Preventing Lower Back Pain

Arthritis pain treatment involving patients with rheumatoid arthritis deals with low back pain to a very great extent.

Prevent Back Pain

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. That, coupled with decreased amount of exercise and employment that keeps workers chained to a desk has led to an increasing number of people who suffer from 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. For the most part many people find that they sit with their shoulders slouched forward, placing more strain on the muscles of the upper back. A quick fix to that pain is to learn to hold your shoulders back and sit straight. This protects the back from top to bottom.

You need to be careful when lifting heavy weights as there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. 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. Proper exercises will help to improve the core muscles, strengthen the back and improve 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 consistently wear low heeled shoes. 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.

Technorati Tags: arthritis pain treatment, low back pain

Posted under Miscellaneous Content

This post was written by admin on May 13, 2009

Tags: ,

5 Comments so far

  1. Linda Dale Real Estate May 19, 2010 4:45 am

    I once talked to a chiropractor who said that the vast majority of back pain stems from poor posture and bad sleeping position. Those aren’t arthritis-related, but do you think that these exercises would help back pain that stems from things other than arthritis.

  2. Great info! For chronic or severe lower back pain, especially degenerative disc disease (arthritis), one should consider spinal decompression.

  3. BeyondPT November 3, 2010 11:01 am

    Informative piece- I’ve also found that pilates is a gateway to recovery. It’s a good way to stretch out and strengthen your core, while effecting problems like lower-back and joint issues. Working with an instructor is kind of like working with a physical therapist, and programs designed to your needs. Who doesn’t like whole-body healing?

    -Marie

  4. Evangeline November 26, 2010 3:16 am

    I question if the juices that family members promote do truly work ? I know a close champion that says it does, I gotta try then.

  5. Harry@plastic surgery southlake February 1, 2011 7:38 am

    Strengthening your core (abdomen and obliques) is one of the best ways to prevent back injuries as well as add strength to your body overall. This is one of the first key points all strength trainers make to their clients.

Leave a Comment

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Comments

More Blog Post

Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional