Category: Back Pain

It’s very clear that at some part of life we may suffer from some sort of muscle or join pain. Whether that pain is back, neck or knee pain it’s important to understand that eating the right foods can go a long way in mitigating the risks. While in most cases our diets may secretly contain some of the foods we are about to mention, some of you may also be surprised how eating these can actually decrease the risk of different chronic body pains.

 

Cherries:

 

Cherries are great for reducing the risk of Arthritis and muscle pain. There are compounds in cherries called anthocyanins which are also responsible of giving cherries their luscious color. These anthocyanins are very powerful antioxidants that work in two ways to cut down pain. One is that they block inflammation and they inhibit pain enzymes the same way drugs like asprin do. A study has also shown that having cherries for breakfast reduced a major maker of inflammation by 25%. So make sure you add some cherries to your first meal every morning.

 

Salmon and Sardines:

 

There’s usually no bar to eating fish but eating the right fish can have even more benefits to your health. Therefore Salmon and Sardines which are very low in mercury help in relieving pain in achy backs, necks and joints. These two fish species are the all-purpose cure to most of the common chronic pains. The omega 3 fatty acids help improve blood flow through vessels and nerves. Taking 1,200 mg or more of omega 3 is known to reduce both back and neck pain, these can almost always taken as supplements if not naturally due to the high amount required.

 

Edamame

 

Don’t be fooled by their tiny size. Edamame beans are a great pain reliever for those who suffer from Arthritis. The soy protein contained in Edamame help counter the wear and tear of cartilage tears and bones grinding against each other. Another alternative to Edamame is also soy based food such as tofu which can easily be substituted for meat in a lot of meals. Soy protein is not only healthy for the whole body but also knee pain and arthritis prevention.

 

Red hot peppers

 

This may be your worst enemy, the same red hot pepper that drive people to tears and send them running to the water fountain are a great preventer of Arthritis. An ingredient in hot peppers called capsaicin does the trick by stimulating nerve endings and depletes the chemical that relays pain signals. While you don’t necessary have to eat the pepper raw, there are creams that can be found at pharmacies which contain capsaicin which will save you the trouble of burning your tongue.

 

The other alternative is to add some crushed pepper to your daily meal intake, just enough so that you can bear, it’s never good to overdo chili peppers.

 

Eating healthy plays a major role in decreasing risk of chronic back, neck and knee pains. These 4 foods that we mentioned above can be easily substituted for unhealthy choices that we make every day. Making sure we eat right is the first step towards prevention of the most common body pains found in adults all over the world. So the next time you’re grabbing a meal from a restaurant, give it a think and consider cooking or purchasing something that is truly beneficial to your health.

As we know that back pain is now a growing concern for those under the age of 40 due to the extensive use of technology, it’s essential to get some exercise to relieve that back pain before it reaches its chronic stages. Exercising daily with these 4 simple exercises can really help ease a lot of the pain that your body goes through by constantly sitting in one place or avoiding any movement at all from your chair at your workplace.

 

Not only will these exercises promote a healthy lifestyle but also lead to you becoming more active daily. The reason these exercises play a core role in helping you get more active and relieve that annoying back pain is that when you sit all day at a desk your hip flexors become tight as they remain in a shortened position. It only gets worse over time where the tightness of the hips cause further weakness and leads to chronic pain over time.

 

Simple hip exercises that are not only easy to do at home, can help prevent the muscles from tightening and decrease the risk of further injury. These 4 exercises in the below video should be done 2-3 times per week for best results.

 

1. Standing hip abduction with or without band: Standing tall, raise your leg away from your body with a smooth and controlled motion and return to starting position.  Repeat for 12-15 repetitions
2. Lying down double Leg Bridge or single leg bridge:  Lying down onto your back, knees bent, and feet flat lift your hips up while squeezing the glutes. Hold for 2-3 seconds, then lower the hips down to the floor.  Repeat for 12-15 repetitions.
3. Lying down Hip abduction with band: Lying down onto your back while placing both legs into a circular band at the knee level, bend knees with feet flat onto the ground, begin to move the knees away from each other working against the tension provided by the band and then resist tension as you bring the knees back together while holding the band in place.  Repeat for 12-15 repetitions.
4. Standing hip abduction with or without band: Standing tall, raise your leg away from your body with a smooth and controlled motion and return to starting position.  Repeat for 12-15 repetitions

 

Making sure that you spend at least 30 minutes every other day doing these exercises can insure that you have a healthy back and no movement issues throughout the week. Bundle all this with the TIMEZ5 prayer mat and we can certainly say that you would have a blissful week and steer clear from any chronic back pain in the long run.

 

WDRB 41 Louisville News

Our kids have to carry a large load on their backs everyday for almost 14 years, even though text books are getting smaller over time they aren’t getting any less lighter for your 5 year old to bear. If your child complains about how heavy his/her backpack is when they go to school, the reason might be very legitimate and not because they just want you to carry it for them all the way up to the doorsteps.

 

In 2013 alone, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission cited 5,415 backpack-related injuries treated at emergency rooms. That’s an alarming number of young children that are being treated for injuries relating to something that most of us overlook. The injuries relating to backpacks range from acute back pain to chronic back pain to other types of damage.

 

Dr. Karen Jacobs a clinical professor of occupational therapy at Boston University and an expert on school ergonomics says “Wearing a backpack incorrectly or wearing one that’s too heavy can be a contributing risk factor for discomfort, fatigue, muscle soreness, and pain, especially in the lower back.”

 

While backpacks are an essential part of a child’s school regime it is always recommended to make sure that the weight of the backpack is not so much that it causes the child to hunch down to support it. Most parents overlook the fact that backpacks are on your child for a large period of time and over the course of a year can result in bad posture and further injuries, which are never a good sign at such a young age.

 

Dr. Jacobs also added “Injury can occur when a child is trying to adapt to the heavy load by using improper postures, such as leaning forward, arching the back, and leaning to one side.” Therefore it is also the parent’s responsibility to check if your child is struggling with their backpack weights. Taking your child’s health and posture is a priority, so the next time your child complains how heavy their backpack is make sure to observe their posture and maybe try to lift it to check if it causes you any discomfort holding it with your hands. If that is the case, your child may need to cut down on the books they’re carrying and consider getting a locker in school.

 

Finally another piece of advice to add on to the findings of Dr. Jacobs is that parents should consider purchasing ergonomic bags with padded straps that take of weight load from the shoulder significantly. While back pain in children is still not as common as that in adults, it is a serious issue that has to be addressed by both parents and educational institutions alike.

With over 3 out of 10 people above the age of 50 suffering from back pain, it is become a common problem that’s only increasing in adults. A lot of times back pain is much easier to address than other type of chronic pains. Over time it has also been seen that back pain may actually be all in our head.

 

When it comes to back pain, our soft tissues that are in our backs begin to heal after we’ve suffered from an accident or just wear and tear, this happens even when you’re above the age of 50. That natural repair takes place over time, whether it’s a week or few months but during that period even when our backs have recovered the brain may continue to send pain impulses that form neurological pathways over time and once those pathways are in place they remain there for good.

 

According to Dr. David Hanscom who is a spinal surgeon, that stress plays a large role in creating those pathways that increase back pain over time. Stress sends our body into fight or flight mode which in turn release adrenaline and puts the body into a heightened state. This in turn causes muscle tension which only alleviates back pain.

 

Dr Hanscom states that the best way to decrease back pain and stop the pathways from getting etched into your neural system is to first address your sleeping patterns. The best way to keep stress at bay and keep your mind at peace is really a good nights sleep. He states that most people with chronic back pain tend to sleep poorly and that results is a poor quality of life.

 

Sleep is so critical to reducing stress and rerouting the brain’s circuitry that Hanscom recommends the use of medication for people who are kept awake by pain or anxiety. Once patients are sufficiently rested, Hanscom prescribes a writing regimen to further distance them from their pain. The object is to write down negative thoughts and then immediately destroy the paper. To keep a journal is to hold on to those thoughts, so journaling is counterproductive, he says.

 

Carrying out some of these basic tasks related to sleep and mental well being play a much larger role in addressing chronic back pain. While some back pain may solely be related to a physical source such as an accident, in most cases stress and mental wellness also play a part in us relieving that back pain which gets worse over time if not tended to.

Almost 80% of people will face some type of spinal problem in their lifetime. It’s a perfectly natural thing to go through back pain but in some cases the signals of back pain might be more serious than just something that disappears in a few days. Even though 92% of the times back pain is resolved without conventional medicine, sometimes not being able to treat it correctly can only make it worse.

 

Most of the time doctors will prescribe bed rest for a short period and some anti-inflammatory medicines. These work most of the time but for those who continue to get persistent pain even after taking these, might be looking at much more serious symptoms such as the ones we posted below:

 

1. Back pain that does not resolve or gets worse.

 

2. Feeling more pain at night than during the day.

 

3. Spinal pain associated with numbness, weakness or problems in the function of an extremity.

 

4. The presence of bowel or bladder problems.

 

5. Difficulty in walking or in fine motor movements of the hands.

 

According to doctors the most common spinal problem is degenerative arthritis of the spine, which leads to neck or back issues over longer periods of time. Other spinal issues can come from sources much more innocuous than inflammation. In fact, those working at a desk job could be setting themselves up for back problems later in life through poor posture.

 

It is important for patients to convey the right signals to the doctors for them to understand the severity of the problems. If any type of back pain is not resolved in 6 weeks, its possible that you have a more serious problem to deal with. In a lot of cases not treating back pain on time can lead no neck pain and knee pain as well. Making sure that we’re able to identify some of the symptoms stated above can help doctors treat you better.