Humans may have been sitting since the caveman days, but apparently we’re now doing something wrong that’s giving a lot of us chronic lower back pain.

Like what? Driving, according to experts.

Millions of Canadians experience the most common form of back pain—muscle tension—and it turns out being behind the wheel of a car puts drivers at great risk for it since they’re in a static position at the very time their sense of awareness is most heightened.

“Driving requires constant tension, which can itself create the scenario for muscular pain,” says Dr. Gerald Clum of the Foundation for Chiropractic Progress.

Not helping the situation are today’s tipped-back seats, which cause pelvises to roll back from trying to see straight ahead at a 15- to 20-degree angle. A chiropractor can help treat your pain, but here’s some tips in the meantime:

• Sit near the pedals, with your arms bent slightly in a 10 a.m.−2 p.m. position on the wheel.

• Don’t stash a wallet or other items in your back pocket when sitting.

• Break up long journeys.

• Place a small pillow in the small of your back to improve posture.

Plagued by continuous low back pain, your genes could be the culprit. A new study now reveals that low back pain from disc disease could be inherited.

Researchers examined two million Utah residents health and family history information and found 1,264 diagnoses of lower spine disease linked with herniated or degenerating discs. Disc disease is one of the most common reasons for continual back pain

People who had an immediate family member like parent or sibling with disc associated low back pain had four times more the chance to have low back pain.

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Don’t Cut Herniated Discs!

Does your neck or back feel tight or stiff when you wake up in the morning or get up from sitting in the same position for an extended period of time?  Have you ever felt slight discomfort when bending over to tie your shoes or pick something up from the floor?  Do you feel pain or hear “clicking and popping” when turning or stretching your neck?  If you answered yes to any of these questions heed this warning!  What you’re experiencing are signs that you are at risk for even simple everyday tasks to cause serious debilitating conditions, such as a herniated disc.

Millions suffer with disc problems every day. Many just suffer with the problem or take a medication to cover up the pain and agony that associates the problem - low back pain, sciatic pain, and numbness and tingling. A herniated disc is a disc in the spine that pushes out and puts pressure on the nerves coming out of the spine.  The question almost never solved nor uncovered is what caused the disc herniation in the first place!  The accident or fall or injury forces the disc to herniate, but what physically happens to cause this?

If you were to look at your spine from the side it should have three 45 degree curves in it: one in the neck, one in the mid-back, and one in the low back. The three perfectly symmetrical curves help to support and hold up your body and to absorb the impact of everyday life. Without these curves, your spine becomes unstable. The most common area of disc herniations, the low back, should have a 45 degree curve.  If that curve starts to straighten out it is like straightening out a banana with it’s peel on. What happens to the banana? It smashes. That is exactly what happens to the discs, which are in between every vertebrae in your spine.  A slip or fall, or constant bad posture, or too much improper lifting, etc. cause that curve in the low back to decrease and straighten out.  As the curve straightens, more and more pressure is put on the discs. Eventually the discs cannot take it anymore and finally one will give. The discs bulges out like a squeezed balloon. This bulging presses into the near by nerve and makes it extremely irritated, hence all the pain.

 A surgeon will go in, scrape off the bulging disc so it stops irritating the nerve.  But, does that fix the problem? No, the banana is still mashed, you just cleaned up the banana mush that was spilling out of the peel.  This quick fix type of patchwork is why up to 50-90% of back surgeries fail within 5 years, and then new patchwork needs to be done!¹ If you constantly patch the holes in your car’s tires and never realign them, what happens?  A blow out!  Now that’s a dangerous way to live.

Too many people in agony from herniated disc pain learn about this condition the hard way: after the suffering has already began.  The pain is so debilitating at times that many feel the only pathway to relief is to cut. But surgery is not the answer. The majority of back surgeries fail.² The return of the pain after back surgery is so common it has a special name: Failed Back Surgery Syndrome (FBSS). FBSS often entails chronic pain, sleeplessness, anxiety, depression, and de-conditioning.³  In addition it also increases one’s risk of developing peripheral artery disease, diabetes, and autoimmune disorders. These people are left with a further damaged spine, additional pain, and the original unresolved problem. Most devastating of all, if not properly addressed, disc herniations keep people from doing the things they love to do with the people they love to do them with.

Don’t Let Chronic Back Pain Burn out your Brain

You keep your engine well-oiled and tuned up… and day after day it efficiently propels your car along from Point A to Point B. Never a complaint.

Until one day the clutch snaps. Something has gone wrong in the transmission and suddenly you’re forced to use first gear to get around until you can get it fixed. In the meanwhile, your engine strains along at super-high RPMs.

You’d better get that problem fixed soon or you risk burning out your engine just driving around town.

Chronic pain does the same thing to your brain.

We know that pain is the body’s way of telling the brain, “Something is wrong. Fix it now.” But when that pain continues unchecked, your brain goes into overload.

According to researchers at the Feinberg School of Medicine, a comparison of those with chronic back pain and pain-free subjects showed on functional MRIs that even very simple tasks cause those neurons to fire up… but only the pain-free subject’s neurons deactivated back to their normal state afterwards.

As those neurons continue to fire, they work themselves to the point of exhaustion – and die. Another study showed that chronic back pain shrinks the gray matter of your brain as much as 11%. That’s the equivalent of 10-20 years of aging!

Now before you run and grab a Tylenol to stop the pain and save your brain, you may want to hear about a brand new study out of Spain. Researchers there just found that higher levels of acetaminophen is neurotoxic in rats. Extrapolated out to people, they believe it may kill our brain cells too – even within the upper end of the normal dosage schedule.

Besides, ignoring the problem by masking it with drugs isn’t going to help you any more than sticking an index card in front of the gauge on your dashboard will protect your car’s engine from a broken clutch. You’ve either got to address the problem or face a complete breakdown at some point.

That’s why if you have a problem with your clutch you’ll take your car to a mechanic. And if you’re fighting chronic back pain, you’ll find the solution by calling the Vancouver Spinal Decompression Center for a complimentery consultation at 604-984-4601.

Ringing in the New Year…without Pain

It’s the New Year, and we’ve probably all made our resolutions for things we want to change in our lives. It might be a habit you want to stop. It might be a goal you want to achieve. But for some, the resolution might reflect more of a hope for the future, and if you are someone who suffers with severe pain, you probably know what I mean. You’d give anything to feel like yourself again. At Vancouver Spinal Decompression Center, that’s our job - helping people live better lives and find relief - and every one of us works hard at it.

Among the worst types of chronic and severe pain is the pain of a herniated disc in the low back, and scitica.  It can be nightmarish when they don’t get resolved; it’s common to find patients who have had pain for years, some off and on, some always on. The major effect it can have on how you live your life is unreal - a complete halt to physical activities is sometimes warranted. At the very least, sufferers aren’t able to do the things they used to enjoy. Even sitting, standing, and lying down can be a problem. And so for the new year, a sort of prayer for relief is understandable.

At the Vancouver Spinal Decompression Center, We use the spinal decompression therapy as the main form of treatment for the herniated disc in the low back. This treatment is safe, non-invasive and effective*.  It is a great alternative to injections,drugs and low back surgery.

So why start off the New Year on a bad note? If your pain is wearing you down and changing the way you live your life, take action. Give us a call at 604-984-4601 and learn more about what Vancouver Spinal Decompression Center can do for you. Happy New Year to all!
 

 *As with all medical treatments, results vary from person to person