Spinal Health – The 5 pillars of a happy, healthy back

Article by Chris Lawlor, Chart Clinic Osteopath

In the UK alone up to 2.5 million people experience back pain every day of the year, here at the Chart Clinic we want to give you some tips to overcome your pain or to keep it at bay if you’re not to suffering.

1)    Maintain good muscular tone and strength

Lower back and core muscles are vital players when it comes to lower back pain, it’s important to keep these muscles in shape in order to provide stability and protect your lower back and pelvic region.

Personalised treatment sessions with an Osteopath can massively help; we are specifically trained to spot imbalances or weaknesses in people’s bodies and have a wide array of treatment techniques to help counteract these issues.

Your Osteopath will also give you tailored exercise/strengthening routines in order to maintain strong muscular health.

2)    Maintain Flexibility

Getting the right combination of flexibility and strength is key; too much of one and not enough of the other doesn’t tend to do the body much good. Some light daily stretching exercises should be done regardless of pain in order to keep your body mobile and supple. Again your Osteopath will design the most effective rehab/stretching programme that suits your specific needs and will be checking up on you to make you’re keeping up with your ‘homework’!

3)    Get Enough Sleep

We’d all love an extra hour or two in bed, but evidence does actually show sleeping for slightly longer each night can improve the health of your back, especially with disc related injuries. This is because when lying down your spine is free from vertical compression (which builds up throughout the day, sitting/standing/exercising etc) so at night the discs in your spine have more time to replenish and can then perform their function of shock absorption and nerve protection.

4)    Stay Hydrated

Continuing with the health of your discs, these structures need plenty of water to perform optimally and so it is important to keep hydrated throughout the day. The recommended daily intake of water is 2 litres, so always try and have a bottle or glass on the go and remember if you’re actually thirsty it usually means you are already slightly dehydrated!

5)    Prevention is Better than Cure

As with most things in life, being proactive is better than being reactive, and the same is true with your spine! Generally looking after yourself and following some of the steps above is a sure fire way to keep problems at bay.

But if things do build up make sure you come and see an Osteopath before the problems get too severe.

As a rule of thumb the longer problems are left untreated, generally the more difficult they are to get back to 100%, so book an appointment as soon its starting to bother you and get on top of the problem to nip it in the bud!

To book an appointment with Osteopath Chris Lawlor call 01737 248 023