Spine Health & Spinal Hygiene

Is Your Mobility Slipping Away ?

Mobility is more than moving from one place to another. It’s freedom and independence.

Whether you have a back or other condition that impacts how you walk, or your body doesn’t move as effortlessly as it once did, decreased mobility impacts a lot of people. But, if you notice changes early on, you and your doctor may be able to work on a plan to keep you moving comfortably for longer.

To see some red flags that may signal a decline in healthy mobility. Do any sound familiar?

Short Walks Become Long Walks

How do you feel after walking a quarter of a mile? Is it painful or taxing on your body?

Unless you have a spine condition or other disease that limits your ability to walk, you should be able to walk your entire life. If it’s challenging to complete short walks, that’s a red flag your mobility is at risk.

Changes In Gait

It’s not just walking distance that foreshadows a decline in mobility—how you walk is just as revealing.

Gait is the medical term for how you walk. While gait changes are a typical part of aging, some gait characteristics aren’t normal. For example: If you walk in a shuffling, unsteady, or cautious manner, you should see your doctor. He or she will help assess your gait and hopefully find the reason for it and ways to improve your movement.

Your “Get Up & Go” Is A Bit Slow

Another way to test your mobility is by doing the “get up and go” test.

You’ll need a friend to time you during this task. First, start by sitting in a chair. When your friend says “go,” get up and walk 10 feet in a straight line, then turn around and walk back to the chair and sit down. Most people who have healthy mobility can complete the exercise in 10 seconds or less.

While speed is an important part of this exercise, think about how you feel afterward. Do you feel any pain in your back muscles or in your legs or joints? If so, you should talk to your doctor to find ways to ease these movements’ impact on your quality of life.

Golf & Chiropractic Care

Daily Tasks Aren’t So Routine

Is cooking a meal or taking a shower an ordeal when it used to be just a typical part of your day? Do you have work-arounds for tasks that were once easy?

One can overlook how a once simple part of your daily routine has slowly morphed into a challenging task. You may adjust your lifestyle to accommodate a decline in mobility (like putting a seat in the shower), but that’s a sign it’s time to see your doctor.
Your doctor can get to the bottom of your movement problems and suggest ways to help, such as using an assistive device, like a cane or walker, so you can move easier.

You Don’t Travel Far From Home

This isn’t about getting on a plane—you don’t travel to the other side of town. Avoiding going away from home, even if it’s a grocery store a few miles from your house, could be a sign your ability to move is declining.

Think about it: Running errands across town for an hour or two takes physical endurance. If you feel mentally and physically exhausted over the thought of completing a few errands, that’s a red flag your mobility health is at risk.

The Best Way To Improve Mobility

Want to keep walking well into your later years? The answer is simple: Stay active.

Physical activity is excellent for your heart, lungs, muscles, and spine, and helps preserve your independence. It’s never too late to start exercising.

Caring for your mobility is essential—not just for spine health but for your total health.

El Paso TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez looks at the work environment to see if it is in fact spine friendly.
While work can be a pain, it doesn’t have to cause pain. Creating your office work room in order to avoid back and neck strain is easier than you may think. Plus, rethinking your work environment is a fantastic chance to brush up on other healthy work habits as well as your posture.
Here are five ways you are able to design your office together with your back in your mind.
 

#1. Perfect Your Sitting Posture

If you’re not sitting right even with the top equipment, your back will suffer. Pay attention to the situation of legs, hands, and your head when sitting. To avoid back pain, make sure to do the following:

• Sit erect with your back and shoulders against the trunk of your chair
• Consider using a hands free headset to stop shoulder and neck pain
• Don’t slouch
• Arms should rest on the armrests of your chair to avoid nerve pressure or circulatory difficulties
• Keep your feet flat on the flooring—don’t cross your legs
• Rest your shoulders while typing

#2. Get A Good Chair

A good-constructed ergonomic seat to help increase your blood flow, reduce fatigue, stress, and decrease the chance of injury to your own neck and back. Getting the chair that is best is important, which means this is one product which should be tried in the store as opposed to purchasing online so you know before purchasing it, the way that it feels. Make fully sure your office chair has got the following:

• A good backrest that provides lumbar support
• The capability to recline (Sitting erect at a 90º angle is not good for your spine; a 100-degrees to 110-degrees angle is much better.)
• Flexible height (You don’t want the seat to be overly high—your feet must be flat on the floor)
• The ability to rotate or swivel, so you can easily change tasks

#3. Invest In A Desk That Offers More Than Just Storage

One of the biggest pitfalls of a spine-friendly work routine is staying in one position for a long time. Switching between sitting and standing is the best strategy, and some desks—known as sit-stand desks or sit-to-stand desks — encourage one to mix up your position through the entire workday.
Sit-to-stand desks offer you the choice to work comfortably in both sitting and standing poses—and they been discovered to simply help burn off calories. They come in various price points and styles, and a growing variety of companies are considering this investment to boost workplace wellness.

If you’re looking to boost the ergonomic quality of a traditional desk make sure the desk is:

• Secure (not wobbly)
• Suitably high (generally 28″ to 30″ above the floor)
• Large enough for your computer, with surface space for writing along with other jobs.
• Not so large that you have to over reach to do your work, which could cause excessive stress on the back

#4. Look At Your Computer

Since so much office work is done on computers, wherever your equipment is put can really make a difference when you are at work, in how your back feels.

Try the following tips:

• Tilt the keyboard down and slightly away from you for better wrist posture
• Be sure your mouse is close enough so you can use it with your arms relaxed, and let it be as close to your body as possible
• Set the monitor right in front of you at eye level, not off to the side, in order to avoid eye and neck strain. Adjustable monitor stands are available to find an ideal height.
• If using a notebook, consider getting an external monitor or keyboard (or both). This enables each of those parts individually to move to develop a comfortable arrangement.

#5. Take A Break

Not just a coffee break but a spine break. Stretch, take a quick walk, get the blood flowing. It’s simple to get caught up in work jobs and forget that you’ve been sitting or typing for a straight hour. Whether it’s a 15-minute walk or two-minute stretch session, occasional breaks can help revive your muscles, and perhaps you can find feel more productive, too.
You spend lots of time at work—why not take a few extra steps to develop a space that does your back a number of favors in return?

El Paso, TX. Chiropractor Dr. Alex Jimenez takes a look at driving and how it effects the spine.

Daily, nearly 90% of journeys and 92% of miles traveled are made in autos or ground transportation (buses, trucks). On average, guys drive 44 miles as well as girls drive 34 miles each day. For many Americans, driving a motorized road vehicle is their job: truck drivers, bus drivers, ambulance and fire trucks, police, taxis etc.

Modern car and truck layouts have come a long way in their own design over the past 20 years, with better fuel efficiency, better features, better styling and better relaxation. But is there any signs that the look of contemporary bus, car or truck seats and driving might play a part in causing a few of the back injuries that plague Americans each year?
 
Exactly Why Is Driving Different To Ordinary Sitting?

In case your own car is not moving, then sitting in a driving seat probably isn’t substantially different to sitting in a chair that is cushioned, but as soon as the vehicle begins moving things change. Additionally, when driving the feet are actively being used, the right foot on the gas (accelerator) pedal, the left on the brake, and in a stick-shift also on the clutch. When the feet are active they can’t be utilized to support and stabilize the reduced body when they’re put on the floor during regular sitting in a chair, as usually occurs. There is evidence the blend of those variables, coupled with the look of the car seat itself, can increase the possibility of back problems for many people.

Is Driving Linked With Back Problems?

Lab studies have examined the effects of whole-body vibration when a person is sitting in a car seat. The lumbar spine has a natural resonant frequency of 4-5 Hz , and results show that this natural frequency can be excited by lab simulated vehicle driving, and this may result in high spinal loadings in the lower back, and also this in turn could result in greater postural distress and an increased hazard of low back pain and injury.

Quite a few research studies have investigated potential associations between back and driving problems, and usually these studies have found significant consequences.

Drivers in the USA and in Sweden found that in each country 50% of those questioned reported low back pain. 

Investigation of the potential reasons for this revealed that long term vibration exposure from driving was among the greatest risk factors for neck, back and low back problems.
Gender generally seems to play an important part in the possibility of developing driving-related back problems. A survey of over 7000 Parisians found that even though severity and the prevalence of low back pain was higher in women, driving was just connected with back problems in guys. The need for driving as a risk factor improved with driving time, and was especially important for guys who drove 4 hours or more each day.

A survey of over 1400 urban transportation system motorists showed that issues using the capacity to accurately adjust the seat that was driving have significant effects on the prevalence of low back problems.

Nevertheless, it appears that driving need not consistently raise the chance of back problems.

Is There An Ideal Car Seat Layout?

Based on a comprehensive evaluation of advice from peer-reviewed scientific journals and texts, automotive engineering reports, and also the National Library of Medicine a string of requirements for the best car seat layout have been developed. Ideally, the optimal car seat should have:

1. Adjustable seat back incline (100 degrees from horizontal is ideal)
2. Changeable seat bottom depth (from seat back to front edge)
3. Adjustable seat height
4. Flexible seat bottom incline
5. Seat bottom cushion with solid (dense) foam
6. Adjustable lumbar support (horizontally and vertically adjustable)
7. Depth pulsating lumbar support to lessen static load
8.  Flexible bilateral arm rests
9. Flexible seat back incline (100-degrees from horizontal is optimal
10. Flexible head restraint with pad that is lordosis
11. Frequencies between 1- 20 Hz to dampen
12. Linear front-back seat traveling to allow otherwise sized drivers to reach the pedals
13. Seat back damped to reduce bouncing of the torso in rear end impacts

Driving Safety

What To Check For In A Great Car Seat Layout When You Buy The Next Car

It is likely that most automobiles available on the market today won’t have the features listed above that are desirable in the optimal car seat all, but some will have more than others pick wisely. Pay close focus on the subsequent 5 guidelines which should help you to protect your back when you drive.

1) Car Seat Comfort

You’ve fixed this to suit your body and when you sit in the car seat does it feel comfortable. Otherwise, you will be most likely caused by then the car seat rear discomfort issues should you drive for any length of time. Rebound up and down in the seat to find out the way that it adapts vibration. Take the automobile on a test drive.

2) Car Seat Adjustments

Can you correct each of the features of the car seat you want to adjust? At a minimum you need to have the ability to adapt:

• Seat space to accommodate different leg lengths
• Seat height to accommodate different leg lengths
• Backrest angle to sit down in either an upright or more reclined posture

You Should Look For Other Adjustments That Are Useful:

• Seat tilt to angle the front of the seat down or up so that this does not press against the back of your knees
• Look for a car seat that supplies you with great low back support that can be corrected for depth (frequently the seat has an inflatable cushion) and is height adjustable
• Headrest for neck support
• Arms rests which are broad, cushioned and comfortable, and preferably height flexible

3) Shift Your Position

Remember to go your position from time to time. Wait until driving conditions are right to enable you to wriggle in the seat to relieve postural fatigue.

4) Take Breaks

Driving is exhausting work and to prevent driver fatigue and minimize postural discomfort it is good move around and take to pretty frequent rest breaks that enable you to stand up.

You can select a number of car seat accessories that will enhance seat comfort for you personally, from fleece covers to soften the seat to bead backrests to provide for some type of back massage while you drive. Select anything you find adds to your driving comfort.

5) Seat Accessories

You’re able to pick a number of car seat accessories which will improve seat comfort for you personally, from fleece covers to soften the seat to bead backrests to provide for some sort of back massage while you drive. Choose anything you locate adds to your driving comfort.

Back pain is just one of the very typical reasons people self-address and seek medical care. It will impact about three in four adults throughout their lifetime. About “back pain” when we speak we mean pain that originates in the backbone anywhere between the upper and lower back.

There are lots of various kinds of pain. Acute back pain is described as acute but lasting a brief period of time. Chronic back pain usually occurs every day. It could be severe, but may be characterized as mild, heavy, achy, burning, or electric-like. Back pain that travels into a different portion of the body, including the leg may be consider radicular pain, especially when it radiates below the knee. This scenario is often called a lumbar. Fortunately, not all incidences of back pain include leg pain!

It isn’t uncommon for back pain to be accompanied by other symptoms, like numbness and tingling senses, stiffness, achiness, and weakness. Back pain may raise or aggravate. Twisting at the waist, walking, standing, bending over, and sitting are some of the motions that may make back pain worse. Of course, that’s not true for each patient. Instead, it depends on what level of the back is changed and the analysis, or cause.

BACK PAIN DOCTOR – SPEAK

If you see a doctor for back pain, he (or she) may use terms such as thoracic, lumbar, lumbosacral, or sacrum. The purpose is, back pain is a big subject covering many distinct regions (or amounts) of the backbone.

• Lumbar refers to your low back.
• Lumbosacral is the low back, sacrum, and maybe the tailbone (called the coccyx).
• Sacrum is the section of the spine that is at the back of your pelvis.

Furthermore fibrous and muscle supporting structures, intervertebral discs, spinal cord and nerve roots, and blood vessels. A straightforward injury, such as a back sprain/strain from lifting and twisting simultaneously, can cause severe and immediate pain that’s usually self-limiting.

Of course, not all prevalence of back pain are injury or trauma -associated. Many back problems are congenital (discovered at birth), degenerative, age-associated, disease-related, and may be linked to poor posture, obesity or an unhealthy lifestyle including smoking. Occasionally the back pain is worse than the seriousness of the harm or illness.

• You cannot stand upright.
• Pain is accompanied by fever.
• Loss of bowel or bladder function or control
• Weakness leg pain and/or progressively worsens.
• Pain is worsens or persistent.

Many patients with back pain have reported feeling concerned and scared, which is regular. Most individuals who experience upper, low or lower back pain— even down into both legs or one — know when it’s time to seek medical care.

WHAT TO EXPECT FROM YOUR PHYSICIAN

Whether you back pain falls into the “seek pressing medical care” list above, or you’re following your gut reaction that says, “Go see your doctor,” below is what you are able to expect.

A review of your medical history, including immediate family members who have back problems. Some back problems (eg, scoliosis, osteoporosis) have a genetic possibility.
Your physician wants to learn as much about symptoms and your pain before he examines you—while the exam may induce pain, your physician doesn’t wish to make the process intolerable!

Physical examination evaluates your vital signs (eg, heart rate). It really is not unusual for your blood pressure to be elevated as an effect of pain. The doctor examines your spine, feeling for abnormalities and regions of tenderness.

Neurological examination involves evaluating function and sensation. The physician may apply the pin prick test to determine if feeling is the same on either side of special portions of the body (eg, legs). Function, flexibility and range of motion are evaluated while you walk, bend forward and backwards (if able to), and during other movements. The physician tests your reflexes also.

After an exhaustive review, your doctor probably has come to a couple of conclusions as to what is causing your back pain and other symptoms. To obtain more information about your back problem, and to assist confirm the diagnosis, the doctor may order an x ray, CT scan, or MRI. Occasionally lab tests are purchased also. Bear in mind that an exact diagnosis is vital to a well-developed treatment plan.