The following list of tips will help you maintain the health of your spine in various aspects of your life.

• In the car, keep the seat close to the steering wheel to avoid bending forward. Your body should be no further than ten inches from the steering wheel.
• Long car rides or rough roads pose the danger of an accumulation of small shocks to the lower back, causing trauma. (more…)

We now turn to the most familiar arena of back pain: work-related injuries. In workers under the age of 45, back pain is the number one cause of disability. More than half of workmen’s compensation is paid for injuries to the back. Clearly, the stakes for industry are high. But while 90 percent of the money spent on back pain goes toward treatment, only 3 percent goes toward preventative or educational programs. As we have seen, most back problems occur gradually, from long-term, incremental damage. Disks wear out from repeated trauma, resulting in a bulge or rupture. Trigger points form, referring pain along the back. The chances of subluxations increase, putting the nerve roots at risk for irritation. The highly sensitive facet joints are also at risk under these stressful conditions. The following tips can help guard against the many perils in the workplace. (more…)

Being overweight puts a tremendous amount of stress on the back. A heavy person’s spine is distorted beyond its normal curvature. Further, the weight placed on this spine makes back pain much more likely through disk bulging, facet joint irritation and nerve interference. This imbalance can wreak havoc with the nervous system, resulting in serious conditions elsewhere in the body. Imagine it this way: if you are fifteen pounds overweight, it is like carrying a fifteen-pound bag with you at all times. Imagine how much easier it would be on your back if you didn’t have that weight. It stands to reason that losing weight will greatly improve the condition of your spine, reducing the likelihood of serious back pain. (more…)

Because we spend a third of our lives sleeping, it is important to consider the position of the spine in this position. But before you can sleep, you must get into bed. Believe it or not, there is a right and a wrong way to get into bed. First, sit on the edge of the bed both arms to your side. Then, lower your body onto the side while keeping your legs at 45 degrees. Although it seems trivial, this action is repeated so often that it deserves attention. It is also especially helpful when you have back pain already and wish to minimize further damage. (more…)

A patient complains to a doctor: “Doctor, it hurts when I do this.”

Doctor: “Then don’t do that.”

Simplistic, silly and trite as it is, the advice in this old joke is inherent to any discussion of back pain. For instance, since bending at the waist stresses the spine, it should be implicit that to avoid back pain, you should not lift this way.

This does not mean, of course, that we should never move at all. It simply means that we should move in the right way. What is the difference between the right and the wrong way? Most of the time, common sense will tell you: if it hurts, then don’t do it. On the other hand, there is no substitute for good advice because many sources of back pain are not so apparent. Talking explicitly about it helps to raise concerns that we may not have considered. (more…)

In an article featured on SpineUniverse.com, Dr. Tuchinsky answers a question about treating a spinal problem at home.

Statistically, about half of bulging and herniated discs heal within six months after they occur—and only roughly 10% ever need surgery. So non-surgical treatments for your cervical bulging disc will likely be enough to reduce your pain—and thankfully, you can do many of these treatments yourself.

Read More at SpineUniverse.com

After several prototypes and over 20 years of research and development, an adjusting instrument that has helped thousands of patients suffering from severe chronic neck pain is now available in South Florida.

The treatment is completely painless with no conventional twisting of the neck or popping sounds. The results are often immediate and dramatic. This state of the art procedure offers severe neck pain sufferers an alternative to those who have tried traditional chiropractic and medical treatment without any relief from their neck pain. (more…)

This story from Good Morning America explains the positive effects of chiropractic care with regard to high blood pressure:

Despite the resiliency of the spine, problems often arise.

When, for example, the natural curves of the spine are pushed beyond their limits, we experience a hyperlordosis, a condition characteristic of a slumped posture. People with pot bellies or poor abdominal muscles experience this. In hyperlordosis, the spine is straightened, and the disks between the vertebrae are allowed to bulge backward.

One of the main problems chiropractic addresses is subluxation, or the misalignment of vertebrae. D.D. Palmer wrote that subluxation “perpetuates disease.” Today, we know that misalignment can cause imbalances in the nervous impulses channeled through the spine. The result of subluxation is often an overabundance of nervous signals. (more…)

Although there is still friction between mainstream medicine and chiropractic, there is also growing acceptance. In the last twenty years, the number of chiropractors in the U.S. has increased by 48 percent, resulting in more than 58,000 in practice today. Some surveys estimate that around 40 million Americans visited a chiropractor in 1997.

Why such a dramatic increase? Part of the answer lies in the willingness of insurance companies to pay for chiropractic treatments. In the last few decades, too, favorable legislation has paved the way. (more…)