What causes back injuries?
Sex; among other things.
You'd be surprised at what seemingly innocent activities can precipitate or trigger the onset of back injury. Back pain may not be sexy but sex may, in fact, be involved, as you will soon see!
What's important to understand about back pain is that it can be asymptomatic, until the proverbial straw breaks the camels back.
I don't keep these type of practice statistics but, in my best estimate, 75% of all severe back injuries are brought about by an innocent, not so traumatic, event, motion or activity.
Let me explain...
In the following case I will reveal to you a true and actual event of a patient who injured her back, unfortunately, quite severely- so it's not entirely a laughing matter. The average back pain sufferer isn't aware that the ultimate event that triggers the injury doesn't have to be something as dramatic as a fall from a roof. Uneventful moments are capable of producing irreparable damage and excruciating pain. In fact, hidden stresses to the spine- what I refer to as 'weak links in the chain'- can be flying under the radar until an event like what I'm about to share with you occurs.
I'll begin, right off the bat, with my most memorable new patient.
It's obviously common practice when a patient enters my chiropractic clinic to do a thorough history, examination and then, if necessary, x-rays.
In this case, the history told the 'naked truth'. Here's the gist of it...
She was having sex with her husband (those are all the details you need to know so as to keep this PG rated). Things were going quite well, until she felt an abrupt sharp, spastic pain in her lower back. She painfully shouted, "Oh, no!" He, unfortunately for her, replied with an emphatic, "Oh, yeah!" She reaffirmed by yelling, "NO! NO!" But that, she embarrassingly told me, just seemed to rev up his enthusiasm- to which she exclaimed, "Oh God!", which was exactly what she shouldn't have said.
Uh-oh. "Don't!" "Stop!" "Don't stop!" Hopefully, you get the picture.
Eventually, he got the picture as well, and she... got an emergency visit to the chiropractor.
In all seriousness, let me share with you what I've learned about back injuries over the last 14 years or so.
Your spine needs attention- maintenance, if you will. Maintenance may consist of things like chiropractic check-ups, core exercise, practicing proper posture, a good sleeping environment, massage therapy, or maybe an individualized stretching and strengthening regimen you incorporate in to your weekly routine. In general; and this can apply to nearly all aspects of staying healthy- your body needs attention.
Did you know that nearly 50% of the time, the very first symptom of a heart attack is...death?
DEATH!
Meaning the person felt fine the day before and now they're dead. Just like so many people who tell me they 'felt fine' before their acute back injury. On a conceptual and physiological level there's truly no difference. The spine degenerates and mis-aligns over time, little by little, and without attention can fail- just like the heart.
These types of apparently acute problems are processes, merely disguised as events.
In Colorado, we affectionately call the above-described case study, bedroom rodeo. So it may seem like a sports injury, but, in her case, I later discovered there was an underlying problem that was "pushed to the edge". Or you may say it was the "tip of the iceberg", that led to her back injury. So, if your catching my drift you can plainly see, in her case, as in most others, it was "the straw that broke the camels back".
Let's get serious because back injuries can be very serious- I've seen them totally debilitate people, sometimes permanently.
Heart disease, not unlike most all other diseases, is a process that evolves over time.
You don't feel your arteries clogging up after every order of greasy fries. It happens over time... without symptoms.
The overall 'state-of-health' of your entire physical body evolves over time and is dynamically influenced every day- which is a good thing if you chose to be healthy. Therefore, your overall state-of-health can be positively or negatively influenced by your habits and choices.
My advice...
Improve some of your bad habits (not that bedroom rodeo is a bad habit) like posture, ergonomics or lack of exercise and stretching and, at the same time, increase your proactive healthy choices (like including a chiropractor on your health care team) and you should be in good shape.
Most of my patients chose to come in for check-up's to maintain their spines before back injuries force them to bawl, "Oh, God!"
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