Spine Care: Strengthening the Core of Your Body

Strengthen Your Supporting Arch

If the body is a temple the spine is the supporting arch, but it should be treated like the sanctuary. That’s because the spine has more than a duty to keep the body upright. It’s more than just a bunch of bones as it homes the pathways of our central nervous system which allows our brain to communicate with everything else in our body. We should prioritize our spine’s health in our day-to-day life as lack of care can lead to physical discomfort and make us susceptible to future complications. Spine care is an everyday task that can be optimized with a few careful steps. This leads us straight into the crux and goal of this blog entry: keeping a good posture.

Keeping correct posture is the most difficult aspect of spine care, and it won’t happen overnight - although, you can get the process going immediately. Your spine wants to be in a slight S shape with your shoulders squared and your hip tucked in. Often, achieving this position is relatively easy, making it a subconscious and natural stance is where the difficulty lies.

·        For starters, imagine a string tied to the back of your head. Now imagine someone lightly tugging it back as if you were a marionette. Your head should be lifted and held high and proud.

·        Then, tighten your shoulders by pulling them back slightly (without puffing your chest out like a bird). They should be squared and back, not rounded and hunched.

·        Tuck your pelvis in using your gluts. Stand up straight and distribute weight evenly between both your feet.

At this stage, you may feel slight discomfort – if not – great, just keep practicing until it becomes your natural stance. If you are feeling discomfort, then read on.

I frequently explain to patients who visit me about posture and back pain at the Mount Sinai Center of Rehabilitative Medicine that their discomfort in standing straight usually stems from underdeveloped supporting muscles. Either this, or the pain they are experiencing is due to their body weight – and I’ll explain why.

For every kilo you lose, your spine frees 8 kilos worth of tension, which means that thinner people put less strain on their spine and heavier people put on more. But an exercise regime isn’t just about losing weight, in fact, that is just a bonus. The real benefit comes from strengthening the muscles that support the skeletal structure.

Think about it, there are plenty of athletes who would score high on the BMI scale for being overweight, consequently meaning their back should be under high levels of pressure, but do not suffer from back problems as their muscles are sufficiently developed to handle the extra stress. Once your muscles have been adequately strengthened, holding the aforementioned posture will no longer be uncomfortable.

The balancing act lies between being at a suitable weight comparative to your core strength. That’s why a focus on exercising the abdominals and lower back muscles will immediately reduce the impact the spine sustains throughout everyday life.

But of course, make sure your lifting technique is spot-on. There would be nothing worse than damaging your spine in your attempt to strengthen it. 

Reclaiming Your Life From Knee Injury

How Can Medical Science Put A Stop To Knee Arthritis?

Arthritis in the knee is caused by an inflammation of one or more joints around the femur, patella, and tibia. The joint will become painful, and gradually get worse if not attended to. This medical problem can be down to your genetics or lifestyle – long periods of not moving or heavy loads on the knees being the most common culprits. Patients tend to struggle with mundane tasks like walking up the stairs and bending the knee. Thankfully, with progressions in medical science, we have a promising treatment for knee arthritis - stem cell injections.

Stem Cell procedures consist of taking cells from your own body and using them to create more cells. Cells live in all tissue and can be poised to fix existing damages to the body. A top cure for arthritis is to renew the cartilage that separates the bones, which will (often alongside physiotherapy) bring you back to fighting fit health – alongside preventing any more troubles this lingering problem will cause.

But what exactly is knee arthritis? The knee is cushioned from impact by smooth and slippery substances called cartilage. This substance acts as a shock absorber and stops the bone from eroding. Arthritis is a condition in which the cartilage begins to wear away – a biological “wear-and-tear” – reducing the space between the bones. The result is painful, reduces the capacity of the knee, and chips away at surrounding bone, producing bone spurs.

Arthritis in the knee is a symptom of lifestyle, genetics, or a combination of both. You could be unlucky and have it hereditarily, or develop the problem from things you do. Playing sports and working jobs that have a heavy impact on the knees are often the genesis of this problem. Surprisingly, arthritis in the knee often worsens from lack of knee activity alongside an overload of activity – like heavy squats. Sitting with the knee in one position for prolonged periods of time can cause the arthritis to form, or worsen underlying issues.

As the symptoms get worse, it gets gradually more difficult to walk up the stairs, play sports; and can have a detrimental effect on your work and your quality of life. Imagine, every time you use your knee – you are causing more damage to it, as the bones continue to wear away at each other. Knee arthritis can be a slippery slope, once it begins – it can worsen to extreme situations where the cartilage completely erodes.

Thankfully, medical science can rescue us from this predicament.

Cells are harvested from the body – usually from a vein in your arm, and a sample of bone marrow will be taken (usually from the hip). The cells are then separately prepared before being re-injected into your body. Regeneration of the cartilage will mean you can resume sports, start walking normally again and give you the ability to reclaim your life.