Did you know? “An estimated one billion people worldwide suffer with spinal pain. It affects people across the life course and is the biggest single cause of disability on the planet.” (source ACAC)
World Spine Day is celebrated every year on October 16 to bring awareness for spinal care, prevention and wellness. For the next two weeks, the Alberta College and Association of Chiropractors will be hosting a new topic each day from myth-busting, 10 ways to prevent back pain, what causes back pain and many more!
Please check out their website to review their schedule accordingly.
There is a public education program offered by Alberta chiropractors to help others strengthen and improve posture and ergonomics. Straighten Up Alberta offers exercises that can be done within minutes and can be incorporated into daily routines. There are many videos and programs that can be downloaded through the website and done at your own leisure.
What if you still have more questions? There is conveniently a link located in the website to search for a chiropractor closest to you. Doctors of Chiropractic help diagnose, treat and prevent musculoskeletal disorders from affecting your nervous system.
When asked about what chiropractors can do, one of our chiropractors, Dr. Susanne Morris says that her goal is to “remove the blockage, so that your nervous system can communicate better with the rest of your body and in turn, heals itself.”
For the month of October, each day we will introduce a new nerve and it’s corresponding relationship to the individual organ(s) and how it can be impacting your health. You can find all that through our Instagram and Facebook page to learn more.
Our feet are a common factor that could be contributing to your back pain. If our feet are not completely leveled, it will result in our ankles and feet collapsing, knees buckle afterwards, pelvic imbalance, and finally stress to our spines.
Seems pretty straight forward… Now, what about the next statement?
“People spend on average 4 hours a day on their phones”
Before you read further, think about how being on your phone can potentially harm your spine….
All done? Find out below.
Do you suffer from Text Neck? Text Neck was first used in 2008 which refers to repetitive stress to the neck caused by excessive texting and overuse of all handheld electronic devices.
Left untreated and the results could be devastating. Studies have shown that text neck leads to inflammation of the neck ligaments, nerve irritation and increased curvature of the spine.
When we think of bad posture, our minds tends to make the correlations to sitting at a desk or studying for long durations. You wouldn’t think texting, something that minor could be one of the leading causes to spinal pain.
Dr. Alan Chong our Clinic Director and Calgary chiropractor, is an expert on complicated spinal cases. Starting with a thorough evaluation and years of experience, he is able to accurately diagnose a patients condition as well as treat with certainty and precision.
You can visit Calgary Spinal Decompression Centre to learn more.
On this portion, Dr. Karis Langvand is going to be providing some exercises and stretches to help strength and better your spinal health right at home!
These are very easy exercises to start slowly lengthening your muscles. If for any reason, you feel any discomfort, just pull back from the stretch (ease off) and hold to where it’s comfortable to stay.
For those experiencing neck pain, try the side bending neck stretch.
- Slowly tilt your head to the right and down close to the shoulders. You will feel the stretch along the left side of your neck. You may use your right hand on left ear to further your stretch.
- Hold for 5-6 seconds
- Slowly return head to center and proceed with the other side
- 3 times per side
For those experiencing lower back pain, the pelvis stretch is great for reducing tension on our glutes, pelvis, and low back.
- Start by laying on your back. Both legs straight.
- Slowly bring one leg to your chest, knee to opposite armpit. Hands firmly on top of chin.
- Hold for 10 seconds
- Slowly bring leg down to starting position. Proceed with other.
- 3 times per leg
This concludes our article for the month. If you’re interested to learn more, then subscribe to our emails for additional exercises and tips! Additionally, we are always accepting new patients, so give us a call or submit an online form and we will get back to you!