3 Movement Mistakes That Lead To Knee Pain … Go back to the self-check activity as described in #1 above….
Original post:
Knee S.O.S.! 3 Common Mistakes That Can Cause Knee Damage And What To Do About It
Knee S.O.S.! 3 Common Mistakes That Can Cause Knee Damage And What To Do About It
Information on Back Pain – Keeping your Back Straight
Anna Hart asked:
Your back is a vital body part. It plays an essential role in every part of daily life. Since the back is so important, you want to keep up-to-date on information about back pain and its treatment.
Begin with this basic information.
Information on Back Pain #1 – What Is Your Back?
Back pain can best be understood when you understand the structure of your back, so let’s build a spine. Your back consists of 30 small bones called vertebrae. These bones are stacked on top of each other, and connected by ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Your stack of connected vertebrae is divided into four regions. From the base of your skull down to your pelvis, these four regions are:
1. Cervical or neck vertebrae – the top 7
2. Thoracic or upper back vertebrae – the next 12
3. Lumbar or lower back vertebrae – 5 more
4. Sacrum and coccyx – 6 fused bones at the spine’s base
Between your vertebrae are round, spongy cartilage pads called disks. Disks act as shock absorbers for your spine. A column-like spinal cord runs through your stack of vertebrae. It, too, is divided into segments similar to nearby vertebrae. Your spinal cord contains nerve roots and nerve rootlets that spread out, sending messages of pain from your back to your brain.
Information on Back Pain #2 – Back Pain’s Causes
Back pain is among the most common complaints. It is also one of the most painful. Since it can be difficult to treat, it is important that you have good information on back pain. Most good information on back pain will agree that when you lift something too heavy, you may cause a sprain, pull, strain, or spasm in one of the muscles or ligaments in your back. That will cause back pain.
Let’s look at more specific information on back pain.
1. Your cervical spine, or upper back, begins at the base of your skull. It is composed of seven vertebrae with eight pairs of cervical nerves. This part of your spine is designed to support your head and give you mobility.
Injury or mild trauma to the cervical spine can cause one of a number of serious, even life-threatening medical emergencies. You might have a spinal cord injury (SCI) or a fracture. Such injury could cause pain, numbness, weakness, and tingling.
2. Your thoracic spine is just below your cervical spine. Your ribs are connected to this part of the spine. Think of it as the back of your chest. Your thoracic spine is designed to be strong and stable, permitting you to stand upright and protecting your vital internal chest organs. Although thoracic, or middle back pain is rather uncommon, it causes significant pain when it does occur.
The most common causes of middle back pain are muscular irritation and joint dysfunction. You may injure a disk, and cause middle back pain, but such injuries are very rare.
3. Your lumbar spine, or lower back region, is most likely to experience pain. This is because your lumbar region supports the weight of your upper body. It takes the most abuse.
Many things can cause injury and pain to your lower back. As with all parts of the spine, muscle strain or spasm may occur when you lift or carry things that are too heavy. Sprains of ligaments occur in similar manner. You may experience joint problems or a “slipped disk.”
The most common cause of lumbar or lower back pain, though, is simply using your back muscles for actions you usually do not do. Perhaps you sit at a desk most days, but one weekend, you help friends move furniture. Or you normally teach school, but during the summer, you decide to create a large vegetable garden in your back yard.
A so-called “slipped disk” (herniated disk) occurs when a disk, one of those spongy cartilage pads between your spines vertebrae bulges out and presses on nerves. This often occurs when you twisting while lifting something. You may not know what caused your slipped disk, if it happens. You will know the lower back pain that comes as a result.
Information on Back Pain #3 – Back Pain and Your Physician
Not every back pain will require a visit to your physician. Many back pains can be treated effectively at home with heating pads and ice packs. Over-the-counter (OTC) medications can also give the relief needed. However, there are times when you will want your physician to give information on back pain, and prescribe treatment.
Seek a qualified physician if any of the following is true:
• Your pain is so bad you can’t move around
• Your pain is not less after two weeks
• Your pain was caused by an injury
• You have a fever
• You feel nauseous or are vomiting
• You have a stomachache
• You are weak or sweating
• Your pain goes down the leg below your knee
• You lose control over going to the bathroom
• Your foot, leg, rectal, or groin area is numb
Information on Back Pain #4 – Back Pain Prevention
Your health care provider, whether physician, chiropractor or other, will encourage you to maintain an active, healthy lifestyle as part of back pain prevention. The best information on back pain they can provide you is to avoid injury in the first place. Develop healthy back habits. The following five bad habits can cause back pain. Avoid them.
• Twisting when lifting
• Bad posture
• Lack of exercise and too much weight
• Smoking tobacco
• Ignoring back pain
The more information on back pain you have, the better prepared you will be to deal with it.
Create a video blog…instantly.
Your back is a vital body part. It plays an essential role in every part of daily life. Since the back is so important, you want to keep up-to-date on information about back pain and its treatment.
Begin with this basic information.
Information on Back Pain #1 – What Is Your Back?
Back pain can best be understood when you understand the structure of your back, so let’s build a spine. Your back consists of 30 small bones called vertebrae. These bones are stacked on top of each other, and connected by ligaments, tendons, and muscles. Your stack of connected vertebrae is divided into four regions. From the base of your skull down to your pelvis, these four regions are:
1. Cervical or neck vertebrae – the top 7
2. Thoracic or upper back vertebrae – the next 12
3. Lumbar or lower back vertebrae – 5 more
4. Sacrum and coccyx – 6 fused bones at the spine’s base
Between your vertebrae are round, spongy cartilage pads called disks. Disks act as shock absorbers for your spine. A column-like spinal cord runs through your stack of vertebrae. It, too, is divided into segments similar to nearby vertebrae. Your spinal cord contains nerve roots and nerve rootlets that spread out, sending messages of pain from your back to your brain.
Information on Back Pain #2 – Back Pain’s Causes
Back pain is among the most common complaints. It is also one of the most painful. Since it can be difficult to treat, it is important that you have good information on back pain. Most good information on back pain will agree that when you lift something too heavy, you may cause a sprain, pull, strain, or spasm in one of the muscles or ligaments in your back. That will cause back pain.
Let’s look at more specific information on back pain.
1. Your cervical spine, or upper back, begins at the base of your skull. It is composed of seven vertebrae with eight pairs of cervical nerves. This part of your spine is designed to support your head and give you mobility.
Injury or mild trauma to the cervical spine can cause one of a number of serious, even life-threatening medical emergencies. You might have a spinal cord injury (SCI) or a fracture. Such injury could cause pain, numbness, weakness, and tingling.
2. Your thoracic spine is just below your cervical spine. Your ribs are connected to this part of the spine. Think of it as the back of your chest. Your thoracic spine is designed to be strong and stable, permitting you to stand upright and protecting your vital internal chest organs. Although thoracic, or middle back pain is rather uncommon, it causes significant pain when it does occur.
The most common causes of middle back pain are muscular irritation and joint dysfunction. You may injure a disk, and cause middle back pain, but such injuries are very rare.
3. Your lumbar spine, or lower back region, is most likely to experience pain. This is because your lumbar region supports the weight of your upper body. It takes the most abuse.
Many things can cause injury and pain to your lower back. As with all parts of the spine, muscle strain or spasm may occur when you lift or carry things that are too heavy. Sprains of ligaments occur in similar manner. You may experience joint problems or a “slipped disk.”
The most common cause of lumbar or lower back pain, though, is simply using your back muscles for actions you usually do not do. Perhaps you sit at a desk most days, but one weekend, you help friends move furniture. Or you normally teach school, but during the summer, you decide to create a large vegetable garden in your back yard.
A so-called “slipped disk” (herniated disk) occurs when a disk, one of those spongy cartilage pads between your spines vertebrae bulges out and presses on nerves. This often occurs when you twisting while lifting something. You may not know what caused your slipped disk, if it happens. You will know the lower back pain that comes as a result.
Information on Back Pain #3 – Back Pain and Your Physician
Not every back pain will require a visit to your physician. Many back pains can be treated effectively at home with heating pads and ice packs. Over-the-counter (OTC) medications can also give the relief needed. However, there are times when you will want your physician to give information on back pain, and prescribe treatment.
Seek a qualified physician if any of the following is true:
• Your pain is so bad you can’t move around
• Your pain is not less after two weeks
• Your pain was caused by an injury
• You have a fever
• You feel nauseous or are vomiting
• You have a stomachache
• You are weak or sweating
• Your pain goes down the leg below your knee
• You lose control over going to the bathroom
• Your foot, leg, rectal, or groin area is numb
Information on Back Pain #4 – Back Pain Prevention
Your health care provider, whether physician, chiropractor or other, will encourage you to maintain an active, healthy lifestyle as part of back pain prevention. The best information on back pain they can provide you is to avoid injury in the first place. Develop healthy back habits. The following five bad habits can cause back pain. Avoid them.
• Twisting when lifting
• Bad posture
• Lack of exercise and too much weight
• Smoking tobacco
• Ignoring back pain
The more information on back pain you have, the better prepared you will be to deal with it.
Create a video blog…instantly.
Shoes and Back Pain
Shoes and Back Pain
Did you know that wearing inappropriate shoes could cause the back to feel stressed? Shoes are cushions, foundations, and levers that we use to walk, stand, run, job, and so on. If one wears correctly, fitted shoes it will promote a healthy posture. On the other hand, if one wears unsuitable fitting shoes, look out feet and back.
The feet are the number one target the starts normal back pain. In short, the first thing that hits the ground when you start to stand or walk is the ball of your foot, i.e. the heel. Once the heel hits the surface, the remaining sections of the foot start to follow, which promotes weight and stress throughout areas of the body. Feet problems alone can lead to back pain. Poor posture causes back pain, yet the condition is often characterized by inappropriate actions we take.
Fact: Wearing high-heels will slowly pull the weight of the entire body forward, thus corrupting the posture and arches of the back. Hold your weapons down women, because in time you will feel pain. High-heels are the leading cause of Spondylolisthesis. In short, terms, spondylolisthesis is a condition that is caused from slipping frontward on the lower back. (Lumbar)
The toes are designed to provide us support, yet when a person wears high-heels it causes the toes to affect the joints, since the toes will narrow, causing weight or pressure to the spine. Now, high-heels are sexy to both men and women, yet these heels are going to cost you a fortune down the road. You can look good in supported shoes that fit comfortably without damaging your ligaments, tendons, nerves, muscles, and so on.
Sorry to pop your bubbles boys and girls, but shoes that support our spine can reduce the odds of experiencing back pain.
How to choose shoes:
Orthotic shoes are recommended. Orthotic shoes will support the feet and weight-bearing joints and muscles. Orthotic shoes have proven to reduce dysfunctions that emerge from the neurological system. In addition, the supportive shoes have proven to reduce injuries and pain emerging from abnormal conditions.
If you are diagnosed with posture conditions, such as osteoporosis, or gait, you can benefit from Orthotic shoes.
Fact: Did you know that you could wear two or more insoles from Dr. Scholl, fitting the insoles into your shoes prior to flipping them over, and achieve balance, which promotes a healthy spine?
Shoes make a difference to our spine, since the feet alone when abnormal can lead to back pain. If you are not wearing, supportive shoes that provide you a comfortable fit, you may want to invest in Orthotic shoes to relieve your back pain.
In addition to shoes, you can perform stretch workouts, and practicing leaning, sitting and lifting strategies to correct your actions and reduce back pain.
Fact: If the spine is misaligned, it can lead to back pain.
Duh, you knew that. Anyway, we misalign the spine when lifting incorrectly, wearing unsuitable shoes, and leaning, or sitting in position, incorrectly. You can correct the problems by getting the ball and chain in motion, and learning about your condition, followed by taking action to relieve your pain.
Fact: Proper lifting starts at the thighs and buttocks. Millions of people lift while relying on the back to hold the weight. Back pain occurs.
When lifting heavy objects you want to avoid lifting at a distance. At best, you want to avoid bending the knees and expending the trunk perpendicularly.
Prepare to take out your briefcase. Surely, you have around 20 pounds of weight inside the container. Otherwise, consider an object that weighs 20-pounds, unless you have been restricted to lifting.
What you are about to do is lift more than 20-pounds. By the time you get in position and use your muscles, you will have lifted up to 200 pounds. When you lift the briefcase, or other object move close to the subject. Move the trunk or torso in position by placing it over your feet. Remain in position until you have completed your lift.
Musculoskeletal Disorders and Back Pain
Musculoskeletal Disorders and Back Pain
Musculoskeletal Disorders is a developmental collision, or impact that causes fear of dismissal and/or rejection, alterations in body images, dependency, and embarrassment, which emerges, from the body structural changes and the function of the body. The emotional and mental status is affected, which causes emerge from the impacts in developmental and economic changes.
Now, you may ask, how this relates to back pain, however if you consider that range of motion (ROM) is interrupted, posture, and other elements of the skeletal are restricted, thus you see back pain.
Usually when a person experiences impacts from economics, it causes a disruption of workflow, as well as job loss. The changes in economics include hospitalization cost, special equipment expenses, home health care cost, and restrains on vocations. Often when a person has musculoskeletal disorders it causes restrictions on heavy lifting, limited activities, limited ROM, immobility, stress, and so forth. The factors of risk include early menopause, aging, and illness.
Musculoskeletal disorders cause lower back pain, since the skeleton, skeletal muscles, ligaments, tendons, joints, synovium, cartilages, and bursa is interrupted.
The skeleton alone makes up 206 bones. The bones are flat, short, long, and at times asymmetrical. The bones produce calcium, phosphate, magnesium, etc, which the bone marrow produces RBC, or red blood cells. The bones and fluids work with the muscles by providing them support and the ability to move. Protected internal organs also function from these bones.
The bones rely on the skeletal muscles, which supply motion and posture. The muscles contract through tighten and shorten process. Each muscle attaches to bones via the tendons and start contracting when stimulated by muscle fiber and the motor unit, or neurons. We get out energy from the contractions and actions.
When the skeletal muscles, skeleton, and other elements of the body are interrupted, it can lead to musculoskeletal disorders. The symptoms emerge, which include low back pain, fatigue, numbness, limited mobility, stiff joints, swelling, fever, and so on.
During the physical exam, the doctor will search for edema, abnormal vitals, limited ROM, inflammation, poor posture, Tophi, muscle spasms, and so forth. Skin breakdown, deformed skeletal, weak, and rigid muscles, abnormal temperature, and skin discoloration can link to musculoskeletal disorders as well.
The doctor usually orders a variety of tests to spot such conditions. The test includes graphic recordings that show the muscles and its contractions, as well as activity tests to review the muscles. About 2/3 of the general population suffers with musculoskeletal disorders.
Doctors will also order bone scans, arthrocentesis, arthroscopy, EMG (Electromyography) blood chemistry tests, studies of hematologic, X-rays, and so forth to search for musculoskeletal disorders.
Since musculoskeletal disorders affect the body, it will also diminish the mental and emotional health. Doctors consider the disorders heavily, since it impacts social, economics, and development. In addition, risks are involved, which include obesity, malnutrition, stress, and so on.
According to experts, musculoskeletal disorders may link to deficiencies in calcium, potassium, phosphate, nitrogen, protein, glucose bicarbonate, and so on. Rheumatoid factors are considered when blood chemistry tests are performed, since doctors believe that this disorder is, in some instances behind musculoskeletal disorders.
Still, we must consider neurological conditions. Doctors who study the nervous system have outlined disorders of the nerves in various ways. The pain often starts in one area when neurological disorders are present, yet will move to other regions. The action makes it difficult for experts to discover the cause, since the pain travels.
Neurological disorders may start with numb disks, or pain in the leg region. The pain however is not the starting point; rather it is a sign that you have a neurological condition. The pain typically emerges from other areas of concern, such as the disk.
Ligaments and Tendons Causing Back Pain
Ligaments and Tendons Causing Back Pain
Once the fibers, nerves, and muscles are affected, it causes direct actions to the tendons and ligaments. Tendons are tough bands that connect to muscles and bones, which these inelastic cords or bands of tough white fibers connect to tissues that attach to the muscles and to the bones as well as other areas of the body. Sinew or tendons join with ligaments, which the two function from collagen. Tendons connect to the muscles, which initiates movement, or contractions that enforce bone movement. In some areas the tendons will connect to the muscles and then to the bones. In this area, tendons will exert a pulling force that causes the bones to respond, by moving. The bones move, yet the tendons will hold the bones securely in position. Tendons provide a measure of stability. At the back, the tendons provide slight exertion, which promotes bending. Tendons will elongate so that you can bend forward, which promotes the action of muscles known as eccentric contraction. Once eccentric contractions start, the muscles and tendons join to allow you to continue what you were doing at the start of bending forward. This promotes what doctors call Isometric contractions. Sometimes tendons fail, as we grow older to work with the muscles, which in turn causes nerve compression, breakage, or conflict etc, which causes back pain. Now, if the nerve compression, or tendons fail and they rub alongside the soft pocket that is amid the bone, which overlaps and protect other bones, we have problems. (Bursa) Since the tension applied effects the muscles, and it is too weighty for the muscle nerves to withstand, thus the tendons use its sensory nerves to slow down, or hold back the muscles from moving.
Ligaments are tough tissues that connect to various body parts, which these sheets and/or bands of strong fibrous tissues connect bone to the bone and to the cartilages at the joint and /or supporting organs, such as muscles.
Ligaments keep the distance at bay between the bones. Like tendons, you do not want to tear or strain these connective elements, since it can cause inflammatory. In short, we need to balance tendons and ligaments to avoid back pain that comes from injuries.
Tendons make up the skeletal anatomy in some areas and consist of 206 bones, which are flat, short, long, and sometimes asymmetrical. These tendons combine with bones store narrow (RBC) red blood cells, calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium. Since experts will recommend Maalox, which has bases of magnesium it can be speculated that this has something to do with pain as well.
Tendons support the muscles, movement, and protect various internal organs. In addition, tendons join with the skeletal muscles, and finally the ligaments. The skeletal muscles support the bodies movement and posture, which these muscles tighten and shorten movement. (Contracting) The skeletal muscles attach to the bones through the tendons and starts muscle contraction from stimulus of fibers from the muscles and via the motor unit or neurons.
Contractions promote energy from ATP (adenosine Triphosphate) and hydrolysis. The energy derives from these two creations and extends to ADP (Adenosine Diphosphate) and on to phosphate. Once the chemicals and/or substances produce, it moves to retain selective contractions to afford tone of the muscles. In short, balance is achieved, which moves to relax the muscles by breaking down acetylcholine via cholinesterase.
We are now reaching the ligaments. Once we reach the ligament phase, it starts to encircle the joints and adds stability and strength. Now it connects to the tendons, which connect the muscles to the bones. Joints are connected to these elements of the skeletal muscles, which when ROM is interrupted, back pain occurs.