23
Jul, 2020

Smart phones useage mAy be screwing with your health

Maybe this isn’t the headline , or discovery,  of the century , but smart phones could lead to poor forward head posture, poor rounded shoulders and poor breathing.
Now its not as if the phone jumps out of the package and puts you in a combined head lock  and choke hold,  but it might as well: check out this new report “The effect of smartphone usage time on posture and respiratory function” by Jung et al  smart phones and breathing.
The big take home is this “The result of this study showed that prolonged use of smartphones could negatively affect both, posture and respiratory function”.  Wow.  Modern day scientists  are amazing!
What a lovely phone. I wonder why my neck and back hurts and I cannot breath properly anymore
The truth is this. Using your mobile phone now and then, wont hurt you (unless you walk into a lamp post). You can also  sort of ignore those hippy therapists as  poor posture, as such, wont hurt you. We all know people with disgusting posture who have never had a day of  postural pain in their lives.
However, “postural stress” as used in  advanced torture regimes simply takes a bad posture and makes you hold it for hours. The Scavengers Daughter  was device that held you in a stooped posture for hours and was very effective as a torture.
postural stress
As always,  it’s how much “bad”  you take before you start hurting.
Strangely the Backaholic Back Pain management course has a  specific lesson on self  torture techniques. Its sort of bazaar!
If you want more  back pain tips on information on when the Backaholic course will be released, do join our mailing list.

The big warning.
Some back pain is really serious: check your RED FLAGS by clicking here 

Do Physical Activities Trigger Flare-ups During an Acute Low Back Pain Episode?

“Do Physical Activities Trigger Flare-ups During an Acute Low Back Pain Episode?: A Longitudinal Case-Crossover Feasibility Study”. Is a useful report as we continue to make the connection between, excessive sitting  and back pain.
The big question was this: whether physical activities trigger flare-ups of pain during the course of acute low back pain (LBP).
The conclusion:
Among participants with acute LBP, prolonged sitting (>6 hours) and stress or depression triggered LBP flare-ups. PT was a deterrent of flare-ups.
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The big warning.
Some back pain is really serious: check your RED FLAGS by clicking here 

But what if your back pain is extension based

Too many of us are obsessed with  flexion driven back disorders. Which  is fair because most cases of back pain  are flexion based.  However, not all of them are. Some are because you are over extended, and frankly, you need some  careful flexion in your life, and back.
Until I produce a good guide, here are some useful thoughts  from
https://tonygentilcore.com/2014/01/extension-based-back-pain-b/
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The relationship between the tampa scale of kinesiophobia and low back pain rehabilitation outcomes

Thanks to Gregg et al for
The relationship between the tampa scale of kinesiophobia and low back pain rehabilitation outcomes.
For those of you who are terribly ignorant about such things, “The Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK) is commonly used in clinical practice to quantify levels of pain related fear of activity or re-injury in patients presenting with back pain. Patients with high levels of kinesiophobia are often considered at greater risk of developing long term activity limitation and chronicity. There is, however, little evidence to support this assumption”
Gregg et al used a questionnaire on 313 patients of a back clinic.
The study concluded that “The Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK) provides no benefit as a screening tool to predict pain, functional and work outcomes following rehabilitation. Measured changes in TSK scores following rehabilitation do not correlate strongly with similar, concordant changes in pain scores, functional levels or return to work outcomes”.
Well, who knew