Incidental back pain is one thing. A day of overwork or overuse can slow you down temporarily, but with rest and recovery, you’re back to your normal routine in a day or two without ill effect.
About 16 million American adults, though, suffer from chronic back pain that’s both regular and severe enough to interfere with the way they live their lives.
Dr. James Nassiri of Westside Pain Specialists knows that your priority is getting through your day effectively. No matter the cause of your back pain, Dr. Nassiri and his team can help you manage pain as you seek a permanent solution for your condition.
Consider these common bad habits and see whether there are changes you can make to improve your own back health.
Perhaps the biggest two components of a pain-free spine are balance and motion. Maintaining good posture and resetting quickly when in a non-balanced position help to ease the load on your back.
Your center of gravity naturally rests around the pelvis, and the S shape of a healthy spine balances your body weight over it. Any time the center of gravity moves away from its optimal location, your body must compensate.
This adjustment creates forces that can overload your back, creating the conditions that leave you in pain.
It’s impossible to maintain perfect posture at all times, since your body is meant to move and accomplish tasks. Putting a strain on your back at times is all but inevitable, but when your core muscles are strong and healthy, they support and assist your spine in managing off-center loads.
Instead of your vertebrae doing all the work, core exercises, cardiovascular workouts, and flexibility training develop soft tissue to share the load.
Lifting heavy objects is a notorious cause of back pain, and it’s easy to see why if you understand the previous points. Picking up weight requires you to change the location of your body’s center of gravity, and you need the soft tissue to assist the balancing process.
Keep heavy objects close to your body to minimize strain, and lift using your legs rather than straightening your back to raise the weight. Even modest amounts of weight create extreme forces the farther away from your body they get.
When you’re carrying extra pounds, it may not be distributed evenly, and the strain on your back could be the same as carrying a heavy box for a long period of time. Maintaining an optimal body weight eases the forces that contribute to back pain.
The discs between vertebrae cushion your spine, leaving adequate space for nerves to pass through without compression.
However, these discs receive less blood supply than most other tissue even under normal conditions. Nicotine restricts blood flow everywhere in your body, and your discs risk premature aging because of this.
Maintaining a pain-free back requires commitment through many aspects of your life, but the payback is a life that’s free of mobility limitations and off-limits activities.
When pain is an issue, contact Westside Pain Specialists in Beverly Hills or Rancho Cucamonga, California, to manage your symptoms and get back to normal living. Call the nearest office to schedule your consultation today.
