3 Expert Tips to Avoid Back Pain
These factors play a huge role in whether you develop back pain.
No offence, but I hope we never meet, in my office anyway.
I am a chiropractor (commence cheers or jeers or an indifferent shrug) and I want you to be aware of three things that will possibly keep you out of my office for back pain.
Deadlifts and heavy squats are not on this list, nor is spending too much time on your phone (although you probably should put your phone down more, it’s not because you’re damaging your spine).
What is this advice that will surely change the woeful trajectory of your spinal health you ask?
- Quit Smoking
- Lift Weights
- Drink Water
Easy Right?
Low back pain is the most common musculoskeletal problem globally. It is the leading cause of activity limitation and absenteeism from work, and results in a huge medical burden and economic cost. It is consequently one of the major global public health problems¹.
Make a Change
Quitting smoking, starting an exercise program, drinking more water…ugh. I know this advice sounds like a major pain in the ass, because let’s be honest, none of these activities have the luster of a quick fix.
Quitting smoking if you are a smoker, and not picking up the habit if you are not a smoker, is essential to avoiding back pain. Nicotine and back pain go together like peanut butter and chocolate. Numerous studies have demonstrated evidence tying nicotine use to degradation in the quality of the intervertebral discs, associations with lower back pain, and a dose relationship between how much you smoke and how much back pain you can look forward to experiencing²³⁴.
Pick Up, Put Down, Repeat
An exercise program, specifically weight lifting or resistance training with an emphasis on progressive overload, will deliver dividends in the form of fewer bouts of back pain. Again, there is ample scientific data showing an association with weight training and decreased severity of back pain, as well as prevention of back pain⁵. This is despite common refrains, even from people who should know better, that lifting heavy things is bad for your back.
If you never lift or lift only when called upon, say helping a family member move into a new apartment, then yes, you stand a good chance of injuring your back. Regular lifting in a controlled environment with proper instruction and careful programming will make you stronger, more anti-fragile, and less prone to injury. Humans are extremely adaptable, and that applies to your spine as well.
Stay Hydrated
Being clinically dehydrated is a much more worrying situation than having some lower back pain, as you are likely bound for the hospital and several bags of fluid being supplied directly into your arm. However there is some evidence that even mild dehydration or hypohydration can cause a decrease in the fluid content of the intervertebral discs, possibly lessening their shock absorbing capabilities. This may make the spine less able to flex and respond to compressive forces through the disc, which may in turn lead to pain⁶.
I know, lots of speculation there. However, how do you feel if you have not had enough water? Irritable, sore, with a headache, brain fog maybe too…none of this is painting a good picture for what shape your spine must be in when some evidence points out that 85% of the intervertebral disc is made up of water⁶, and spinal disc health is mightily dependent on the proper imbibition of water and the pressure gradients it undergoes during the normal sleep/wake cycle⁷. So do your discs a favor and drink some extra water, preferably enough so you’re not peeing banana peel yellow all day long.
I hope these 3 tips help you avoid the onset or a recurrence of back pain. Even though I’m sure you’re a great person, don’t wind up in my office if you can help it.
References:
- Wu A, March L, Zheng X, et al. Global low back pain prevalence and years lived with disability from 1990 to 2017: estimates from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Ann Transl Med. 2020;8(6):299. doi:10.21037/atm.2020.02.175
- Rahman Shiri, Jaro Karppinen, Päivi Leino-Arjas, Svetlana Solovieva, Eira Viikari-Juntura,The Association between Smoking and Low Back Pain: A Meta-analysis,The American Journal of Medicine,Volume 123, Issue 1, 2010,Pages 87.e7–87.e35,ISSN 0002–9343, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2009.05.028.
- Green, B. N., Johnson, C. D., Snodgrass, J., Smith, M., & Dunn, A. S. (2016). Association Between Smoking and Back Pain in a Cross-Section of Adult Americans. Cureus, 8(9), e806. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.806
- Akmal, Mohammed et al. “Effect of nicotine on spinal disc cells: a cellular mechanism for disc degeneration.” Spine vol. 29,5 (2004): 568–75. doi:10.1097/01.brs.0000101422.36419.d8
- Shiri, Rahman et al. “Exercise for the Prevention of Low Back Pain: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Controlled Trials.” American journal of epidemiology vol. 187,5 (2018): 1093–1101. doi:10.1093/aje/kwx337
- Zhu, Q., Gao, X., Brown, M.D., Temple, H.T. and Gu, W. (2017), Simulation of water content distributions in degenerated human intervertebral discs. J. Orthop. Res., 35: 147–153. https://doi.org/10.1002/jor.23284
- Ferguson, S. J., & Steffen, T. (2003). Biomechanics of the aging spine. European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, 12 Suppl 2(Suppl 2), S97–S103. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00586-003-0621-0