Banish your back pain with these six handy hacks
Pic: iStock
Back pain causes misery for up to 91% of Ireland’s adult population at some point in their lives, yet despite its prevalence, many of us still don’t know how best to deal with what is often a debilitating and chronic problem.
“Myths and misconceptions about back pain and its treatments are so widespread,” says Fiona Wilson, professor in physiotherapy at Trinity College Dublin. “It means that often people are not doing the things that could really help to alleviate their problem.”
A review on the global low back pain epidemic reported that the condition is now the leading cause of disability worldwide.
While most people with new episodes of back pain recover quickly, two thirds will have a recurrence within 12 months of initial recovery.
Lifestyle factors, such as smoking, obesity, and too little physical activity, are strongly associated with back pain and, for all the back pain gadgets and supplements you can buy, it is usually the simplest strategies that bring the best long-term results.
A new study by researchers at the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital in Finland, published in the , found that mid-lifers who reduced daily sitting time prevented back pain from worsening over six months.
People with low back issues often have excessive fat deposits within their back muscles, as well as impaired glucose metabolism, which predisposes them to pain.
Although the team did not show that less sitting led to direct improvements in back muscle composition or metabolism, it did help to relieve and prevent recurrent pain over time.
“Our participants were quite normal middle-aged adults who sat a great deal, exercised little, and had gained some extra weight,” says physiotherapist Jooa Norha, one of the study’s authors.
“These factors not only increase the risk for cardiovascular disease but also for back pain.”
Kieran O’Sullivan, a physiotherapist and researcher in musculoskeletal pain and injury at the University of Limerick, says a holistically healthy lifestyle is vital for our backs.
“Don’t think of back pain being only about the back,” he says. “When it persists, back pain often has as much to do with our overall health, including sleep, mood, stress levels, and activity patterns, as it is with specifics such as posture, slouching at a desk, or using the wrong chair.”
In the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital study, participants gradually reduced their sitting by 40 minutes daily over six months.
Since almost three quarters of middle-aged adults spend more than eight hours sitting each day, this equates to getting up for five minutes every hour.
Just being out of the seated position will help your back but Norha states in the study that “it is important to note that physical activity, such as walking or more brisk exercise, is better than simply standing up”.
Daily walking should form the basis of any back care programme.
In the latest BMJ Open study, regular walking helped to prevent back pain from getting any worse which, says O’Sullivan, is consistent with findings from “a large, impressive study on walking last year” from Australian researchers.
“Taken together, these findings suggest that walking is a really good option for people with very mild low back pain, or recent back pain,” he says. “It’s cheap, effective and safe.”
In another recent study of adults with lower back pain, published in The Lancet, researchers at Macquarie University’s spinal pain research group in Australia asked half of the participants to start daily walking five days a week while the others did no extra activity.
Walking programmes were gentle to start with but most participants were managing an average of 130 minutes a week, or 26 minutes on each of their five allotted days, after three months.
After three years, results showed that the regular walkers had fewer bouts of debilitating pain than the control group and longer periods without a recurrence of their back problems.
Ergonomically designed chairs with an eye-watering price tag might not be any better for your back than a cheap office chair or even a dining chair.
“There’s no strong evidence at all that the type of chair you sit on will prevent or heal your back pain,” Wilson says.
“What makes the difference is not the seat itself or even how well you sit on it but how often you move on and out of it.”
The BMJ Open study highlighted that switching between postures was more important than maintaining a perfect posture.
Wilson says there is “no perfect sitting position”, adding that an uncomfortable office chair is often a better option than a luxuriously cushioned seat as you are more inclined to fidget and move around in it.
Good quality sleep helps reduce stress hormones that can cause tension in back muscles and also releases anti-inflammatory compounds that help to relieve back pain.
A recent review of studies on people with low back pain, published in the journal Sleep, found that “worse baseline sleep was associated with more intense back pain and a lower likelihood of recovery from low back pain over time”.
Aim for seven to eight hours a night and stick to a strict bedtime routine.
Pilates has gained a reputation as the best form of exercise for back pain prevention. However, a significant review in The Lancet concluded that “no single form of exercise is better for back pain than another”.
Pilates can help some people but no more or less than any other exercise for back pain,” O’Sullivan says.
“The best exercise is one you do regularly, be that swimming, walking or going to the gym.”
Wilson says performing lunges, deadlifts, and squats at home is a great way to boost back health.
“Fundamental strengthening exercises like these will strengthen muscles around the hips and in the core, leg, buttocks, and back that are important for prevention of back pain,” she says.
The human spine is designed to withstand heavy loads and becomes deconditioned when not loaded regularly.
“Now that we don’t lift and carry as much as our ancestors, lifting weights is an excellent way to ensure the huge muscles in the back stay strong,” says Wilson.
For a study published in the journal Sports Science, Medicine and Rehabilitation, people with low back pain were prescribed a supervised whole-body resistance programme consisting of squats, bench press, deadlifts, and weighted row two times a week for four months.
Researchers tracked the pain and strength levels of the participants and, by the end of the study, they reported improved pain levels and functioning, boosted energy levels, and better sleep patterns as back problems improved.
“People have concerns about ‘damaging’ their back by lifting weights but weight training is no more dangerous than other activities,” says O’Sullivan.
“The important thing with any exercise is to build up gradually and not lift weights that are too heavy too soon.”
