It’s one of the most common conditions in the country — but no matter how many times your doctor has seen it, he still doesn’t know the first thing about treating it.

Some 80 percent of us have or will face back pain, and if you’ve “been there, done that” with your own doc, you know the drill. He’ll make a few sympathetic noises, and then prescribe painkillers and steroids.

If that didn’t work for you, you’re not alone — because neither the drugs nor the steroids will actually correct the problems that caused your back to bark in the first place.

And now, a new study confirms what you learned the hard way: Steroids simply don’t work at all for back pain.

Researchers randomly assigned 84 patients who had battled sciatica for at least a month to injections of either steroids, the arthritis drug etanercept, or plain old saline solution in two sessions, two weeks apart.

After a month, those who got the drugs — either one — improved. That might sound good… until you see that the patients who got the saline solution also improved.

In fact, while patients who took steroids got a little more short-term relief, in the end there were no statistical differences between patients in any of the three groups.

In other words, simple saline matched drugs that cost $500 to $700 per treatment.

Obviously, no one is going to run out and get saline injections. And I’m sure patients (or their insurers) will continue to shell out big money for the drugs anyway.

Some will get better on their own and think it was the drugs. Others will get worse and end up with a referral to a surgeon.

But you don’t have to go down that road. You can get real relief starting today, and all it takes is a little more movement.

The researchers behind the new study concluded that ordinary exercise is still the most effective way to beat back pain — and I’ve found that stretching exercises in particular work well for many people.

If you need a little more immediate help, don’t turn to painkillers. Turn to a natural anti-inflammatory proven to ease pain, such as MSM, bromelain, and turmeric or a non-drug treatment such as cold laser, chiropractic, acupuncture, and massage therapy.

It’s the Buy-One-Get-One-Free special stores don’t advertise: Buy some chicken, get some meds for free.

And just to make it more convenient for everyone, the drugs aren’t in their own package — they’re already inside the chicken.

Chickens raised on factory farms are being fed everything from banned antibiotics to painkillers — and some are even poisoned with arsenic — all in the name of raising the fattest and pinkest possible birds in the shortest possible time.

Now, two new studies on chicken feathers (which hold traces of drugs and other toxins fed to the birds) show just how many meds are pumped into them — and remember, whatever that chicken eats is what ends up on your plate on Chicken Night:

Caffeine: You know people who seem to eat every waking minute, right? Chickens are like them. Keep them awake longer, and they’ll eat more and get fatter. But caffeine also makes chickens jittery (just like it does to some people), and since jittery chickens have tougher meat, they need something to help them to relax before they turn into tough old birds.

Prozac: One feather-meal sample from China found this antidepressant, and it’s almost certainly there to help counter the caffeine and keep the chickens relaxed so their meat doesn’t get leather-tough. And it’s not the only drug that can have that effect.

Benadryl & Acetaminophen: These drugs turned up in the U.S. samples, and not because the chickens have allergies or need pain relief. It’s because, like Prozac, these drugs can also relax the chickens and help keep the meat tender.

Antibiotics: Factory farm chickens are kept in such cramped and filthy conditions that illness is a much bigger threat than the wolf ever was. So the birds are drugged to preemptively protect them from a rapidly spreading infection — and, conveniently, the drugs also help them to gain weight. The researchers found a class of antibiotics banned from poultry… but it looks like that ban is about as strong as a rubber chicken.

Arsenic: It’s crazy, but this is actually allowed. Arsenic kills two birds with one stone (so to speak) because it kills bacteria and keeps the meat nice and pink. The problem, of course, is that it’s arsenic — and when you eat a bird fed this poison, you’re getting a little dose of poison yourself.

It’s enough to keep chicken off the menu for good, but you don’t have to go that far. Just go organic instead.

And for more on food ingredients and additives — including a few you just won’t believe — keep an eye on your inbox on Sunday for my Weekend Roundup.

One minute, you’re a healthy and active senior who wouldn’t dream of popping an Advil, much less a powerful prescription painkiller. The next, you’re a certified addict who can’t get through the day without an opioid drug.

Think that can’t possibly happen to you? There are lots of hardcore pill poppers out there who once thought the same thing, including plenty of seniors.

And now, new numbers show just how easily older folks get hooked, with a full 10 percent of the seniors who get these meds after minor surgical procedures still taking them a year later.

These are relatively low-pain operations that might not require opioid drugs at all — like cataract and gall bladder procedures — but the new study shows that many docs give the drugs out anyway, automatically, and without even being asked.

And the seniors who get the meds this way — as if they come as part of a package deal with the operation — are 44 percent more likely to be among the long-term users.

Even worse, the seniors still using the drugs aren’t showing any signs of stopping or even slowing down. In fact, many of them have switched to higher doses and more powerful drugs.

That’s a sure sign of addiction, since a notorious opioid side effect is tolerance. The more you take them, the less they work — which is why long-term users are on a constant hunt for something stronger.

This should be a wake-up call for doctors everywhere — because if you think these drugs ruin young lives, you should see the toll they take on the elderly.

Opioid painkillers can put you in a mental fog and cause serious cognitive problems. They can also make you loopy and unsteady on your feet, turning a once-vibrant senior into a fall waiting to happen.

And if you’re a senior yourself, you know the reality of those falls and fractures: Any one of them can be your last, robbing you of your independence and even your life.

I asked Dr. Mark Stengler about this study, and he said it’s more proof that mainstream doctors are absolutely clueless when it comes to treating pain — because there are much better options than dangerous and addictive drugs.

Your own answers to pain will depend on the cause, but Dr. Stengler suggests trying a natural supplement such as curcumin or MSM or a drug-free treatment like cold laser or acupuncture.

A naturopathic physician can help find the treatment that’ll work best for you — and keep you off the addictive meds that can ruin or even end your life.

This one’s bound to make some pretty big waves: Yet another new study backs marijuana for medicinal purposes in a big way.

This time, researchers have found that pot can not only help beat pain — as people who already take it for that purpose, legally and illegally, have been saying all along — but it may even help steer patients away from dangerous and addictive painkillers.

And that includes the meds responsible for some of society’s biggest drug problems: opioid painkillers.

Twenty-one chronic pain patients who were already taking either long-acting morphine or long-acting oxycodone were given marijuana vaporizers to use for five days — in a hospital, where they could be carefully monitored in case any complications arose.

Researchers were especially worried that the pot might boost levels of opioids in the blood to dangerous levels. In reality, it led to no changes at all — while delivering 33 percent more pain relief to the morphine patients and 20 percent more pain relief to the oxycodone patients.

The patients didn’t experience any major side effects, beyond feeling “high” after getting their marijuana dose.

No one in the study actually took fewer meds — but since the patients were already growing more resistant to their opioid painkillers and got extra relief from marijuana, the indication is that eventually they could cut back on the meds if they were allowed to stick with the pot.

Of course, the study does have its problems: It didn’t have a placebo, for one. And it was small — but size is almost always a problem when it comes to studies on medical marijuana.

Researchers simply can’t get the funding they need for bigger studies since marijuana isn’t exactly popular with the folks who control the purse strings.

But the studies we do have are pretty clear: Medical marijuana comes with some very real benefits… and minimal risk.

Despite what you’ve heard, it’s not even addictive in most cases. Sure, people can overdo it — but that’s a risk we already take each day with every drug already on the market (especially opioid painkillers).

This isn’t a popular opinion, but it’s a scientific one — not to mention a humane one: For some conditions, especially chronic pain, marijuana is safe and effective — and that means it should also be legal.