Preventing Lower Back Pain
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Low back pain affects hundreds of thousands of people each year and nearly 80% of the population suffers from it at some point in their lifetime.While we may not be able to totally prevent back pain from occurring, there are things we can do to prevent some of the back pain and then aid recovery after it has occerred.
One of the reasons that many people experience the pain and discomfort of a low back injury is because of the change in lifestyle that has happened in the past decades.It’s well known that the standard Western diet has changed in the last fifty years, resulting in a higher incidence of obesity.Plus, lack of exercise and sitting at a desk all day increases the risk of lower back pain.
Preventing low back pain means taking positive action to improve your overall health as well as your back health. It may seem obvious but the first thing to do to prevent injury or pain is to protect the back in your activities. This means learning the correct ways of lifting, sitting and standing. Sitting and standing in a slouched position increases the stress placed on the lower back and increases the probability of an injury.
Another side benefit of learning to sit and stand correctly is the reduced risk of having upper back pain.Poor posture is one of the main causes of upper back pain. Slouching forward places more strain on your back.Sitting straighter and walking in a more upright position will help relieve that pain. This protects the back from top to bottom.
Learning proper lifting techniques are important not just for the man who is lifting on the job but also for anyone who goes to the grocery store, lifts a child or bends down to pick up a pencil. Each of those activities can lead to an injury.You might think your injury came from bending down, but the actual cause might be from years of bad posture and sleeping positions over the years
Exercise is also an important aspect to prevention of low back pain.An exercise regimen will strengthen important muscles in your back and abdomen and impove flexibility. All of these benefits will help to decrease the risk of developing low back pain. Strong and flexible muscles will protect the spinal column, decrease the risk of a herniated disc and improve your overall appearance.
Try to change your sleeping positions. If you think about it you are in some of the same positions every night for between 5 and 8 hours. That’s more time than you spend doing almost anything else.Avoid sleeping on your stomach as it puts stress on your lower back. Instead sleep on your side with a pillow between your knees or on your back with a pillow under your knees. Some individuals also find that sleeping with a small towel rolled up under their lower back is comfortable.
Women should wear low heeled shoes as they are easier on their back muscles. While the occasional evening out in spike heels won’t cause consistent damage, women who wear high heels often find that it puts stress on the lower back and hips.
As was alluded in the first part, obesity also plays a role in the development of low back pain. As people gain weight this places more and more strain on the back muscles to keep the body in alignment. People who suffer from chronic back pain may find that just by losing 20 or 30 pounds they are able to reduce their pain and manage it without medications.
Other risk factors are part of the aging process–osteoporosis and arthritis. This is especially important in women but can also be a factor in men. Smoking is one preventable factor that increases the risk of osteoporosis and increases sensitivity to pain. Smoking will also decrease blood flow and the supply of oxygen to the spinal discs, a major factor in low back pain.
While most people will suffer from lower back pain at some point in their lives there are specific treatment protocols and methods of prevention that can help to speed the recovery process and reduce the risk of the problem happening again.
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