Back pain is a common problem that affects millions of people worldwide. It can be caused by a variety of factors, including poor posture, lack of exercise, and improper lifting techniques. However, many people are unaware that they may be contributing to their back pain through everyday habits and actions. In this blog post, we will discuss five everyday mistakes that can cause back pain and how to avoid them.
Joint pain is a common complaint among people of all ages. It can range from a mild ache to a sharp, debilitating pain that affects daily activities. Joint pain can occur in any part of the body where two bones meet, including the hips, knees, shoulders, and fingers. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at what joint pain is, why we get it, and what it can tell us about our activity levels.
As the weather warms up and spring arrives, many of us are eager to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. However, for those who suffer from joint pain, the season can also bring added discomfort. Here are five tips to help you avoid joint pain in spring and make the most of the season.
Weight-bearing exercises are physical activities that require your body to work against gravity while standing, which causes your bones to support your body weight. This type of exercise is essential for building and maintaining strong, healthy bones.
Limping gait, sometimes referred to as antalgic gait, is a type of walking pattern that is characterized by an uneven and often painful stride. It can be caused by various conditions, ranging from physical injuries to neurological disorders. Common causes of limping gait include sprains, strains, fractures, joint damage, hip and knee pain, nerve damage, and muscle weakness.
Foot pain affects nearly one in five people throughout their lifetime. It can be associated with increased age, female gender, obesity, and pain in other body regions, and has a significant negative impact on health-related quality of life. Painful feet can lead to an overall decrease in general activity, which can create joint stiffness, muscle weakness, and increased risk of injuries.
Joint pain can seem like it comes on at random, with no specific injury, but Joint pain doesn’t begin for no reason. The body doesn’t initiate inflammation without a cause, whether it’s a systemic illness such as lupus, or joint changes like a meniscus tear or muscle sprain. Truthfully, we just don’t pay attention to our bodies well enough (in my opinion). We cast off a stiff neck to sleeping in a bad position, or low back pain to picking something up awkwardly. Understanding your joints, muscles and the pains we get when we are active (or not active)is instrumental in knowing what your body needs when we are in pain. Knowing if our joints need to move and stretch, or rest and recover is an integral part in our joint health now and in the future. Admitting to ourselves that we aren’t always the best to our bodies goes a long way in understanding our joints, our body’s response to activity, food, smoking and inactivity.
Running is great for our muscles, joints and cardiovascular health. Yet the repetitive nature of running can become irritating on our knees. In fact, knee injuries are incredibly common, accounting for up to 50% of all running injuries.
Knee pain with running can show up in many different locations. Pain around the knee cap (patella) is often referred to as patellofemoral pain syndrome or Runner’s Knee. Pain on the outside of the knee that also has a snapping sensation could be Iliotibial Band Syndrome (ITB syndrome).
Spinal stenosis is a slow and progressive narrowing of the space where the spinal cord is located. Often this begins without any symptoms and therefore people often don’t even know that its occurring, unless symptoms begin or an x-ray is taken. This narrowing is most often found in adults that are greater than 50 years old. Spinal stenosis is generally caused by normal wear-and-tear changes in the spine related to osteoarthritis. Symptoms are variable and can range from nothing at all, to having a significant impact of daily life.
Joint health as we age is often not considered until pain starts somewhere or stiffness at a joint. We are too busy with work, kids the schedule to realize our body is changing inside, muscles could be stiffening slowly losing flexibility. Our bones could be losing cells quicker than our body is replenishing them, silently leading to osteoporosis. These changes happen throughout our lifespan, a daily internal working we rarely consider until it limits something we want to do, like hike, play sports, or run.