Ergonomically Yours

What if I told you that over the last 15 years I have helped countless low back pain sufferers overcome their pain with a fast, natural, drug free therapy? In addition, that therapy is reasonably priced and covered by most insurance companies.

Of course I am writing about safe and effective chiropractic care.

At this point, some of you will be thinking “Chiropractic doesn’t work!” or “I wouldn’t go to one of those guys!”

I have heard all of these arguments in the past. I was even one of those people. I was raised in a semi anti chiropractic household.

My opinions changed after a car accident I was involved in back in 1984. After a mild fender bender, I slowly developed neck pain and stiffness. Before long that pain was “creeping” into my left shoulder and arm. I began to go to my primary physician at Kaiser for treatment. I followed his advice but nothing worked.

Early on in my treatment, I told my Kaiser doctor that my chiropractor uncle told me that I should see a local chiropractor. My Kaiser doctor dismissed that thought with some derogatory remark and told me to stick with his care – which I did.

Kaisers’ treatment was not helpful!

Eventually I saw a chiropractor who had my condition completely turned around in about 3 weeks. Mind you that the chiropractic care followed 5 months of pills and occasional physical therapy from Kaiser – that didn’t work.

My chiropractic treatment was so successful and actually enjoyable that I switched my college studies to pre-med and later attended Chiropractic College.

What does this have to do with low back pain you ask?

Everything.

Chiropractors are known for treating low back pain, it is what my profession is associated with. The reason that we are associated with low back pain treatment is because of my professions’ tremendous success rate with delivering fast, safe, natural, drug free back pain relief.

I recently read a study that indicated that the use of chiropractic care for low back pain relief is nearly 4000 times safer than using medications or other traditional western medicine inspired treatments.

Most cases of low back pain occur as a direct result of injury or dysfunction involving the joints and muscles of the low back. These are biomechanical problems that are not efficiently treated with medication (drugs). Biomechanical joint problems account for 80% of low back pain cases and usually worsen with age.

Chiropractic care and its use of specific joint adjustments is the logical and efficient treatment for biomechanical joint problems that are responsible for most cases of low back pain.

Fast, Natural, Drug Free Low Back Pain Relief

What if I told you that over the last 15 years I have helped countless low back pain sufferers overcome their pain with a fast, natural, drug free therapy? In addition, that therapy is reasonably priced and covered by most insurance companies.

Of course I am writing about safe and effective chiropractic care.

At this point, some of you will be thinking “Chiropractic doesn’t work!” or “I wouldn’t go to one of those guys!”

I have heard all of these arguments in the past. I was even one of those people. I was raised in a semi anti chiropractic household.

My opinions changed after a car accident I was involved in back in 1984. After a mild fender bender, I slowly developed neck pain and stiffness. Before long that pain was “creeping” into my left shoulder and arm. I began to go to my primary physician at Kaiser for treatment. I followed his advice but nothing worked.

Early on in my treatment, I told my Kaiser doctor that my chiropractor uncle told me that I should see a local chiropractor. My Kaiser doctor dismissed that thought with some derogatory remark and told me to stick with his care – which I did.

Kaisers’ treatment was not helpful!

Eventually I saw a chiropractor who had my condition completely turned around in about 3 weeks. Mind you that the chiropractic care followed 5 months of pills and occasional physical therapy from Kaiser – that didn’t work.

My chiropractic treatment was so successful and actually enjoyable that I switched my college studies to pre-med and later attended Chiropractic College.

What does this have to do with low back pain you ask?

Everything.

Chiropractors are known for treating low back pain, it is what my profession is associated with. The reason that we are associated with low back pain treatment is because of my professions’ tremendous success rate with delivering fast, safe, natural, drug free back pain relief.

I recently read a study that indicated that the use of chiropractic care for low back pain relief is nearly 4000 times safer than using medications or other traditional western medicine inspired treatments.

Most cases of low back pain occur as a direct result of injury or dysfunction involving the joints and muscles of the low back. These are biomechanical problems that are not efficiently treated with medication (drugs). Biomechanical joint problems account for 80% of low back pain cases and usually worsen with age.

Chiropractic care and its use of specific joint adjustments is the logical and efficient treatment for biomechanical joint problems that are responsible for most cases of low back pain.

om a postural standpoint, one of the worst things that we can do to our bodies is slouch while we sit. Sitting seems like such an innocent, non-injurious activity. This is far from the case.

I have been practicing chiropractic in San Diego for the last 15 years and what I have seen in practice regarding back injuries would be surprising to most people in non-medical careers. The average person that I speak with regarding back pain and injuries is of the mind set that low back pain is the result of jobs that require heavy lifting or contact sports, golfing or car accidents.

In reality, it is the constant stress and strain of postural stress that is the biggest burden on our spines. The postural stress of sitting for hours on end in a task chair in front of a computer can become overwhelming. When our bodies are exposed to a specific stress over a long period of time, the effects that the stress places on our bodies has a cumulative effect. Over the course of months or years that cumulative stress expresses itself as pain, stiffness or more serious symptoms.

When I am explaining the ongoing cumulative effects of postural stress to my chiropractic patients I like to use the classic example of the Chinese water torture. Those first couple hundred drops of water on the forehead aren’t bothersome – but a few hundred drops more will make you truly miserable. The same process happens to your low back as the minutes, hours, days, months and years pass with you sitting in a computer chair.

There is a chart floating around that I have come across in several texts that relates your bodies posture with the amount of stress that each particular posture generates on the discs in the lower back. As the chart demonstrates, the level of stress increases as the subject transitions from a prone position to a standing position to seated position to a slumped forward seated position. The chart shows the pressure in the discs to equal 100% of your body weight while standing, approximately 125% of your bodies weight while sitting and over 140% of your body weight when sitting in a forward slumped position.

The reason that sitting is so hard on your back from a postural standpoint is due to the anatomy of the lower back vertebra. When we are standing, your lower back naturally has a forward sweeping curve with the concavity of that curve facing rearward. That curve acts to efficiently divide the weight of your body between the discs that separate your vertebra and the joints that run down the back of your spine. When you assume a seated position, that curve straightens out transferring some of your weight from the posterior joints to the discs. Slumping forward transfers even more weight resulting in more compression of the discs and more stress on the low backs discs.

As time passes, this increase pressure causes irritation of the overloaded spinal structures eventually leading to inflammation, spasm and pain. This is the basic process with many injuries to the body that result from ongoing exposure to some irritating or stressful activity.
How is this postural stress negated? Well, unfortunately, all if it can’t be. But it can be limited by practicing good posture and the right ergonomic principals. A brief ergonomic evaluation of your work area can give you loads of valuable information that will help minimize the effects of your work environment on your body.

Sitting is a sedentary task but like most things in life, if you don’t do it properly there will be undesirable consequences.

Work Safe!

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Here’s To Your Health

Yours Ergonomically,

Dr. Jones

Economic Mouse Pad
San Diego Chiropractic
Pain Relief San Diego Chiropractic

(619) 280-0554