“Sitting. It’s the new smoking.” You have surely
heard it. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC sees the effects of sitting in our
La Grande chiropractic practice in the form of back pain, neck pain
and associated issues. Let’s explore
sitting and being sedentary workers and what we can do
about it.
SITTING COMPARISON TO SMOKING
Is the sitting and smoking a little harsh?
Maybe. One medical report uncovered that 300 news articles mention this claim! (1) Glaring or not, it does draw attention to the issue that
sitting a lot isn’t healthy for anyone. 25% of adults La Grande
chiropractic patients and adults included sit more than 8 hours daily.
Older adults supposedly sit even more.
(2) Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC knows 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 document
that the activity level of low back pain suffers is low. Of 300 patients, 32.5% live sedentary
lives, 48.5% live underactive lifestyles, and 68.3% of them didn’t do any activity to increase muscle strength
or flexibility. (3) Continued sitting created a risk for
all-cause mortality separate from physical
activity even if it’s of moderate to vigorous effort. The best
suggestion is to reduce sitting time
not just boost physical activity levels. (4) Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC encourages
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 gym
can’t really erase a lifetime of sitting. He
also shared that fixing the sitting issue by standing has its
own issues (beyond its being uncomfortable!) like foot pain and varicose veins. (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 – displayed better improvement in pain relief and better
function especially in the lumbar multifidus and transversus
abdominus which are two muscles that low back pain bothers.
(6) More specifically, 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) A bonus to lumbar segmental stabilization
exercise is that it activated the deep muscles and enhanced
respiratory function and pressure in chronic low back pain patient who had
segmental instability. (8) Respiration is important! Another study
showed that forced breathing exercise therapy effectively improved
trunk stability and daily living activities in chronic low back pain patients, particularly
for those with chronic lumbago in whom these exercises decreased
pain. (9) Exercise works! It is not
everything for us sedentary folks, but exercise is a piece
of the puzzle.
CONTACT Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
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 La Grande chiropractic appointment
with Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC today. If “sitting is the new smoking” issue defines
you and back pain makes matters worse, La Grande
chiropractic care is for you…together with striving
to not sit that much and exercising a little
more!