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.

Read More

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.

Why You Should Never Get Fusion Surgery For Plain Back Pain

A recent Bloomberg article should put the fear of God in anyone who wants to get a fusion operation for low back pain blamed on worn-out spinal discs.

Click here to read more….