These 7 Daily Habits Can Cause Back Pain, Here’s How to Avoid Them

In France, 4 out of 5 people will suffer from lower back pain during their lifetime. But while back pain after intense exercise or moving furniture shouldn’t surprise you, more regular pain should make you wonder: perhaps it comes from a slightly more insidious cause, like a bad habit you’ve had for a long time… On Huffpost, Dr. Santosh A. Thomas, a physician at the Center for Spine Health at the Cleveland Clinic, points out 7 behaviors to avoid.

Simple everyday actions done with poor posture

The way you twist, turn and move in your daily life can one day become painful, without you anticipating it.Things we’ve done a thousand times can suddenly become painful or trigger the process. Even simple things like bending over to tie your shoes or picking up something small from the floor,” confirms Dr. Thomas. This is because of poor posture that, day after day, reveals to you that it is not ideal.

Fortunately, experts agree that the pain caused by this can quickly disappear by simply adjusting your posture, particularly by bending down and getting up again.

Underlying health problems

Back pain can also be a sign of another health problem.Many of our internal organs share nerve pathways that also supply the skin, soft tissues, and muscles of the back. Therefore, conditions affecting these internal organs can cause back pain.” says Dr. Jay Karri, a physiatrist and interventional pain specialist at the University of Maryland Medical System.

For example, gastrointestinal problems, kidney stones, infections, pancreatitis and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) or even endometriosis are physical health disorders that generally manifest themselves through back pain.

Anxiety, stress and general mental health

Being “fed up” isn’t just an expression: just like underlying physical health conditions, mental health issues can also cause discomfort.

“Recent research has clearly shown that psychological disorders (the chronic stressthere depressionanxiety…) can also cause back pain.” Jay Karri continues. And it’s not just in the head: the same neural pathways responsible for biochemical imbalances also propagate chronic pain. Taking care of your mental health could ease the pain.

Lack of exercise or stretching

Paradoxically, back pain can indicate the need to incorporate more physical activity into your week, because while rest is necessary, movement is recommended to avoid getting rusty. For Sunday athletes, a more rigorous exercise program can therefore help. For older people, tai chi or yoga can be just as effective.

Too intense an exercise routine

Integrating movement is essential to keeping your back healthy, but starting a new exercise routine at too high an intensity can have a detrimental effect.Pain or injury from exercise can also be caused by doing too much, too soon.” confirms the expert.Proper instruction on exercise types and progression is important to reduce the risk of injury.”

Your sleeping position

If you wake up after a good night’s sleep but with back pain, your sleeping position may be the cause. If there is no sleeping position universal, your anatomy and your health can thus invite you to take this or that position naturally. But feeling pain when waking up, in the lower back for example, should invite you to try new positions, or move your pillow, to find more comfort.

Smoking

You may not know this, but smoking is a cause of spinal disc damage and, therefore, back pain. In fact, research has shown that smoking cigarettes not only increases the risk of developing osteoporosis, but also damages the arteries in the muscles and joints of the back. Nicotine is also a vasoconstrictor, which means that it causes the blood vessels to narrow, decreasing the amount of nutrients and oxygen received by the spine.

Slide: Good postures to avoid back pain