Happy World Spine Day

October 16 is World Spine Day! Today, organizations and people, worldwide, join together to raise awareness of spinal health and illness.

Listed below is a compilation of back health-related articles written both by myself as well as outside sources. They're all very informative and easy to read, so please take a look and empower yourself with some knowledge!

Cain Exercise Rehab Posts

Core Strength And Why Sit Ups Will Hurt You

One of my earliest posts outlining the basic functions of the core as an "anti-movement" system and the reason why the medical community is vigourously recommending against sit-ups.

Core Before, Not Abs After

It's common for weightlifters to fit their ab workout at the tail-end of the session following training another area. However, here's my reasoning on why it's beneficial - for the long-term and for the workout - to do a few sets of core exercises before the rest of the workout instead.

Core Strength And Hyperextension

A short article (with video) on how to train your core to stabilize during the much-neglected range of hip-extension for when you walk or run.

Weight Lifting Belts - The Gym-Goer's Crutch

Weight lifting belts are a crucial element for weightlifters who are pushing those heavy one-rep maxes or doing fatigue-sets. However, what happens when a person becomes over-reliant on the support?

Do You Need Traction?

Traction is an extremely popular alternative treatment for back pain, but here's a short discussion on whether or not there are sound benefits for the long term.

Why Planks Are Not Enough

Planks are what the media is currently pumping out as the solution for spinal health and tight abs. However, this is more out of the simplicity of the exercise for the purpose of quick explanation. In reality, planks are only going to get you so far.

X-Ray and MRI Results: How Concerns Your Should (Not) Be

This may be one of the most important articles to read! If you have had imaging that revealed degeneration or other concerning problems in your back, click this link!

Source

External Sources

If You Keep Texting, Your Head Will Fall Off

You've probably seen some variation of this headline in the past. However, rather than fear-mongering for likes, this writer dug up the research debunking the claims of "text neck".

Why All Those Back Pain 'Cures' Just Make It Worse

Dr. Stuart McGill discusses many popular forms of back pain treatment and why they're likely ineffective - or even counterproductive! Don't worry, he also gives solutions to the problem.

Chronic Back Pain? Journalist Investigates What Works And What Doesn't Work

An investigative journalist scours the research to come to her own conclusions on what is actually proven to be beneficial for the spine and what is not.

Behind Tiger Woods' Arrest And Pain Meds Lies A Problematic Surgery

Spinal fusion is still commonly prescribed by doctors much too early in the process of finding a solution for back pain. More often than not, it only results in more problems down the road.

What This Biomechanics Professor Wishes People Knew About the Real Causes of Low Back Pain

One more article from Stuart McGill as he debunks the most common back pain myths and offers helpful alternatives to address your pain and injuries.

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X-Ray and MRI Results: How Concerned You Should (Probably Not) Be

I'm going to draw off a few studies (Yay science!) as well as a couple personal clients that I've treated as an example here. Let's see if this sounds familiar:

You (or someone you know, a friend of a friend, an uncle's twice-removed cousin in Guam) have some x-rays or an MRI done. This person may or may not be currently experiencing pain. The results come back and BAM! "You have arthritis in your neck/two bulged discs/severe scoliosis," says your doctor. The doctor (or some other health professional) then reasons that these abnormalities are either the cause of your back pain or will soon be causing you severe pain in due time. These conditions are unlikely to ever get better and will probably get worse and worse with time. Too bad, tough luck; try again in your next life!

But hold on!

*Record screech*

Let's take a moment to consider exactly how much stock we should be putting into these imaging results.

I know, it's hard to argue with a picture that says that a condition is there. In fact, I'm not arguing that at all. If an x-ray says that you have degenerative arthritic changes in your neck or the radiograph shows a disc herniation in your low back, then those things are absolutely present!

What I am arguing, however, is how much those pictures actually matter.

I have one client who has been "plagued" by scoliosis that she found out was genetic and had been present for her entire life. She works out religiously and see's her chiropractor for adjustments, but was increasingly frustrated that she continued to be afflicted with back pain and fearful that she would eventually be crippled due to the condition worsening. Now, I'm not the world's greatest therapist by any means (I figure I have another 1-2 years before attaining that award). However, let's just say that after two treatments of assessing her "abnormal" anatomical formation and prescribing exercise to correct for some spinal instability, she has recently been without pain for the first time in years.

Even more recently, I had another client who had been shown the x-rays of degenerative arthritic changes in her neck. She attributed this "osteoarthritis" to her neural pain going down her arm. After examining her, I concluded that, indeed, she had nerve root impingement, but her localized neck pain and range of motion were not severe enough for me to think that those degenerative changes were the major factor. Rather, I can't help but believe her forward head and shoulder posture as well as her hypomobility in her neck segments to be the cause. But that's just me.

Actually, it's not just me. There have been numerous studies supporting the fact that individuals can, extremely commonly, have degenerative changes in their spines and be completely symptom-free. Take this one study that scanned subjects who experienced absolutely no pain, resulting in the conclusion that over half of them had disc bulges! And this isn't an isolated case of asymptomatic people having abnormal findings in their low backs. As for neck pain, how about this study showing that normal and abnormal changes in the cervical spine were found in equal amounts between patients who reported pain and those who reported none at all?

The lesson to take here is that while there are an endless number of reasons that the body may experience pain or dysfunctions that could be present, our bodies have a natural resiliency to them. Humans are adaptable to countless situations and environments, and thus, our bodies are extremely adept at working around physical irregularities, be they genetic or acquired. It is true that oftentimes we need therapeutic intervention in order to guide our mechanics back on the right track. At the end of the day, though, it's very seldom that you need to write yourself off as a lost cause, and we need to be cautious of practitioners who are going to try and capitalize on our fear of that photo. That x-ray photo doesn't have the final say when it comes to your quality of life, though, and clients should always seek second opinions if they feel that their so-called prognosis is unnecessarily bleak.

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How Your Eyes Relate To Your Head and Neck Pain

Try this at home: Sitting comfortably, find the muscular soft spot at the top of your neck, just below the base of your skull. Use the pads of your finger tips to slowly strum through the tissue and gently sink into the tissue. Now, move your eyes around. You should feel the muscles twitching underneath your touch. Fascinated now? Keep reading.

I've treated clients with concussion symptoms and whiplash quite a few times now. To some degree, there's always some involvement of the eyes in their symptoms, whether it's pain, disorientation, or inability to focus. Most of us would never have thought about the importance of the eyes with these movements before, but when you think of it, it makes sense.

Wuuuuhhh?

Eye movement, like every other movement of the body, is initiated by muscles. The muscles of your eyes are small and sensitive, due to the fine control needed for sight. Of these many muscles, the suboccipitals in your neck (sub=below; occiput=the base of the skull) are of high clinical significance.

I've talked before about how pain and spasm work. You experience an injury, your brain senses pain and instability, it causes spasm of the muscles to protect the area, more pain results, and we cycle through over and over again.

When it comes to the topic at hand, when the neck or head experience trauma (such as a concussion or whiplash from a car crash), the suboccipital muscles are among the structures that are sent into this protective spasm. As well-meaning as your body is by doing this, this contributes greatly to the symptoms that follow. As tension increases and the strength and motor control of those muscles is lost, many people will become plagued with symptoms such as migraines, vision problems, eye pain, neck pain, and more.

So to alleviate your symptoms, what can be done. Massage? Yes, but also no. How many of you with these conditions have tried that with only semi-successful results? The pain may go away for the rest of the day, yet it returns soon enough.

Like with any other injury, massaging those suboccipital muscles is only half the work. Remember, the problem is that these muscles are spasming, weak, and lacking motor control. Manual therapy will take care of some of the spasm, but strengthening and reteaching control of the eye movements is mandatory to fully rehabilitate the condition.

Since cluing into these relationships, I've since incorporated eye-tracking assessments and exercises into my rehab programs for clients with neck and head injuries, and these methods have had the most drastic effect on patient recovery over anything else. Once we're able to restrengthen the eye muscles, the spasm and tension in the neck settles down, and symptoms start to subside.

Like I said, the relationship between the eyes and these conditions is not an obvious one, but it's very understandable once brought to light. I'm happy to have found these conclusions, as being able to relieve these life-altering symptoms in shorter time has been very rewarding.