Sudden Injury Research Paper

Your spine is the center of your body. It’s your universe. It connects your head, torso, arms and legs together, and when your spine is compromised, the rest of your body feels it’s effects. Your back pain doesn’t have to come from a sudden injury. While automobile collisions and contact sports cause immediate injuries, a majority of the pain we treat at my clinic is caused by bad habits that have compounded over many years.

For instance, let's say you work 40 hours a week for 15 years. For eight hours a day, you spend a majority of your time sitting at your desk. This equates to roughly 31,200 hours spent sitting over 15 years — not taking into account the time you spend driving, eating, and watching TV. Now compare that to the amount of

time you spend being active. If you exercise for 30 minutes a day, three days a week, you have 1,170 active hours over 15 years. This comparison is valuable. The human body isn’t meant to spent this much time in a single position, but, your body works for you, and it will try to make it happen.

This is because your body is an adaptable, and muscle degeneration is it’s secret weapon. During those 31,200 hours, you’ve adapted to maintaining a poor posture and a sedentary lifestyle. Over time, the muscles down the front and back of your legs have shortened. These muscles connect to the bones of your back and as they adhere to your sitting position, they put more pressure on your back. This forces the discs in your spine to be pushed backward — leading to a herniated disc — and causes pain to shoot down into your legs.

So how do you deal with the pain? Painkillers only masks the pain, and force you to spend your days living as a product of your pain. You need to fix the cause of your pain. The real solution is to change the mechanics of your body. Rather than just medicating your symptoms, you need to take the bull by the horns and be the cause of your improvement. I treat people everyday who are making the choice to improve their back health by using movement as a treatment. It’s time for you to take control.

Keep an eye out for “The Power Of Physical Therapy” in our December Newsletter, where we’ll dive deeper into finding a solution for your back pain.