Health blog Category: back pain
5 Ways to Relieve Back and Neck Pain
There are common causes of both back pain and neck pain. Changes in the spine’s anatomy often cause back pain. There may be lumbar disc herniation, lumbar degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis or sacroiliac joint dysfunction. Disc herniation occurs when the gel-like interior of the disc leaks outward and irritates the nerve roots. It typically causes a stabbing pain in the back of the legs and back pain. Wear and tear on the spinal discs can lead to lumbar degenerative disc disease.
Read full blogFour Common Disc Problems and What to Do About Them
Back problems plague much of our society today. You may know someone who suffers from back pain, or it may be you yourself. While several factors contribute to different types of pain, disc problems are a category of their own.
First, what is a disc?
A disc in your spine is a section of cartilage that resides between each vertebrae. It consists of thick fibrous tissue surrounding gel matter that allows for flexibility and shock absorption.
Read full blogStand up Straight, Don’t Slouch!
By: Alyssa Burke, PTA
These instructions sound familiar to anyone? I don’t know about you, but growing up, I constantly heard both of these and, “keep your shoulders back” all the time. Good posture is something that we are taught but don’t always think about as we carry on with our daily activities until we start to notice aches and pains. It’s often easy to see and point out signs of bad posture in other people. It can be harder to notice and break poor postural habits of our own.
Changing positions constantly because of a back muscle strain?
Lower back problems are one of the most common complaints we encounter in physical therapy. The majority of adults will experience back pain at some point in their lifetime. The back pain they experience may only last a short time or it could linger for months. Back pain affects men and women equally and can even be seen in children and teenagers. There are many different structures that are at risk for injury in your back.
Read full blogWhat Our Core Workout Should Also Include
The core must be one of the most complex features of the human body. Everything we do involves the core. What is the core exactly? A lot of people think it’s those wonderful six-pack abs. But really that’s not the core, that’s only a small component of the core. So what else makes up the core?
- Your abdominal muscles
- Your hip muscles
- Your back muscles
- The muscles that surround your pelvis
You need all those muscles to be working well together as a team in order to have good core strength.
Read full blogBack Discomfort Making it Difficult to Complete Our Daily Routine
Back discomfort can be debilitating no matter what your walk of life. People living with back pain are often plagued by the inability to sleep, stiffness or difficulty with activities that they love. These may include running or hiking, gardening, walking the dog or playing with their grandchildren. Back pain is something that can affect anyone; they may be young athletes, active parents or older adults.
Like many conditions, when we have pain or discomfort in one area of the body, if we don’t handle it, it can start impacting another area of the body. Back pain is no different.
Missing a good night’s sleep because of discomfort?
By: Cierra Washington, ATC
Let’s take some time to talk statistics. Roughly two-thirds of Americans suffer from low back pain in particular, yet only 63 percent actually take the steps to relieve their pain, according to the American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). Of those two-thirds, 69% say their lower back pain affected their daily lives in different ways such as exercise, sleeping, working and time with family and friends. Those four activities alone make up almost the entire day for most Americans.
How to Bounce Back from a Muscle Strain
Lower back problems are one of the most common complaints we encounter in physical therapy. The majority of adults will experience back pain at some point in their lifetime. The back pain they experience may only last a short time or it could linger for months. Back pain affects men and women equally and can even be seen in children and teenagers. There are many different structures that are at risk for injury in your back.
Read full blogWhy even younger populations might be having this kind of discomfort
By: Kieran Loving, ATC
What in the world is an SI joint? Why is it even important? When I worked in a high school, many young athletes would complain about lower back pain or symptoms that radiate down there legs. They’re young, they can’t have low back problems can they? They’re in peak physical condition able to practice and do activities for hours a day! So why were they coming into the athletic training room with lower back issues.
Progression of a Disc Issue in the Spine
There are many things that can go wrong with a disc in your spine. You may have heard the terms degenerated, bulging, herniated, ruptured, slipped and many more. These are basically all describing the same thing just a slightly different progression in each case.
A disc that is irritated or has some abnormal pressure on it may be termed a “slipped disc”. What this means is that the surrounding muscles have not done a good job supporting the spine and maintaining proper alignment of your spine and as a result, the increased pressure on the disc or discs from the surrounding muscles has allowed the disc to start to lose its shape and/or potentially move slightly to one side.