Don’t Let Back Pain Get to You!

About 80% of Americans suffer debilitating low back pain at some point in their life. This fact is staggering, yet it doesn’t have to be this common. The key to staying out of this group of low back pain sufferers comes down to one word: Prevention.  If I had to choose one common problem amongst all low back pain sufferers it would be bad low back position during common activities such as brushing your teeth, bending over, picking up a small child, exercising and sitting.

The lumbar spine, which is the lower part of the spine, is meant to have a natural curve to it that displaces the forces of gravity, weight, etc evenly and minimally. When this natural curve is straightened or reduced, the forces on the discs, muscles, and ligaments of the low back are significantly increased. For example, sitting without maintaining the natural curve increases the forces on those structures by 30-40%!

To prevent low back pain you must learn to perform all activities with a natural curve. The best way to train yourself to instinctively do this is to do the hip hinge drill. Stand tall with a normal curve in the low back with a stick placed from your head down to your buttocks. Next, with a mirror to your side, bend over at the hips and not the low back. You will notice that the space between your low back and stick will be maintained. If you bend at the low back, the lumbar spine will touch the stick. Work on this until it becomes a natural movement and use this posture during all activities to prevent low back pain.

Chiropractic and Corporate Wellness

As you walk into the new Tyco headquarters in Boca Raton, FL you find yourself on “Main Street” with multiple store front signs such as a salon, Starbucks, technology store and eat well cafeteria. Amongst these stores you will also find a chiropractic office, massage therapy center, fitness center and primary care physicians. Once you realize you aren’t in a mall or a medical plaza, and are actually in a company headquarters, you become extremely impressed. It also becomes apparent that Tyco has made a concerted effort to improve the wellness and performance of their employees and is bucking the trend of most major corporations. This is a complete 180 from the old thought processes of how to incentivize the work force, and its truly remarkable. 

Recently, our practice was fortunate enough to be asked to run the Chiropractic Care out of this corporation. When we were approached with this opportunity, I was extremely impressed they thought of Chiropractic as an integral part of this program and excited to be a part of such a company movement. Being an A.R.T. Corporate Solutions certified practitioner through Active Release Technique® I have had some experience on a small scale in other corporations, but this was going to be a much larger undertaking. Where would we start?

First, we wanted to come up with a program that includes evaluation and corrective strategies for workstation related pain syndromes, overall chiropractic wellness, and family care. Since all immediate family members of Tyco employees can receive chiropractic services at the facility, this will be an integral part of our patient base. Secondly, we wanted to educate all employees on ergonomics, work station stretches/exercises, and prevention of over-use strain at the workplace. In our experience, optimal management of desk-related pain is chiropractic, soft tissue manual therapy, ergonomic advice and postural correction through exercise and awareness. Prevention of pain and injuries should be the number one goal of any corporate wellness program, so implementing the above prior to pain is paramount. 

In our practice we have treated many sports injuries, traumatic injuries and auto accidents utilizing chiropractic, rehab, Active Release Tecnique® and Graston Technique®. However, it seems that our most common patient these days is the computer/desk worker who sits for a living. As well, large corporations are seeing extremely high worker’s compensation costs due to these types of work related injuries. To quantify this, we will implement a record keeping system to compare the work comp costs prior to and after our program implementation. Our goal is to provide wellness for the employees and reduced costs to the employer. Since we have considerable experience in treating and preventing desk-related pain syndromes in our office, we have high expectations for our program at Tyco. All of what Tyco has assembled will come together to provide effective and convenient health solutions for both parties. 

If you are a computer or desk worker and are suffering from pain related to this, or want to prevent the occurrence of such pain please contact us for your own personalized treatment and prevention plan.