It’s now tempting to blame your aching back on Mom and Dad. Researchers have discovered an inheritable gene variation that may increase susceptibility to lumbar-disk disease, a common precursor of lower-back pain.
The finding may lead to ways to identify patients at risk for lumbar-disk disease and to new drugs for treating it, says the study’s lead investigator, Shiro Ikegawa of the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research in Tokyo.
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