One exercise to save them all
According to the website of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, in 2004, the estimated annual direct cost of treating back pain was $193.9 billion. In addition, annual indirect costs for lost wages resulting from back pain were estimated to add another $22.4 billion to this cost, totaling $216.3 billion.
This was in 2004, what is it now?
You give up?
I don’t know either but it must be more.
Here is a quote taken from the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, January 2009 issue. (http://www.aaos.org/AAOSNow/2009/Jan/research/ research6/)
“Although nonsurgical treatment for back pain is the treatment of choice, when back pain becomes so disabling that patients can no longer function in the activities of daily living, spine surgery may be performed. The three procedures most commonly performed are spinal diskectomy, spinal fusion, and spinal decompression.”
Now think this through. If one of the most commonly performed procedures for treating back pain is spinal de- compression, then that would indicate that spinal compression is one of the most common causes of back pain. If the solution is spinal de-compression, then the problem must be spinal compression.
Makes sense to me; how about you?
Well now we know how much it cost us to treat back pain (in 2004) and we also know that one of the three major causes is spinal compression. (Scratching ones head, and in a comical voice) what do we do now (Stanley)
Did you know:
Did you know that prolong sitting is a major cause of spinal compression?
If you didn’t know, you do know.
The answer to the problem from my experience is: Standing Forward Bend.
And did you know that standing forward bend is an excellent way to decompression your spine?
And the most amazing thing about standing forward bend is that you can do it almost anywhere.
You can do it on a plane, on a train, in the rain, even if you are insane, playing games, down the lane, with a cane.
You can do it on a boat, on a float, in a mote, with a goat, even if you didn’t vote, you can do standing forward bend.
fig 1 Mr.Flexible
Take a look at Mr. Flexible (the skeleton) in figure 1. Notice the red object on the side. That is a herniated disc. As well, notice the big gap between the disc, the vertebrae and the nerve. This is spinal de-compression, and he hasn’t even gone to full forward bend yet as in Fig.2. Now take a look at Fig. 2 and imagine how much greater a spinal de-compression you would be getting if you were to do this. If we all do spinal de-compression on a regular basis, as well as stretch out the muscles around the spine regularly, this will counteract the effects of gravity, allowing us to maintain the length of our spine and alleviate low back pain and save on the money.
fig 2
www.backcareworld.com.