Agreed
There is good evidence that early diagnosis and treatment gets people better. If we use returning to work as a marker of resolution, Germany has almost four times as many people getting back to work with early imaging and treatment. The number of adults with lower back issues who stop working in the UK is a concern
As to what treatment is best is far more difficult. A paper a year or so back showed no difference in various types of surgery so complex surgery as a primary treatment is hard to get excited about. Early local anaesthetic injections do seem to be effective, and are safe, but we face an epidemic and the NHS in the UK is struggling.
If imaging demonstrates no risk to nerves, osteopaths and other non traditional treatments seem to help albeit from anecdotal reports such as those on this post, possibly due to simply getting sufferers mobile and motivated, and if it reduces the pressure on the NHS all well and good.
Gingernut is spot on about drugs. The US is seeing an unprecedented level of addiction to drugs such as oxycodone. Narcotics are not the way to go. Non steroidals such as voltarol and ibuprofen have also recently been rubbished, leaving simple paracetamol