Ergonomic Chairs Can Change Your Life

Have you ever suffered from fatigue or back pain? Have you come home from work stiff and having little energy left in you to enjoy your life and children? I think it may be time you consider upgrading your office chair to a fully ergonomic chair. I have spent a considerable amount of time of this very subject and I would like to share some of the information that I have uncovered with you. My thirty years of experience in the office furniture world has finally paid some dividends!

An ergonomic task chair is the basis for a comfortable, productive workstation. Ergonomic means that the chair has the necessary adjustable functions and standard qualities that make it suitable for the majority of the population. I have listed below some of the unique characteristics of a good quality ergonomic chair.

Seat Height - Adjustability is a must; your feet should rest comfortably on the floor without pressure on the back of the thighs. The angle between the thigh and torso should not be less than 90°.

Seat Depth - The seat should have a waterfall edge and be the right depth. Too short, and pressure will result on the back of the thighs, too long and the seat edge will press into the back of the knee. A seat slider is a good option to provide adjustable depth.

Seat pan Angle - Should allow the user to keep the feet flat on floor and should move proportionally to backrest angle.

Lumbar support - The backrest curve should follow the natural curve of the spine, so when purchasing, always look for an adjustable lumbar support.

Backrest Height - The backrest needs to adequately support the back. Mid-back chairs are most popular since they allow for upper torso movement, while high-back chairs support the shoulder blades as well. Low-back chairs (<45 cm tall) are not recommended.

Backrest Angle - A great adjustable feature to allow for the recommended 93°-113° torso-to-thigh angle, plus provide a changing posture throughout the day.

Armrests - Should be height adjustable between 19-24 cm and should naturally support the arms at the elbow and forearm with a padded surface, without the user leaning or elevating the shoulder. They should not interfere with computer work or positioning of the chair, so should be set back from the front edge of the chair 15 cm.

I know that your body will benefit from the correct chair for you. Go to a local office supplies company who specializes in quality office furniture and test drive all the wonderful chairs available. Good Luck!!

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Is Cracking Your Back And Neck Safe?

Many people are concerned that cracking their backs and necks will lead to painful conditions like arthritis. Others consider cracking a normal part of maintenance; after all, chiropractors help people with back pain by cracking their backs with manipulation techniques. Is it safe to crack your back and neck?

The answer to this depends on the method and frequency of cracking. First, consider what happens when you crack a joint. The bones of the joint move apart, which creates a temporary vacuum (since more volume equals less pressure). Gases that have dissolved in the joint's protective fluids undergo a reconstitution of sorts when volume decreases; the dissolved gases now form into bubbles. The pop you hear is the sound of these bubbles popping as pressure drops even lower.

Cracking the back and neck often feels good because it involves stretching joints, ligaments and muscles. If you hear your joints crack when you stretch, this is generally nothing to be concerned about. When cracking becomes excessive, such as when a person habitually and forcibly cracks his or her back and neck multiple times a day, hypermobility becomes a concern.

Hypermobility occurs when the ligaments surrounding a joint become overstretched. The ligaments fail to support the joint and the joint is susceptible to excess range of motion. Though cracking knuckles doesn't cause arthritis, the extra wear and tear hypermobile spinal joints are subjected to can likely increase your risk of non-rheumatoid arthritis if you crack your spine habitually. Joints that crack regularly without much prompting may be a symptom of hypermobility.

Another problem that occurs with hypermobility is tight muscles. Muscles surrounding lax ligaments tense up to protect and support the area, compensating for the ligaments. This muscular tension increases your perceived need to crack your back and neck, and so the cycle continues.

Neck cracking comes with a unique risk: stroke. The vertebrobasiliar artery runs the length of the cervical spine and is most vulnerable at the top of the spine, where it loops into and out of the vertebra (C1). This artery provides nutrients and oxygen to parts of the brain that facilitate many functions, including vision, balance and consciousness. Cracking the neck forcibly changes the position of the vertebra and can condense the artery enough to cause a tear. Blood clots can pass along to the brain or block the flow of blood to it resulting in possible stroke and death. The risk is present for both self adjustments and chiropractic manipulations. See http://www.webmd.com/stroke/news/20030512/neck-cracking-raises-stroke-risk for more on this.

Is cracking your back and neck safe? Cracking that occurs when stretching is often safe, but if it happens with very little effort it may be a sign of hypermobility. Excessive intentional cracking may cause hypermobility of ligaments and joints coupled with tense muscles. Joint wear can accelerate if you crack your spine constantly. Finally, cracking your neck comes with a rare but serious risk of stroke. If you experience pain when cracking a joint, this could be the sign of a joint problem and deserves medical attention.

There are many myths surrounding back cracking. Keeping yourself informed will help you know which actions are healthy and which are harmful.

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Chronic Back Pain And Its Non-Invasive Treatments

Chronic back pain is not a new condition among people who are prone to this kind of problem. This condition ranges from full soreness to persisting sharp inflammation. Back pain patients frequently experience stiffness in the morning, while others, undergo pain in the lumbar area (lower back). Though the pain is certainly distressing, more people complain about the disruption that it causes their daily life.

This is the reason why the sufferer must seek a treatment or relief that best suits his/her needs, as soon as possible. There are lots of treatments provided for chronic back pain. Some of these are home remedies, invasive, and non-invasive therapy. Home remedies can provide quick but temporary relief for the condition. Invasive therapies can cause you a lot of money and a possibility to encounter some side effects in the long run. On the other hand, non-invasive therapies are considered to be safe and effective for treating chronic lower back pain, as well.

What are Non-Invasive Treatments?

Non-Invasive Treatments are preferred if you are suffering from pain in the back without really having the necessity of going through drastic medical procedures. These treatments are generally those that provide somewhat conservative procedures, which don't require any kind of incisions made to the body or any elimination of tissue.

A treatment combination of non-invasive procedures such as physical therapy, chiropractic manipulation and heat therapy. These procedures are usually prescribed over a period of time depending on the level of treatment required. Non-invasive treatments are necessary if a patient needs to cope with the pain.

Physical Therapy

When a patient experiences a series of back pain that lasts between 2 to 6 weeks, or if there is a recurrent persistent back pain, then it is reasonable to try physical therapy or workouts. Generally, the goals of chronic back pain exercises and physical therapy are to lessen back pain, enhance function, and give education on a maintenance program to stop further recurrences.

There are lots of different types of physical therapy. The therapist may concentrate on reducing the pain by means of passive physical therapy, also called as modalities. These are considered passive therapies since they are completed to the patient. Some modalities include heat/ice packs, TENS units and ultrasound.

Other kind of physical therapies include active physical therapy or exercise. Exercise is important for patients who want to rehabilitate the spine. In general, the person's back exercise program must encompass a combination of stretching as well as strengthening for back pain exercise, and low-impact aerobic conditioning.

Chiropractic Manipulation

Chiropractic or spinal manipulation involves moving a joint beyond its normal range of motion. You frequently hear a cracking or popping noise during chiropractic adjustment while the joint is manipulated. The objective of chiropractic manipulation is to ease the pain and enhance the physical function of a person's body.

Chiropractic manipulation is done with a chiropractic doctor. In the meantime, spinal manipulations are performed by physical therapist or osteopathic doctor.

Heat Therapy

Since heat and warmth are always associated with relaxation and comfort, heat therapy is one of the best ways to reduce back pain. Heat therapy provides more benefits than what patients of back pain usually know. Moreover, heat therapy for chronic back pain in the form of heat wraps, heating pad, warm gel packs, hot baths, are affordable and simple to do.

Heat therapy can dilate blood vessels of the muscles that surround the lumbar spine. This method increases the flow of oxygen, including nutrients to the muscles, helping to cure the damaged tissue. In addition, heat can stimulate the sensory receptors within the skin, which means that using heat to the lower back will moderately relieve the discomfort brought by chronic back pain.

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Causes of Sciatica and Sciatic Nerve Pain

The first step towards solving a problem is identifying the cause. You cannot solve a problem that you do not know the source. This would involve a situation of trial and error. Trial and error is applicable on some cases especially those that do not involve living organisms. Trying trial and error in living organisms would be disastrous. With sciatica, a condition that brings about Sciatic nerve pain, it is no different. To cure it or avoid it, one should start by trying to understand its causes. With the causes, you, as an individual, can actively avoid causes that are avoidable. As a medical practitioner, you are able to administer the right medication on the patient suffering this condition.

There are different forms of sciatica and thus Sciatic nerve pain, which means that there are varying causes of the condition. Learning the most common causes will go a great step toward helping you fight or avoid the condition. Although, different forms may be caused by the same cause, the severity of exposure to the cause is what brings about the whole difference. Although similar, the causes must be related to the spinal cord, whether from within or external. The most common are external which stimulate the internal environment. For instance, some exercise, which is an external factor, may cause the lumber disc, which is an internal organ, to react causing the condition.

The most common cause of sciatica and Sciatic nerve pain is the lumbar disc directly pressing on sciatica nerve. Anything that causes irritation and inflammation on the nerve is likely to bring about sciatica. The irritation of the sciatica nerve is referred to radiculopathy. Irritation of this nerve could be caused by tumors, irritation by the bone adjacent to it, pinched nerve, internal bleeding, injury and infections. The sciatica can also be irritated during pregnancy due to the physiological changes women go through when pregnant.

Another cause of sciatica and the related Sciatic nerve pain is trauma. The trauma could have been brought about by vehicle accidents, or falling during football sports. This is an external factor that influences the lumbar causing sciatica. The impact from the accident or the fall could have an impact on the spinal cord and related nerves, which may, in effect, bring about sciatica.

Another common cause is the Piriformis syndrome, named after the Piriformis muscle. The pain occurs when the sciatic nerve is irritated by this muscle.

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More on Back Pain

The biggest cause in most cases of non specific back pain - pain not due to damage from accident and injury or birth defect - and, in fact, most physical ailments lie in what sufferers have been consuming since birth. (Not entirely their fault as they have bought the lies put out by advertising companies).

Thanks to the processors of foods, poisoners of insects, industrial waste - the list goes on.

Of course the doctors 'junk medicines' are hugely to blame, slowly poisoning their victims from birth. Just read some of the side affects on the pamphlets supplied with the stuff.

So.. to get back to the point in question. The answer is so simple that it gets overlooked. To get down to basics; Muscles go into spasm and the ligaments slip over the vertebral spines, pulling the vertebra out of alignment, pinching nerves etc etc. But, that's not basic to the problem. Why does this continue to happen? Well, the muscles and ligaments are made of cells and tissue. If these are damaged or diseased, the muscles can't operate correctly and the whole shooting match goes out.

Processed foods

Processed foods and bad diets make the body acidic. I'm not talking about acidity in the stomach i.e. hart burn, I'm talking about the condition in the body. A simple urine test will indicate acidity - or alkalinity - levels in the body.

Acid is the no 1 enemy of cells and tissue. The cells and tissue then cant do their work efficiently.

This cause goes back to before birth. What was the mother eating - what was the condition of her body? If her body was acidic, so was her unborn child's.

Many people started this life with this problem and didn't even know it.

Although cells regenerate, they can only regenerate at a certain pace and we tend to damage them faster than they are regenerating. Witness people who drink a lot and eat plentifully on rich foods and red meats etc., how their health degenerates faster than the average persons. And compare them also to non smoking, non drinking healthy eaters. Unhealthy people aren't unlucky in some mysterious way; they made their bodies that way.

Stretch and Manipulative Exercises can help relieve the problem quickly and relatively successfully, but only temporarily and won't cure the condition.

The pain you feel is a symptom. It can only be handled successfully by going beyond the back pain.

The three steps to handling the problem terminatedly:

1. Clean out the diseased and damaged cells and tissue.

2. Assist the regeneration of the cells and tissue so the energy can flow freely.

3. Eat healthily to keep it from recurring - Nobody's a saint but try to eat plenty of fresh ORGANIC fruit, vegetables - especially green leafy veggies, nuts,eat fish or chicken and cut down on the red meat. Very importantly, don't mix carbohydrates and proteins in the same meal. This causes the carbs to ferment and the proteins to putrefy and constipation ensues, creating poisons and giving off gas. This is absorbed into the blood stream which in turn causes the body to become acidic.

The rule of thumb is- DON'T BECOME CONSTIPATED - DON'T ALLOW YOUR BODY TO BECOME ACIDIC

How These Everyday Natural Sources Can Ease Your Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain relief can just be round the corner. Did you know simple vitamins can help your pain without complications?

Some of these natural relievers can be found in ever day foods and drinks yet in some cases we go out of our way to make these natural pain reducers ineffective.

So what are these natural pain fighters?

They are so simple and commonplace that you will actually think "Is he telling the truth?". I will give you some of the natural lower back pain vitamins and you can double check through research journals. They are scientifically proven, researched over many years and have been in use for hundreds of years... one has been in use since 700BC.

The B Complexes

Used within all the body systems from the Liver, Brain, nerves, muscle and skin... the B vitamins are highly needed within the human body.

The complexes are based upon vitamin B and come under specific names like Thiamin (B1), Naicin (B3), Riboflavin (B2), Pyridoxine (B6) and Cyanocobalamin (B12).

As a groups they work powerfully but separately they all have their own individual purpose and you will be amazed at what they do.

Did you know that a Japanese research group found that these complexes not only helped with nerve health but they also found that they helped in nerve damage repair. A German study found that these complexes were also powerful in nerve pain reduction.

Thiamin

Helps repair damaged nerve fibers and increases nerve impulses.

Riboflavin

Have with the repair and maintenance of the sheath around nerve fibers and reduces inflammation.

Naicin

Helps to regulate the whole of the nervous system- aiding repair, growth and transmission. It also increases the body's fuel supply so that tissues can be aided in repair.

Pyridoxine

This vitamin has been studied more than the rest and has been found to be one of the most important vitamins that you can have. It is involved in protein manufacture and in every cell reproduction. So it is vitally important in the immune system, the skin, nervous system and even pregnancy.

It also helps with reducing stress, anxiety and even depression and is even classed as the "anti-stress vitamin".

Cyanocobalamin

it is vital in the growth of new cells and with DNA replication- as well as blood, brain immune and nervous systems.

As you can see, the basic vitamins that we take for granted whose names we by-pass on cereal boxes have a huge health benefit to our system.

When we add other vitamins and natural products we can get a super-powerful natural lower back pain reducer.

What Are the Symptoms of Sciatica?

You wake up with a tingling pain down your leg. You think nothing of it, and carry on with your day. You have a similar pain later on after sitting for a length of time, like when you get up from your desk. There may be a feeling off numbness, or that strange pins and needles sensation along your leg or in your foot. Sharp pains may appear out of nowhere along the same leg. What is going on? You may be experiencing the symptoms of sciatica.

There are many symptoms that may indicate you are suffering from sciatica. While sciatic pain itself is not a medical disorder in and of itself, the term is used to describe a group of symptoms that arise from several different medical conditions, though the symptoms are all relatively similar.

What are these symptoms? Though there are varying causes of sciatica, the symptoms are usually quite similar. They usually occur in one leg only (the leg with the affected sciatic nerve) and can include several manifestations of pain or weakness. You may experience tingling or that "pins and needles" sensation in any part of your leg, including your buttock, thigh, calf or foot. An area may also feel numb, or lose feeling in a part of the leg. You may feel more of a perception of burning or a dull ache in any of these areas. The pain can often be sharp, or intense, and actually cause immobility in the affected limb for a time. There may even be several sensations felt at one time, like numbness in your hip while experiencing a sharp pain in your calf or foot. If these symptoms show up at some point, it may be time to go and see your general practitioner, as they are a symptom of a medical condition that may need attention.

Often, sciatica will go away on it's own, in about 6 weeks. However, if you are experiencing these symptoms for longer than that, another visit to your doctor is in order. In a lot of instances, after the initial diagnosis, the symptoms will usually dissipate on their own, usually without any special treatments beyond some mild painkillers and heat and/or ice. There are cases, however, where you may need blood tests, x-rays, or other imaging tests to determine the cause of your symptoms, and the condition may need to be treated with other remedies.

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