Preventing back pain might be as easy as getting up from your chair and walking every couple hours, according to US physician Michael Schafer in an article in USA Today.
“As people have become more sedentary — and especially with people who sit at computers all day — a big toll is taken on the back,” says Schafer, who will discuss the issue at the annual conference of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons in San Diego, in his presentation “Does Your Back Go Out More Than You Do?”
Lower back pain is the most common type of pain reported by both women and men, according to the 2009 National Health Interview Survey. The survey, by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, asked adults about back pain, neck, face and jaw pain, and about headaches. Back pain was the most prevalent; women (30%) were slightly more likely to report back pain than men (26%).
“If people would get up and move around for 30- to 40-minute intervals, they’d wind up buying themselves a lot of time,” Schafer says. “With sitting, you put more stress on your spine than if you’re walking or standing.” Maintaining a healthy weight and exercising are the best ways to avoid developing back problems as people age, says Schafer, adding most back pain is from overuse and will heal on its own.
“Many people coming into the office are obese or definitely overweight,” he says. “Weight control becomes a big part of it, and sensible exercise, including the buzz word that’s now out — core stabilisation, a series of exercises to increase stomach, buttock, thighs and back muscles.”
But weekend warriors who sit at desks all week and love to get out and play golf on the weekends or shoot hoops with friends are also vulnerable from their 30’s on, say physicians Augustus White and Preston Phillips, authors of Your Aching Back, A Doctor’s Guide to Relief.
The onset of back pain for many people starts between the ages of 30 and 55, they write. The spine discs start to become more brittle, lose flexibility and can cause pain when they herniate.
But 30% of disc herniations are not the cause of pain, the authors write. Strains to ligaments or muscles, and arthritis are also causes. When pain lasts more than three weeks or if there is numbness or tingling in a leg, it’s time to see a doctor, Schafer says.
Don’t be surprised, though, if the doctor doesn’t order diagnostic imaging on the first visit. Getting an X-ray, MRI or CT scan should not be done too soon, he says. The American College of Physicians issued a report in February suggesting that many of the tests are unnecessary and can actually harm people by exposing them to unnecessary radiation.
What’s more likely to take place, Shafer says, is a doctor will suggest using heat, non-steroidal anti-inflammatories and lifestyle modifications to ease the pain.
But beyond those remedies, being patient and getting back into shape can eliminate future pain, he says. “On aerobic front, there is so much available to people, from walking to walking on a treadmill to using an elliptical. “Returning to exercise needs to be gradual. As your body starts to respond, you build up. Your body didn’t get there in a day, it’s going to take a while to get it back.”
Back at the office, consider changing your work area, White writes:
Get a chair that pampers your back or consider ditching the chair. “A number of my patients who would usually be doing a great deal of sitting have been helped tremendously by standing desks.”
By Janice Lloyd, USA TODAY