Resolve to take steps for better back health in the New Year. Your back houses your spinal column–your body’s internal communication system. When it isn’t healthy, it affects your whole body. Your back is tasked with safeguarding your spinal cord, maintaining your posture and structural support and allowing for flexible motion. If you are currently experiencing back pain or limited mobility, you are not alone.
The National Institutes of Health reports that Americans spend at least $50 billion each year on low back pain; back pain is the most common cause of job-related disability and a leading contributor to missed work. It is the second most common neurological issue in the United States, second only to headaches.
Activities that Often Lead to Back Injuries
Sometimes lower back pain is due to a serious medical problem. If along with your back pain you have fever or loss of bowel or bladder control, pain when coughing, and progressive weakness in the legs you may have a pinched nerve or other serious condition.
More often, back pain results from one of the following:
- lifting something too heavy
- overstretching
- twisting while holding something heavy
- auto accident
- sudden jerk
- short falls
- continuous bad posture
Essentially, anything causing a sprain, strain, or spasm in one of the muscles or ligaments in the back.
Why Back Health is Important
Have you ever stopped to consider all that your back is tasked to do? Without proper spinal function, simple everyday tasks (sitting up, bending, picking things up, walking, turning, rotating your neck) would become almost impossible or painful. Spinal injuries not only limit mobility, but they reduce your quality of life and whole-body wellness.
The nervous system uses the spine to send electrical impulses to trigger feelings of sensation. Sensory information (pressure, touch, cold, warmth, pain) and sensations inside skin, muscles, joints and internal organs all start in the spine. An injured spinal cord can interfere with neural responses, disabling sensations in areas of the body.
Prevent Back Pain by Focusing on Bone and Muscle Strength
As we age, we lose some of the elasticity and strength in our bones and muscles. Simultaneously, our spinal discs lose flexibility and fluid. Without the proper amount of spinal fluid and flexibility, spinal vertebrae lose cushion causing pain and other injuries to occur. Lack of spinal cushioning can compress nerve roots triggering chronic back pain.
6 Goals for Better Back Health in the New Year
Like most things, we make progress when we establish measurable benchmarks for ourselves. The following six goals can guide your towards better back health in the New Year:
- Practice proper lifting technique. The goal is to lift with your legs and knees.
- Get your z’s. During sleep, your body repairs itself. True healing occurs when you get adequate healing. Evaluate both your pillow and your mattress to make sure they are supporting your spinal health WHILE you sleep.
- Get moving and making daily stretching part of your routine. Go aerobic, but also work on strengthening your core–a strong core helps support the lower spine. Stretching improves flexibility reducing your risk for injury.
- Schedule a massage. Injuries need blood to heal. Encourage blood flow to an injured area with massage therapy.
- Strive for a healthy weight. Too much extra weight puts added stress on back muscles.
- Drink water. When the body has adequate water, it supports tissue elasticity and fluidity between your joints. This is essential to keep spinal discs where they need to be. Slipping discs can lead to painful conditions like bulging or herniated discs.
Call Spine Correction Center for a FREE Consultation at (970) 658-5115 to help establish a plan for better back health in 2020.
