening is, is that we need to balance between forward bending and backward bending," Dr. Sinett explained.

True or false: your diet has no relation to your back pain? Turns out, you are what you eat.

"It's the easiest thing to change," Dr. Sinett said. "Just change what you're putting in your mouth for three weeks and see what happens."

Dr. Sinett says the five worst foods for back pain are caffeinated drinks like coffee and soda, foods full of sugar like cookies, and eating too much broccoli or oatmeal can create digestive distress, which can cause back pain.

Is stress one of the most common causes of back pain? You bet it is!

"You can't exercise, eat well and then be so stressed out and be shocked if you have back pain," Dr. Sinett said.

Dailey adjusted his diet, lowered his stress level and changed his life.

"I'm doing things that I haven't done in 10-15 years," Dailey said.

True or false: Back pain costs $90 billion a year, making it the second leading cause of missed work days, the third most common surgery and the fifth most common hospitalization? The answer: true.