5 Effective Tips To Maintain A Healthy Spine And Back

Do you suffer from lower back pain or are you recovering from any back injury? Do you perhaps randomly experience pain in your back?

In any case, it is time for you to pay some attention to your spine. With some simple measures and minor lifestyle changes, you can make your spine healthy and happy.

Here are some measures that will contribute to your spine health:

Include exercise in your lifestyle

Exercising is a major part of any rehabilitation program. Whether it’s a back injury or you want to strengthen your core muscles, making exercise a part of your lifestyle should be the first step. Doing exercises that target your core muscles will enhance the stability and flexibility of your spine and cut down the chances of future injuries and pain.

According to a leading spine specialist in Spokane, a simple workout program involving abdominal muscles, hamstrings, and the back helps in reducing inflammation and pacing up the healing process, facilitates the proper distribution of nutrients into your soft tissues and spinal disc, and keeps your muscles, joints, and ligaments healthy. Before taking up an exercise program, consult an expert to chalk out the perfect program for you.

Even a simple exercise like walking goes a long way in restoring the health of your spine. Walking strengthens the core muscles, supplies nutrients to your soft tissues, enhances the flexibility of the spine, strengthens your bone structure, and improves your balance. Just remember to ensure the correct posture while doing it.

Give proper rest to your spine

Ensure that your spine also gets proper rest while you sleep. Use a firm or medium-firm mattress that offers optimum support to your spine. Do not sleep on a soft or old mattress that lets your spine sag.

Also, use a comfortable pillow. If you tend to sleep on your back, keep a pillow below your knees. It will keep your lower back relaxed. Whereas, a side sleeper should sleep with a cushion between his knees. It will keep your hip balanced. To offer some support to your cervical spine, use a neck pillow.

Meditate regularly and stretch

According to some studies, regular meditation helps in relieving chronic back pain. Take out at least 15 minutes regularly to meditate in a comfortable cross legged seated position.

Either sit in a quiet room or go for walks in a garden or on a beach; select any form of meditation to aid your spinal health.

Also include some sort of yoga or stretching into your daily routine. Even 5-10 minutes of basic stretching will go a long way!

Pay attention to your posture

Your spine is naturally curved. While sitting, your posture should correspond to the arches to offer optimum support to your spine. If your sitting posture contradicts the natural curve, your spinal nerves can bear the brunt of it.

Also, sitting enhances the load on the spinal discs, which makes them liable to pain or they herniate over time, and this leads to compression or inflammation of the spinal nerve.

To avoid this, sit in an upright position. If you have long working hours, sit on an ergonomic chair and adjust the height of your desk. Also, take a break after every 45 minutes or one hour, and walk around in your room.

Eat healthy

You may not know it, but your diet also affects the health of your spine amongst many other things. Include food items such as fresh fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grains and good fats into your diet.

Indulge in massage therapy

Massage therapy is a time-tested treatment for back pain. It boosts the blood circulation to your muscles treating soreness, restores the spinal range of motion, enhances the release of feel-good hormones, and treats insomnia.

The bottom line

Embracing some minor and essential lifestyle changes especially while working from home can take you a long way in maintaining the health of your spine. Adopt these measures and say goodbye to back problems.