“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You have surely
heard this claim. Wilson Family Chiropractic sees the effects of sitting in our
Millville chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain
and associated issues. Let us explore
sitting and being sedentary workers and what our options might be.
SITTING COMPARISON TO SMOKING
Is the sitting and smoking a little harsh?
Maybe. One medical report uncovered that 300 news articles cite this claim! (1) Harsh or not, it does call attention to the issue that
sitting a lot isn’t healthy for anyone. 25% of adults including Millville
chiropractic patients and adults sit more than 8 hours a day.
Older adults are said to sit even more.
(2) Wilson Family Chiropractic realizes we all sit. We’re not
shaming you! We’re with you!
THE STATE OF NSCLBP in SEDENTARY WORKERS
Sitting is what we do. Researchers report to us
that the activity level of low back pain suffers is low. Of 300 patients, 32.5% lead sedentary
lives, 48.5% live underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them didn’t do any activity to enhance muscle strength
or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting posed a risk for
all-cause mortality independent of physical
activity even if it’s of moderate to vigorous effort. The best
suggestion is to decrease the quantity of sitting
not just increase physical activity levels. (4) Wilson Family Chiropractic urges
both, too!
WHAT CAN WE DO? EXERCISE (AND A BONUS: RESPIRATION
IMPROVEMENT)
One author asserted the challenge
of the “exercise to buffer sitting’s effect” implication as an
“inconvenient truth”: a few weekly trips to the fitness center
can’t really erase a lifetime of sitting. He
also shared that fixing the sitting issue by standing has its
own problems (beyond its being uncomfortable!) like varicose
veins and foot pain. (5) So what then, particularly
for low back pain sufferers? Dynamic strengthening exercises – those that concentrate
on core and global stabilization as well as endurance in stabilizing
musculature – showed better improvement in pain relief and better
function particularly in the lumbar multifidus and transversus
abdominus which are two muscles that low back pain affects.
(6) More precisely, a 20-week lumbar stabilization exercise
and muscle strengthening exercise program reduced low back pain
and functional disability in sedentary workers. A lumbar stabilization exercise
program proved more effective and persisted
for 12 weeks. (7) An advantage to lumbar segmental stabilization
exercise is that it activated the deep muscles and boosted
respiratory function and pressure in chronic low back pain patient who experienced
segmental instability. (8) Respiration is important! Another study
demonstrated that forced breathing exercise therapy effectively enhanced
trunk stability and daily living activities in chronic low back pain patients, particularly
for those with chronic lumbago in whom these exercises eased
pain. (9) Exercise works! It’s not
everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a part of the solution.
CONTACT Wilson Family Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST
with Dr. Shawn Nelson on The Back Doctors Podcast about The
Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management’s role in back pain
management to help a runner re-gain his stride despite his facet syndrome back
pain condition that irritates us sitting folks.
Schedule you Millville chiropractic appointment
with Wilson Family Chiropractic today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue describes
you and back pain makes matters worse, Millville
chiropractic care is for you…besides striving
to not sit that much and exercising a little
more!