Chronic back pain costs an estimated $80-90 billion to treat each year, yet despite advancements in surgery, therapies and drugs, experts say back pain is still considered an epidemic. One doctor believes there is an alternative way to treat the pain and it doesn’t require needles or splints, just a simple change in lifestyle.

“For a good muscular system, you need to have a good digestive system or good function,” Dr. Todd Sinett, author of “3 Weeks to A Better Back” told Foxnews.com.

Sinett discovered the link between diet and back pain when his late father, also a chiropractor, threw out his back and was bedridden for nine months. Once his father cut sugar and caffeine from his diet, he gained his life back.

“If you’re only looking at your back pain as structural source you’re missing 2/3 of the equation,” Sinett said. “You can’t solve any problem if you’re looking at a third of the possible solutions, a third of the possible diagnosis and a third of the possible treatments.”

Jon Roman tried all the usual remedies to cure his back pain: ice, heat, medication. But the 51-year-old grew frustrated when nothing seemed to work and the pain began affecting his lifestyle.

“Getting up and down from a seated position or getting up in the morning out of bed really started to become very, very painful,” he told FoxNews.com. “And it would start to affect the quality of my everyday life.”

Roman was paired with a nutritionist and began eliminating sugar, gluten, dairy, caffeine and alcohol from his diet. Sinett said those foods elevate a person’s level of cortisol, which is an inflammatory factor in the body, leading to the creation of pain.

“I will tell you that within days, not even weeks, my back started to feel better, and within a week I was pain free,” Roman said.

Sinett said patients should begin by writing down everything they consume for seven days, along with the amount of back pain they feel. Patients should then start altering their diet while paying attention to the affect it has on their pain.

For more tips, check out DrSinett.com.