Love your back

[welz]

Since becoming a member of HP I've noticed that one of the most common boards is back problems. I'm sure if you talk to anyone, they will tell you that they've had or do suffer with back problems.

There are so many reasons why a person can get back pain and it's important that you talk to your GP first, before undertaking any complementary therapy.

However, having said all that.... I'd like to suggest that folks should start to love their backs because prevention is always better than cure.

Learn how to lift and bend without stressing your back, learn how to sit in a chair with the correct posture and so on.

Like most people I've had back problems, due to health issues caused by an accident, sciatica and back pain that's kept me awake at night. After my accident I was told that I would eventually have to wear built up shoes before I reached my 40s, but I refused to.

Now I'm in my late 40s and very rarely get back pain and never suffer from sciatica because "I love my back". Look after your back and it will look after you.

Myarka.

 

[snardiddereda]

It's always when someone has had back pain do they make efforts to prevent it from re-occurring lol, well in my case anyway...would never have even thought about it before I hurt my back.

 

[im l]

I think this is very true and describes me perfectly. In my 20's and 30's I was very fit but did not do anything specifically for my back. My sitting posture in particular was very poor. Then a few years ago I went through a very sedentary patch due to work. Spent far too much time sat badly at my desk and most of my physically activities ceased or were very reduced. After about a year of that i started getting a burning sensation in the middle of my back, that soon turned into lower back ache and discomfort. I got to the stage that I was seeing an osteopath weekly for several weeks at a time before I decided to be more proactive.

Now after experiencing how easy it is to get back problems, and how long they take to fix, I take far more time to ensure my back is strong and healthy.

 

[Yoda Cookie Monster]

Hi Pete, & welcome.
Please could you say a bit more about how you "take far more time to ensure my back is strong and healthy" ?
As a frequent sufferer of lower back ache, I'd love to learn how to prevent it. I do stretch a lot, but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

I bend from the knee to lift things, make sure my legs take the weight, keep my balance steady on my feet, do exercises to strengthen arms etc. Leg muscles already v firm from much walking. But still back ache after sitting - in any position (I do move around & vary postures a lot & am supple.)
Long car journeys cause serious pain for days, despite much seat-adjusting, sitting bolt upright, flexing my legs & stretching.

More please, Myarka! Any tips from you (or anyone) would be most welcome, thanks!

 

[x_ill]

Hi Starshower,

It's great that you're exercising because a good routine is far easier to sustain and then it can be fine tuned to maximise its benefits.
Car seats are designed for everyone and therefore fit nobody. I've found over the years some give me support and others don't. My biggest problem is the lumber supports and even the adjustable ones don't work for me. Do you do a lot of miles? The best car seat I've had was in a pickup truck probably because it's a commercial vehicle and designed for many hours driving.

It's essential that you only stretch "warm" muscles so they have the oxygen they need. So perhaps you could do some stretching after you've been on one of your walks? One of philosophies of karate is to strengthen muscles to support the joints to minimise stress, wear and tear. I think this is true of many east Asian martial arts and exercise systems.
I use a back support from www.screwfix.co.uk when digging or heavy lifting and therefore ensure my back is supported.

Posture is more than the type of chair you sit in, or if you sit in it correctly. It's important that when sitting in front of a monitor or TV that you are able watch the screen without having to tilt your head. Most people have the screen too low and therefore need to look down. Now that we have wall mounted flat screens, it's important to ensure that they're not too high for the natural viewing angle. You should have your arms adequately supported when using a computer and ensure your shoulders don't drop.

I hope this helps?

Myarka

 

[jtrhcgtf]

Thank you SO much for your practical advice, myarka. Just what I needed.

I don't drive much, if at all, in daily life, preferring to walk or take a bus. But I have to do 550- mile and 120-mile round trips every month to visit a dear disabled friend in the middle of nowhere & my elderly relative.
It takes the rest of the month for the back ache to subside, with much walking & stretching.
The car seat adjustments are such a nuisance, as I keep changing them but no position feels right for long.

I've been stretching before & after exercise. Perhaps I should stop the 'before' and warm up gradually first, as you say.

And slouching on a low chair, pc on lap, is my cardinal sin!
I've put it up on a table now, so I can rest my arms. Maybe I should put it even higher, on books, so that my head isn't tilted down.

Many thanks! Hope this helps others too.

 

[Tallulah G]

Hi Starshower,


Here's a link to the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's "Take the Pain of Driving". It gives information about driving position and posture, so may help.

Myarka

 

[Snark]

Hi Starshower

What I do might not be the answer for everybody, but i have gone from someone who started with muscular spasms doing the dishwasher, burning pain in the middle of my back when sitting at my desk and suffering aches and discomfort in my lower spine to feeling fit and healthy.

For me there are two issues. When i was seeing the osteopath, i would find that before the next appointment I would getting aches and twinges. these had changed from feeling muscular to feeling more like pain from the spin itself. So I got myself an Teeter inversion table and started using it daily for a few minutes at a time. I know few people have heard of these, but basically they are a pivoting table that allow you to slowly rotate into a position where you head is lower than your ankles. Your ankles are secured, so there is no danger, but the gentle stretch you get is unlike anything you can experience normally. This reduces the pressure on the disks in my spine and they say it helps them rehydrate so that they can do their job better.

At the same time I started working to improve the strength of the muscles supporting my spine. In looking for exercise to help my back I found something called a Flexi-bar. My previous workouts had been about improving the strength of my limbs and global muscles in my body such as pectorals and lats, but for a healthy back I learned that the muscles I really need to strengthen are those in the core such as the transverse abdominis and multifidus muscles that protect the spine during movement and lifting. These contract involuntarily when needed, so exercise that targets them is crucial. These activities have helped me get back to a 'normal'.

 

[CreepyCrawlers123]

It's been over a year since I started this thread, but it's still as important today as every.

Perhap it should be the mantra of 2010.

Love your back and prevent the problems from developing, and if you've already got back pain, start looking after your back before it gets worse.

So join in, love your back and let's start talking about prevention.

Myarka.

 

[Peng]

This thread is so similar to another that assumes everyone's back problems come from lack of fitness, or care, or bad posture. That simply isn't the case for most people.

Prevention is a wonderful topic, but so many of the guidelines about lifting and seating are out of date and wrong, giving misleading information.

 

[J man]

This is not assumed at all. It is also equally wrong to assume that once back pain starts, it's a down hill slope.

There are a lot of professional therapists who spend their lives deadicated to the prevention, control and mitigation of back pain.

Therefore the purpose of this thread is to highlight some the positive outcomes and solutions to back pain.

Namaste,
Myarka.

 

[Komkommer]

I would agree with all that you & others say about loving your back and promoting a positive maintainance schedule. I would also agree that prevention is better than cure. But, I really believe that for this concept to fully work across the populus, it needs to be started at 6 or 7 years of age, as it stands, there is very little in the way of meaningfull educational importance offered by Teachers during a childs early school years regading these life enhancing techniques, nor for that matter most employers, who offer 'out of date' information and poor equiptment.

My problems started after an physicaly active teenage life followed by
10 years in the Coal, Steel, Warehousing and Logistics industries, by then it was too late to prevent my illness which was caused by work related activities, the damage was done! It had then became a 21 year battle of maintainance which I lost in 2004 after a car accident exacerbated and excelerated the 'inevitable deterioration' in my condition. In my case, as with so many other sufferers, it 'was' a down hill slope without any Medic throwing a rope!

The 'rope' that pulled me back from the 'black hell hole of back pain' was thrown by Osteopaths, without their therapies, my GP would have consigned me to the benifits scrap heap at 26 years of age!

As with most things, the truth is somewhere in the middle. Maintainance and Prevention 'must' be the route for future generations and for those with low level, infrequent and minor back pain and spasms. But, I know, that for the long term, chronic and disabled, better diagnosis and treatments must be allowed to enter the NHS spine care system as a matter of urgency, because no amount of rubbing, massaging or traction based therapies will make the leakage from my L 5/S1 Disc go back in to my disc!

I believe that the early Prevention and Maintanance steps you and others describe are good and right, but the early recognision of chronic spinal conditions must take 'equal presdence' in the health service, all too often they let suffers 'wonder' through the conservative route for far too long without any clinical gain!!
After all,
if it walks like Duck, looks like a Duck and quacks like a Duck, then its a duck! Its not physcological refuge, bad Karma or bad posture!! So deal with it Doc!!!

Best wishes all, and to all, A Merry Christmas!!



SPINELF

 

[icanttellyoumyname]

Quack, quack, quack........

 

[ALiie]

We have a shiatsu practice specialising in back problems and see people come back time after time with the same problems. Each time they ask what they can do to help and we give them all sorts of advice and stretches, but the majority comes back a few weeks later not having followed any of the advice and asking the same questions again - it's very frustrating!

 

[prettyj]

I can fully understand you frustration!
But don't get me started on those people!! GRRRRR!!

 

[009Imaftetedathy37]

I have seen statistics that estimate that over 85% of UK adults under the age of 50 have at some time in their lives suffered from pain caused as a result of a back injury and that 80% of people in general will suffer back pain at some point in their lives. The unknown question in my mind is how many of those 85% had good functional fitness and how many might have prevented or reduced the damage suffered to their spines with proper care, posture and fitness.

In 2006 statistics suggested that only 40 per cent of men and 28 per cent of women were meeting the recommended levels (at least 30 minutes of at least moderate intensity activity at least 5 times a week) so my guess is most of the 85% were not physically active.

I also question how many of the people that are physically active actually understand what exercises they should be doing anyway, just look at the average gym, there will be many using weight machines that only engage a small number of specific muscles, a few will be using free weights, but often with bad technique (specially the young guys with something to prove) and most will concentrate on the obvious muscles. Functional fitness is often a low priority.

Increase in computer use by children due to social networking sites has also been blamed for the increase in back pain amongst children, with 45% of 11-18 year olds reported to suffer back pain in the 2008 compared with 29% figure found in an identical survey by the in British Chiropractic Association 2002.

In my experience most people who I currently know well, that have back problems, are basically inactive, are not aware of any accidental damage (or were suffering before the damage) and do nothing to increase their functional fitness and never have. The exception being one body-builder (a close friend who I used to train with) who developed a back problem from working hours as a Doorman to get through uni and blames his posture while standing for hours.

 

[Weise Ente]

I accept that this is your experience and I don't doubt a word, but I beg to differ, may I reffer you my 21st December post below.

My experience of people with chronic back pain in my age group, living in an industrial heartland and who have worked for many years in very physical jobs and have had very physically active social lives, is that their work experience, is 'very relavent' to their back pain.

Best wishes

SPINELF

 

[BrokenEye, No Star Nation]

But we now live in a Health & Safety age and employers now have a duty of care to their employees. Employees also have duty of care to themselves and should not take a passive role for their own health and wellbeing.

Companies that don't provide the highest standards of care for their employees should be reported, either through trade unions or directly to the HSE. Company culture can also play a major role in providing awareness and safety culture for their employees. Peer pressure is often one the biggest hurdles to safe working.

Back care must start at the grass roots level and people must not assume that back pain is inevitable and that the first twinge of sciatica cannot be reversed.

If you don't love your back, it's you that will suffer and it's you that will experience pain. But it's not just that, there's the loss of earnings, time in hospital and trips to the doctor's.

Surely if those who read this start educating themselves about how to care for their backs, they may save themselves a lot of pain, suffering and poverty.

Myarka.

 

[Zhandra]

Well said Myarka!

Listen to Myarka and Do your research people!

SPINELF

 

[prettyghoul]

I am going to say something that might just bring the roof down on my head , but for me a 53 yr old farmer with 20 yrs of abuse of my back ,(which was mostly down to using a skid steer loader )and enduring what I take was a prolapsed disc that was pressing on a nerve ,causing me pain and weakness in my left hip and leg , which eventully resulted in a 2 week period of intense pain due to sciatica ,that rendered me almost unable to work.
Even after 6 months to try and recover , I always felt pain in the back ,and in my feet and ankles , and was unable to work normally .
Now after a farming friend told me the only thing that sorted his back prob out was an inversion table ,I went out and bought one a few days later .
3 months down the line I am almost perfect back wise and I only need to spend 5 minutes on it ,every 5 days or so . Its almost addictive hanging upside down , but I really feel it works for me ,as I do a few exercises ,beding my spine in the way I might have done whilst doing mcKenzie type stretches ,but all the time you are easing the vertabrae apart and allowing the discs to realign themselves .
Works for me anyway ,and for the first time in 7 months I have saved a trip to the acupuncturist / phsio ,chyropractor at £30 a time .
All of those treatments have their place but you know what works for you