CHIROPRACTOR EXPLAINS HOW SITTING CAUSES BACK PAIN

Caboolture has its fair share of office workers and of course many people like to sit and relax after a hard day’s work, but you should consider that excessive sitting can cause back pain and much more. Can sitting be as bad for your health as smoking?

The sitting epidemic is considered to be a a ticking time bomb of ill health, just waiting to explode and there is a lot of research to prove just that.

In a typical day we can spend on average around 7.5 hours sleeping. Commuting and sitting at work, up to 10 hours, and leisure time between 1 and 4 hours of sitting.

There are many ways Excessive Sitting can harm you:

• Brain: Excessive sitting has been linked to increased incidence of senile dementia and to depression.
• Stroke: Extended periods of sitting can cause your blood to clot, clots can travel to the brain causing transient ischemia, a stroke.
• Cervical Spine: Neck muscles are placed under abnormal load due to reversal of normal neck curvature leading to pain. Excess fluid in the legs, edema, from sitting moves to the neck at night and contributes to sleep apnea.
• Heart: If you lead a sedentary lifestyle you are three times as likely to develop Type 2 Diabetes and Coronary Disease.
• Pulmonary: You are three times as likely to develop blood clots, thrombosis, in the lungs, if you sit most of the day.
• Arteries: Reduced physical activity leads to High Blood Pressure, which in turn can cause kidney disease and contribute to heart disease.
• Abdominal: Sedentary lifestyle also contributes to Obesity and many forms of Cancer, including Colon Cancer.
• Lower Extremities: Fluid collects in the legs while sitting. Physical activity helps move it through the body. Poor circulation in the feet can cause nerve damage, neuritis,
• Back Pain: Sitting for extended periods of time places abnormal forces on the spine and loss of normal physiological curvature which can result in compression of the intervertebral discs, tight muscles and diminished physiological reflexes, which with movement upon standing can lead to injury of the spine. Chiropractic adjustments help restore normal reflexes resulting in less occurrence of back pain.

 
So, Remember the 3 S’s
SIT ~ STAND ~ STRETCH

• 20 minutes of sitting
  Followed by                                                                                                                           
• 7 minutes of standing
  Followed by
• 3 minutes of gentle stretching and mobility.

 
Also consider seeing a Chiropractor to determine if Chiropractic care can be beneficial to you.

Caboolture is experiencing seasonal damp, humid weather,  which a lot of people associate with a higher incidence of back pain, neck pain as well as pain in other joints of the body, especially knee pain, this type of weather can also be associated for some people with headaches.

Research has shown that damp weather can lead to increased fluid retention which results in increased pain sensation in any part of the body.

Your Chiropractor will adjust your spine to relieve pain, gentle movement such as Tai Chi can help by increasing blood flow and reducing stagnation, acupuncture can be helpful, another tip from Chinese medicine is to drink barley soup (jobs tears) which mildly increases fluid secretion. The ancient Chinese believed it did this by improving the functioning of the Spleen, the organ they associate energetically with removing excess fluid from the body. Things which reduce spleen function according to Traditional Chinese Medicine is eating too much or not enough sweet food and also excessive worry, again Tai Chi or meditation can help here. Interestingly pearl barley has been associated in research with reducing high blood pressure. A word of caution, pearl barley can reduce blood sugar, so perhaps it is not appropriate for people with diabetes.

Many hard-working people in Caboolture experience back pain ranging from mild chronic pain to long term debilitating pain, which affects their lives in many ways mainly taking away their enjoyment of life.
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3 ways to stop back pain occurring:

1. Sit right: You’ve heard it many times before but for a lot of people improving the way they sit will stop back pain from coming on, research is showing that sitting is the new smoking in regards to the negative impact it has on your health, the main thing is to sit less. Every twenty minutes get out of your chair and move a little, you see as you are sitting for too long your back loses its normal anatomical curvature which results in your muscles becoming slack and slow to respond to changes in position resulting in sprains of the joints of your back. Interestingly research has shown that Chiropractic adjustments and targeted back exercises improve the response time of your muscles resulting in less back strain.​ I mentioned the normal anatomical curvature of your spine which is affected negatively by sitting, so it is vital to sit with a roll behind your lower back supporting your normal curvature.
2. Eat right: Now this can be more difficult for most people, dietary changes can be hard for a lot of people to initiate but for those of you who are willing to modify what they eat the results can be life changing. Inflammation is the key here a huge topic beyond the scope of this blog but there are many books on anti-inflammatory diet's available.
3. Stress less: Stress causes many people to tighten their back muscles resulting in misalignments and restriction of spinal mobility resulting in back pain. A simple way to reduce stress is to spend five minutes three times a day doing focused breathing, just find a comfortable position close your eyes and focus on the sensation the air creates inside your nose as you breath in and out, your mind will wander from experiencing this sensation, so then you gently bring your mind back to focusing again on the sensation it is normal for your mind to wander again and again this matters not just so that when you realise you have wandered gently return to your breathing focus.  

Of course, if you experience pain you should visit your health care provider for a thorough check up, but by doing the simple things outlined above many people can prevent back pain from ever coming on.