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Tips on How to Take Good Care of Your BackA blog by Dr. MichaelFive years ago, I had a serious backache that bothered me on and off for about five years. I went through many ways to try to cure it, including physical therapy, wearing back support for a long time, and working while lying on a mattress on the office floor. Now my back is normal and I haven't had any back problems for a long time. Paying attention to my back and being careful all the time made the difference. I know if I am not careful, my back problem can come back to haunt me quickly. Here are a few tips I learned through these years that I would like to share with you. Knowledge about back problems (1) It's a very wide-spread problem among both men and women. It bothers many people. It's an aganizing pain. Our entire body cannot function that well without a good back. So our back is very important. (2) It's accumulative. It gets worse as people age. It's often not caused by one single event. The damage accumulates over time. So try to be careful all the time. (3) Prevention is better than cure. Once you have a chronic back problem it's very difficult to cure. Try to avoid a back problem at the first place. If you take good care of your back, your back will take good care of you. (4) Our habits of doing many common activities such as sitting, standing, and sleeping are not good to our back. We have to change our habit if we want to save our back. Questions to help diagnoise back problems (1) Has any recent event caused any pain? (2) Is it more painful in the morning or in the afternoon? (3) Besides backache, do you feel any pain in other parts of your body such as legs, arms, and shoulder? (4) Does the pain go away or get better when you lay down flat? (5) Is your mid, upper, or lower back that is bothering you? Ways to prevent the back problems (1) Lift with muscles on arms and legs. Do not use your back to lift things such as boxes, babies, etc. Avoid putting any pressure on your back. Do not hold heavy things to walk around for too long. Use a dolly or roller instead. Or ask someone with a strong back to help. When pick up things from the floor, use your legs to get up. Try to avoid bending your back. (2) Always have back support when sitting, including when riding a car. The back must be in contact with something such as cushion. Avoid sitting for too long without back support. Sitting on the floor or ground is a bad idea. Do not sit on your desk with your upper body leaning forward for too long. Change your position from time to time. During a rough ride on a car, wear seat belt to help "fixing" your body to the seat and back support. (3) Choose the type of chair very carefully. The arm rests must have proper height. Choose the keyboard height carefully to make sure your hands are not blocked to give extra pressure to your back while typing. The seat should not be too big in comparison with your hip. Otherwise, you would sit in front of your seat too long and get your back away from the support. (4) Get up from bed on the side using arms to push your body up instead of using your back to "fold" up facing up. (5) When sleeping, have a second pillow under the knees so that the back is slightly curved to release extra pressure from the flat bed. Try to sleep on the side sometimes with the back "curling up" - without any pressure to the back. (6) Choose bed carefully. Not too firm; not too soft. Some people love water bed. It makes me "sea-sick." What ever you can afford and makes you comfortable. (7) Exercise to strengthen the back muscle. There are specific exercises that are designed to make your back muscle stronger. If the back muscle is stronger, it gives more support to your back. (8) When taking a shower, face away from the faucet so that your back is extended the other way around (bend your back backwards). (9) When sneazing, use your hands to hold the back/sides of your back and lean your head/shoulder toward the back so that the back is extended. The force from the sneazing would not cause sudden pressure to your back. (10) When standing, try to change position frequently. Raise one of your feet slightly from time to time and change the feet. When riding a train, try to get some back support to cushion the force from the running train. Whenever you can, find a seat to sit down while riding a bus or train. When climbing stairs, use rails and arms to help whenever you can. When in elevator, support your back by leaning against the wall or rail. (11) When pick up light items from the ground, raise one leg to the back to balance your body. (12) Our back bends forward most of the time. Try to bend to the back sometimes to balance it out. Stretch it! (13) Avoid injuries to your back during car accidents and sports such as skiing. Well, sometimes it's out of our control. But while having fun, do not over do it. Avoid twisting your back and weist. I can actually feel something going on inside my back after one round of golfing since golfing involves twisting my weist while swinging and hitting the ball. Always warm up before exercise. (14) Try cold patches immediately after injuries and warm patches during recovery. Do not wear back support too tight for too long. It reduces blood circulation. (15) Different people have different ways to prevent the back problems. Try a few ways yourself to test what work the best for you. (16) If the problem is not that serious, the best cure is to rest! Sleep. Lay down. Do not use your back for an extended period of time. If that still does not help, see a doctor or take some pain medicine. Sitting is better than standing. Laying down is better than sitting. (17) Physical therepy is expensive but effective. You can do it yourself though if you know how. The main "tricks" behind physical therepy are: (a) exercise specific muscle after warming up; (b) take a rest with warm patch after the exercise; (c) repeat of (a) and (b) over and over; (d) educate the "patient" to do these tasks themselves. (18) Find some books to read and do some online searches for tips on back problems. Talk to some one who has this problem before to share ideas and experiences. (19) Well, avoid having too much x-x-x. :) Comments on this blog? Do you want to share your own experience on back problems? Send it to information @ directron.com. As any other information you find on Directron.com, use it at your own risk. (102705) Related Items: | Michael's Other Blogs | |
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