Archive for December 2017
Holiday Travel Tips Help Keep your Spine in Line
The traveler’s worst nightmare: back pain
Many of us are winding down the last few days at work before packing the family in the van or onto the plane for a trip to spend the holidays with family or friends further afield. But travel represents a threat to people with back pain: the hours of sitting required to get from point A to point B deaden your circulation, stiffen your muscles and intensify your already palpable back pain. This holiday season, instead of accepting your traveling fate, be proactive to prevent pain.
This Holiday Season, Combat Stress with Physical Activity
Cheer or fear: the holiday season can induce both feelings…
The extent to which one or the other predominates is probably going to have a profound effect on your stress levels during the holiday season. Yes, there is plenty of good cheer to go around, but there is also the dark side of consumerism to contend with, the financial strain on the wallet, and the myriad christmas engagements that put a strain on your schedule. It’s no wonder that we sleep and exercise less, and eat poorly during the holidays; all of this put together is the perfect recipe for the S-word: stress.
Taking Care of your Back this Holiday Season
Balancing chronic back pain with the cheer of the holiday season…
…can be a difficult task. December is a month of additional stress for the spine. At Family Chiropractic and Spinal Health Care Center, we have identified a number of risk factors which are unique to the holiday season:
- Normal routine is thrown out the window: juggling christmas engagements can cause stress which then causes muscle tension.
- Booze and inflammatory ingredients abound: our normal dieting patterns also suffer during the holidays, when we drink more alcohol and eat more inflammatory ingredients such as sugar and saturated fat.
- More lifting: we tend to perform more lifting activities during the holidays. From lifting younger relatives, to cutting and hauling the Christmas tree, your spinal balance is threatened by an increase in bending and lifting activities.
- Exercise levels go down: there can be simply no time to fit in your regular exercise activities.
These are just a few to get you started- we are sure you can identify more ways that the holidays put your spine under threat. A heightened sense of awareness will help you navigate the perils of the holiday season so that you can enjoy the holiday cheer without hurting your back too much.