10 Ways to Indulge Your Spine on World Spine Day

November 28th, 2009 · No Comments · Back Pain

October 16, 2009
by: Sylvia Marten

A global, multi-disciplined initiative designated by the International Bone and Joint Decade, World Spine Day stresses awareness of musculoskeletal conditions like sciatica and ensuring a healthier spine. For our part in this celebration, Spine-health is proud to provide patients with the following tips on how they can keep their spine healthy and happy, starting today.

Make Exercise a Daily Ritual

Exercising the stomach and back muscles that help support the spine is a major point of emphasis on World Spine Day; with that said, it often seems counterintuitive to patients with sciatica to exercise out of fear that such activities will exacerbate pain.

However, the spine was built for movement, and simple exercise programs that focus on stretching and strengthening the back, hamstrings and abdominals can go a long way towards distributing nutrients into the spinal discs and soft tissues, accelerating the healing process, and keeping the discs, muscles, ligaments and joints healthy.

For more information, visit our [url:157,type=|term|,content=|Exercise Health Center|].

Maintain Good Posture while Sitting

The spine is naturally built to curve, but slouching in a chair for eight hours a day at work can lead to muscle tension and [url:896,type=|node|,content=|lower sciatica|] and [url:887,type=|node|,content=|leg pain|] ([url:151,type=|term|,content=|sciatica|]).

As the discs in the [url:1614,type=|term|,content=|lumbar spine|] (lower back) are already loaded three times more while sitting than standing, why make things even more difficult? Be sure to have an ergonomically-friendly office chair setup and to get up and stretch every 30 minutes or so.

For more information on preventing bad posture from becoming a habit and incorporating the right posture while not only sitting but walking, driving, standing and lifting, see these [url:1099,type=|node|,content=|Guidelines to Improve Posture|].

Choose and Use Shoes Wisely

The benefits of walking for the spine are plentiful, including strengthening the muscles that keep the body upright, nourishing spinal structures with necessary nutrients, improving flexibility and strengthening the bones.

While walking, it’s important to have a flexible, comfortable pair of shoes that also serves as a stable base for the spine to stay in alignment. Here are some [url:1194,type=|node|,content=|guidelines for buying walking shoes|].

Be a Warm Friend

Given the many responsibilities of the spine, it is quite natural for the neck and/or back to feel sore at the end of the day. Applying heat therapy is a great way not only to soothe such spinal discomfort but to kick back and relax prior to going to sleep.

Heat can be applied via heating pads, wraps, warm gel packs, hot water bottles or a bath/shower, and offers many benefits when done safely and correctly. Learn [url:1663,type=|node|,content=|how to apply heat therapy|].

Sleep on a Supportive Mattress and Pillow

In ideal circumstances, nearly a 1/3 of the day is spent sleeping, which also serves as a time for the spine to rest after a hard day’s work. Still, an insufficient mattress can make rest a stressful time on the spine, and lead to some patients complaining of a stiff neck or back ache in the morning.

While sleep comfort is a matter of personal preference, taking into consideration a mattress that allows for correct support and sleeping positions can go a long way towards avoiding pain in the back and neck ([url:1113,type=|term|,content=|cervical spine|]).

For patients with lower sciatica or neck pain, see [url:1315,type=|node|,content=|Choosing the Best Mattress|] and [url:1329,type=|node|,content=|Pillow Support and Comfort|].

Try It: A Balanced Diet and Nutrition

Considering that the bones, muscles and other structures in the spine help support the body and perform many other functions, it’s pretty clear just how important eating the right types of meals three times a day is to maintaining good health.

Focusing on foods that are high in calcium (for bone strength and mass) and other nutrients and vitamins can help prevent osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and other conditions in the future. Similarly, maintaining a proper weight can reduce pressure on the spine and minimize sciatica.

For more information, visit our health center on [url:160,type=|term|,content=|Nutrition, Diet and Weight Loss|].
Take a Dip in a Pool

Water therapy offers several advantages for the spine that are not attainable via land-based exercise and physical therapy programs.

Buoyancy provides both mild resistance and support, thus reducing the risk of injury and allowing neck pain patients to perform strengthening movements that are painless in the water as opposed to painful in other situations. Additionally, cold water therapy can be used to soothe joint inflammation, while hot water can stimulate circulation for stiff muscles and healing for minor muscle sprains or strains.

For more information, get immersed in the following [url:1284,type=|node|,content=|Water Therapy Exercise Program|].

Literally Treat Yourself to a Massage

A massage is more than a way to break free from daily stress and is now a recognized form of treatment for patients with sciatica and neck pain.

Massages offer several benefits, including improving blood circulation for the recovery of sore muscles, restoring spinal range of motion, helping with insomnia, and upping endorphins, the body’s natural chemicals that make patients feel good.

Read on at [url:1287,type=|node|,content=|Massage Therapy for Lower Back Pain|].

Put Out Those Cigarettes

Certainly easier said than done, quitting smoking reduces the likelihood of lower sciatica, which is reportedly 300 percent more likely in smokers than non-smokers.

According to one study, smoking leads to degenerative spinal disorders and sciatica as a result of damaging the vascular structures of spinal discs and joints.

See why quitting smoking is a must-do for the spine in the following video: [url:6679,type=|node|,content=|Stop Smoking!|]

Lift Up Your Spine

Improperly lifting heavy items can put the lower back muscles in abnormal positions that can produce painful muscle strains, and even cause the spinal joints to lock and the spinal discs to rupture.

Correct lifting is more than involving the knees, and should incorporate keeping the chest forward and the weight close to the body, and leading with the hips rather than the shoulders.

Do you practice the [url:1132,type=|node|,content=|right lifting techniques|]?

With all these suggestions in mind, what better day than today to start getting active and making these changes!

More on This Topic

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[url:8846,type=|node|]
[url:1276,type=|node|,content=|Straighten Up: A 3-Minute Spinal Health Exercise Program|]

7 Winter Sleeping Tips for the Number of Days in the Week

November 20, 2009
by: Chris Maynard

Consider these points:

The relationship among pain and sleep has been confirmed in various studies detailing how [url:137,type=|term|,content=|chronic pain|] can make it difficult to sleep and how sleeping problems can exacerbate one’s symptoms.
A past Spine-health poll of nearly 1600 people found that 63.7 percent of people get less than or equal to 6 hours of sleep while only 29.9 percent of responders get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep.

With this in mind, here are some tricks that I have found successful in getting to [url:161,type=|term|,content=|sleep|] on a more regular schedule. While I’m no chronic pain sufferer, some of these points still apply.

Hit the Hay When Sleepy but Get Up If You Can’t Knock Out

One of my biggest problems in the past has been forcing myself to lay down when I’m not tired, and then staying in bed for hours after failing to fall asleep. What usually happens is that I’ll start thinking too much about things going on in my life or what’s in store for the next day, and become worked up.

As a general rule, get out of bed after 20-30 minutes of failing to fall asleep. Once you get out of bed, engage in an activity that usually makes you tired but does not stimulate your mind too much (such as reading something dense), and do so with the lights dimmed as low as possible. Avoid the bright lights of television or your laptop computer.

In terms of when to go to bed, a big key is getting on a regular schedule that your body is accustomed to, something that has helped me become better at falling asleep around the same time as opposed to the 3-4 hour swings I’ve experienced in the past.

Crack a Window and Infuse Some Cold Air

If you’re like me, the only thing you enjoy about the winter besides the holidays is the cold weather, that is for sleeping and not anything else in the Midwest.

Simply cracking the window the tiniest bit is a great way to make the room temperature colder and to have deeper and more restorative sleeps. Of course, the one bad thing about this tip is that it does not always apply when the weather gets really cold, but it may still be useful for those “fashionably-late” seasons that have been prevalent the last couple of years.

Choose Herbal Tea or a Warm Glass of Milk instead of Caffeine

How some people drink caffeine all day and still get decent sleep is beyond me.

Make a conscious decision to avoid coffee after dinner and expand this to exclude/limit pop and even other stimulants like alcohol and nicotine.

Consider a warm glass of water or milk, which is my preferred choice prior to bed (after briefly putting it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds). If you don’t like milk, be on the lookout for herbal tea the next time you go grocery shopping. A variety of affordable, nighttime tea products exist to help people fall asleep, with sipping these herbal remedies often a great way to relax as well.

Exercise, Just Not Before Bed

Some people who have it made as good sleepers are able to exercise at the gym an hour or two before going to bed, with the [url:157,type=|term|,content=|exercise|] actually making them more tired. For me, exercising a couple of hours before bed usually delays the time I get to bed anywhere from 2-3 hours.

If you have problems sleeping after exercising, try to modify when you work out. Part of this comes back to being on a consistent daily schedule, with exercising early in the morning prior to when most people work often a good start to stimulate the body, which is usually then spent by the end of the night.

For those people who have problems getting up in the morning as a result of falling asleep way too late, try to exercise when you get home from work (around 6-7 p.m.). As it can take anywhere from 4-6 hours for the body to calm down from vigorous activity, this will at least provide you with the necessary time gap if you fall within this crowd of evening exercisers/troubled sleepers.

While many chronic sciatica and neck pain sufferers worry that exercising will only exacerbate their pain, the opposite is actually true: remaining inactive is often worse for pain. Engaging in regular exercise, stretching and strengthening programs can promote the body’s natural healing process and make you feel better both physically and mentally.

Forced Worrying

If you’re a bit of a “worry-wart” like me, it can be difficult to get to sleep with so much on the mind. “Forced worrying” is an interesting way to try to ease your concerns and go to bed with a clean slate.

A couple of hours before you go to bed, take 15 minutes or so to write down your worries on a blank sheet of paper. Once done, leave the room where you wrote your worries, which literally symbolizes that you are walking away from your worries for the night.

Remind yourself that you will have plenty of time to address these worries the following day. Now if you find yourself in bed worrying about other things, keep a notebook and pen nearby and write these down as well.

Visualize Something Peaceful and Meditate on that Tranquility

With your mind free of worry, gently close your eyes and think of something tranquil and relaxing.

What this peaceful place exactly is varies from person to person. For me, I like to think of myself out on a boat in the middle of the lake, with a fishing pole in hand and nothing but nature around me.

In a similar light, consider incorporating a sound relaxation machine or even aromatherapy. Also important with this point is your need to associate your bed as a place to rest.

In other words, your bed should not be a place to bring your computer and do work, or to lay back, play video games and become way too stimulated. Be sure to associate your bed as a place to sleep rather than a consortium for thousands of activities.

Remember the MP3s: Mattress, Pillow and Sleeping Position

Last but not least, consider how you are sleeping at night. Personally, I like to sleep on my right hip as my left hip will occasionally flare up and be a bit sensitive when putting my sleeping weight on it.

Ask yourself these questions:
- Does your mattress provide you with enough lumbar support? [url:1325,type=|node|,content=|Check out these mattress guidelines|].
- How does your pillow support your neck? Is it too high or too firm? [url:1329,type=|node|,content=|Remember these rules for buying a pillow|].
- What position are you most comfortable when sleeping? Are you most relaxed on your back, side or curled up? How do you feel when you wake up in the morning as a result of these positions?
If you have certain types of pain, there are a variety of [url:7696,type=|node|,content=|sleeping positions|] that are best for your symptoms.

For example, patients with pain from [url:136,type=|term|,content=|osteoarthritis|] are advised to sleep in the fetal position (on their sides, with knees curled up) while patients with [url:146,type=|term|,content=|degenerative disc disease|] may prefer to sleep on their stomach and those with hip pain may achieve relief by placing a pillow between their knees (something that I didn’t know but will try tonight).