Most of us will suffer from back or neck pain at some time in our lives. Much of the time, it’s something that we may suffer with for a few days or whine about occasionally. However, sometimes it’s more than that and medical care should be sought. So, when do you know when to seek out medical care?

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has listed the following spinal pain factors as reasons to seek medical attention as soon as possible for a complete evaluation:

• A fall from a ladder or from a heightened elevation, a motor vehicle accident, or a similar “jarring” accident
• A fall down a few steps or even slipping or stumbling that results in pain
• An injury that occurs from a sport or activity that may have resulted in your body being put in an unnatural and painful position
• History of prolonged steroid use (people with asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and rheumatologic disorders are ones most likely to be on this type of medication)
• Anyone with a history of osteoporosis or someone with a history of fractures
• Any individual over the age of 70
• Prior history of cancer
• History of a recent infection
• Temperature over 100 degrees F.
• IV drug use, as there is an increased risk of infectious cause
• Unexplained weight loss
• Low back pain that becomes worse when at risk

It’s best to know the source of the back or neck pain and have an evaluation to determine whether it is something that will improve, or if the condition could deteriorate if not treated. Many times, people try and ignore the pain or mask its symptoms with over-the-counter medication, and end up hurting themselves even more. Consider an evaluation a check-up for your health.

Exercises for the spine are different than exercises for weight loss or heart health. The exercises specifically for the spine are intended to maintain strong and flexible muscles of your back, stomach, hips and thighs and should be considered a part of your overall health routine. Of course, we recommend that you check with your doctor before starting any exercise program. Once you get the okay, make sure you don’t overdo it by starting simply and then building up gradually. You want to help your spine, not hurt it!

The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons recommends an exercise program consisting of a 10 to 30 minute workout one-to-three times daily, depending on your particular injury, pain level or overall fitness.

Consider these initial “starter” exercises that are done in a prone position and using a small pillow support, if needed:

• Ankle pumps — Lie on your back and move ankles up and down, repeating 10 times each.
• Heel slides — Lie on your back and slowly bend and straighten your knee, repeating 10 times each.
• Straight leg raises — Lie on your back with one leg straight and one knee bent. Tighten abdominals and then slowly lift leg straight up about 6 to 12 inches. Hold for 1 to 5 seconds, and then lower leg slowly. Repeat 10 times with each leg.

The Minimally Invasive Spine Institute

In osteoporosis, your bones gradually become weaker and weaker—and then they may break. The frightening thing is that you may not know that you have ostoporosis until you get a fracture. For that reason, it’s often called a “silent disease.”

As a normal part of taking care of your body, you should monitor your bone health, especially as you get older. SpineUniverse.com has a quiz to help you assess your risk for Osteoporosis. It asks you about 15 questions about your demographics, lifestyle, and your past health history. It then gives you a result based on how you answered those questions. It’s far from scientific, but it’s a good way to become a little bit more aware of your bone health.

Take the quiz at SpineUniverse.com

While every patient is different and it is recommended that you visit with your family doctor before beginning any type of exercise program, a recent study has shown that more exercise — if done properly — can help curb minor back and neck pain rather than exacerbate it. Of course, exercise won’t repair chronic pain or spinal injuries, but it sure can help fix acute injuries from overdoing something that often come from improper lifting or through bodily twist and turns.

A recent study conducted at the University of Alberta followed 240 men and women with lower-back pain over a four-month period. Findings showed that those who exercised four days a week with weights had a better quality of life, 28 percent had less pain, and 36 percent had less disability. This compared with those who exercised only occasionally each week and without using weights, and did not show the same level change.

“While it could be assumed that someone with back pain should not be exercising frequently, our findings show that working with weights four times a week provides the greatest amount of pain relief and quality of life,” said Robert Kell, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of exercise physiology at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus. Kell presented his findings at the recent American College of Sports Medicine conference held in Seattle, Wash.

If you are a candidate for a minimally-invasive spine surgery, ask us about exercise programs that are right for you. We will be recommending adding a regular exercise routine to your lifestyle once you are able to resume normal activities. After all, exercise — regardless of your condition to begin with — is often considered one of the most practical solutions for keeping your mind and body fit and in optimal condition.

1. Every evening, think PERF.
Essentially, there are four things you should monitor every day to make sure you are living healthy:

• Produce: the amount of vegetables and fruits you ate that day
• Excercise: whether you walked and were active
• Relaxation: whether you got at least 15 minutes of laughter and fun time for yourself
• Fiber: whether you got enough beans, grains, and other high-fiber food in your diet.

If you can say you did well on all four of these, you lived a very healthy day. If you can say you do well on these on most days, your life begins to look a lot longer and healthier.

2. Monitor your sleepiness.
There are three good ways to tell if you are getting enough sleep.

1. Do you require an alarm clock to wake up most mornings?
2. Do you become drowsy in the afternoon to the point that it affects what you are doing?
3. Do you doze off shortly after eating dinner?

If the answer to any of these is yes, you need more sleep for good health. And if you are getting enough sleep and still have these troubles, you should talk with your doctor about your low energy. A healthy, well-rested person should wake up refreshed without the aid of an alarm clock each morning, not be overly drowsy during the day, and still have some energy left over for after-dinner activity.

3. Check your hairbrush.
If your hair is falling out, ask your doctor to check your levels of blood ferritin, an indication of how much iron your body is storing. Some studies suggest that low levels may be related to unexplained hair loss. Thyroid disease is another fairly common cause.

4. Keep a mental color chart of the color of your urine.Sure, it sounds gross, but at least you don’t have to pee into a cup to do it. Your urine should be a clear, straw color; if it’s dark or has a strong smell, you may not be getting enough fluids. If it continues dark colored even after you increase your liquid intake, follow up with your doctor. Bright yellow urine? Chalk it up to the B vitamins in your multivitamin.

5. Check your heartbeat after you exercise.
A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that women who had poor heart rate recovery, or HRR, after exercise had twice the 10-year risk of having a heart attack as those who had normal HRR. To test your HRR after regular strenuous activity, count your heartbeats for 15 seconds, then multiply by four to get your heart rate. Then sit down and wait two minutes before checking again. Subtract the second number from the first. If it’s under 55, then your HRR is higher than normal and you should follow up with your doctor.

6. Measure your height every year after you turn 50.
This is especially important for women as a way of assessing posture and skeletal health. A change in stature can be as informative as a change on a bone density test in terms of assessing your overall bone health. Don’t skip the bone density test, though: It picks up bone loss before your height changes.

7. If you have diabetes, play footsies every day.
By yourself, that is. This form of footsies consists of examining your feet carefully for any blisters, fungus, peeling skin, cuts, or bruises. Because people with diabetes often have some nerve damage in extremities like the feet, these daily self-examinations are critical clues to how well you’re monitoring your blood sugar and if you might have nerve damage.

You can read the entire article from Reader’s Digest at rd.com

1. Utilize Your Doctor

Your doctor is one of your best advocates when preparing for a vacation. Here’s why.

• A doctor may be able to provide a letter about your lower back pain to the airline and flight crew, which may then make accommodations for your needs.

2. Contact the Airline

Generally speaking, it usually cannot hurt to contact the airline a couple of weeks prior to the flight and let them know of your back pain. You may be surprised that the airline may be able to make accommodations for your back pain, especially when you give them a decent notice of your condition. As just a couple of examples, the airline may be able to:

• Provide you with medical attention (if necessary) via wheelchair assistance and early boarding
• Have airline personnel carry your luggage for you and/or lift it into the overhead bin for you
• Accommodate you with special shuttles and elevator platforms for boarding
• Allow non-medical assistants to accompany you through security and boarding.

3. Put More Thought into Scheduling Your Flight

Take into account how you can make your flight less stressful on your back rather than rushing to book tickets by:

• Exploring the possibility of taking a flight when there will be less people on board and more room for you to lie down across seats.
• Contacting the airline prior to scheduling a flight and let them know of your back pain. They may be able to provide you with more insight on when flights tend to be very crowded and much lighter.
• Trying to limit the down time between in-flight connections or layovers, if applicable.

4. Bring Over-the-Counter Pain Medication

Utilize over-the-counter pain medication like acetaminophen (e.g. Tylenol) or ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin and Nuprin) or naproxen (Aleve), to provide back pain relief on your flight.

• Take your pain medication one hour before your flight to give it time to get into your system
• Carry your pain medications together in a clear plastic bag and have them on you at all times, in case you need to resort to them during the flight.
• Inform flight attendants that you are on medication. This way they can monitor you if necessary.

5. Provide Support to Your Back While in the Air

For lower back pain, providing support behind your lower back, often with a back roll or even a couple of pillows (which a flight attendant may be more than willing to give you), is a good way to prevent slouching that may lead to back pain and to keep your spine straight.

• Bring a neck pillow on board to help with his neck pain.
• Back braces, tube-shaped pillows with microfibers inside and other materials providing support are common companions of passengers with back pain and can be purchased inexpensively at many stores.

6. Watch How You Are Sitting

Airplane rides can be a bit tight and uncomfortable at times, especially if you’re not in a luxury class.

• If your legs are not positioned at a right angle when you sit in an airplane seat, ask for something (pillows, blankets) to prop up your feet and keep your knees at a right angle. Doing so keeps stress off the lower back.
• If you have long legs, request an exit row or bulkhead seat, which generally has more leg room.

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Read the rest of the tips over at Spine-Health.com

Bone density loss scans and other screening tools help to better diagnose individuals with developing osteoporosis and to provide intervention at an easy of a stage as possible. There are many ways a doctor can determine whether you are at risk of osteoporosis, and if you are a woman over the age of 30 and haven’t yet had a discussion with your physician or screening, we recommend you initiate that conversation at your next appointment.

You may want to review biological, medical and lifestyle risk factors to determine whether you are at risk of developing the disease. Some risk factors are considered genetic or based on unavoidable conditions, while others are considered lifestyle related and ones you can change to have the greatest opportunity to lessen the chance of getting this disease.

Common lifestyle risk factors include:

• Low calcium intake — consuming less than 300 mg per day of calcium is considered low. Ask your doctor about whether you should begin taking calcium supplements. Also choose foods like milk, yogurt, and cheese that are high in calcium.
• Low vitamin D intake — this comes from sunlight, certain foods such as egg yolks, fortified cereals and milk, and certain fish. Again, ask your doctor about vitamin D in your diet.
• High caffeine and/or alcohol intake — If you have a low calcium intake and then drink more than two or three cups of caffeinated coffee daily or drink more than 7 ounces of alcohol per week, your risk of osteoporosis-related fractures or symptoms is higher.
• Low activity level — a low activity rate can contribute to osteoporosis.

Visit zerospinepain.com for more information or contact us.

A popular way to refresh your body, exercise and stay cool–all at the same time–can be found with water-based exercises. The low-impact exercise let participants stretch, twist, and work those muscles in a way that make you feel good and have improved fitness at the same time. But water aerobics or water-based therapy isn’t for everyone.

Before signing up for any water-based exercise or therapy program, check with your doctor to make sure that this type of activity is right for you. Often, sufferers of back or neck pain or individuals who are older or who have other physical limitations prefer water-based exercise programs to other alternatives. Water aerobics is also a good program for individuals who are overweight and/or generally out of shape.

If you do have any physical limitations, check out how participants enter the water and make sure you feel safe, comfortable and confident in the method for entering the pool. If the pool bottom or entry seems slippery, you may wish to purchase inexpensive water shoes and keep those on during the exercise or therapy program. Look also for hand rails or safety grasps to provide you with extra stability as you enter or exit the water. Some pools also feature rubber mats or similar non-slip bottoms.

If you have severely limited endurance or range of motion, are fearful of the water, or have any kind of severe heart issues, incontinence, fever or infection, you should not participate in a water exercise program. If you are starting an exercise program due to osteoporosis, keep in mind that water exercise may not be as beneficial as weight-bearing (land) exercise programs, so you may want to complement your water program with something on shore as well.

Also ask about the average water temperature of the pool, and make sure you are happy with the level it is kept at. Therapy pools are often kept almost as warm as bath water to assist with blood circulation. However, many water aerobic exercise programs are held in backyard or recreational swimming pools, so the temperature there may vary more.

As long as a water program meets your needs, it can provide relief from minor back or neck soreness or pain in a low-impact fashion. If you have severe or chronic pain, call us to discuss whether The Minimally Invasive Spine Institute can provide you a quality lifestyle free from back or neck pain!

Sometimes neck pain can also be caused by whiplash, which can occur from automotive accidents or even thrill rides. Whiplash, which occurs when the head is jerked one way and then the other suddenly, can stretch the soft tissues of the neck beyond their natural limits. Typically, strain and whiplash don’t require medical treatment unless chronic pain develops.

But there are certain types of neck or head pain that do require you to seek priority medical care. According to the Mayo Clinic, you should see a doctor at once if:

• You have severe pain from an injury. If you’ve suffered any type of head or neck trauma, including a blow to your head. Severe pain over a bone may indicate a fracture or an injury to a ligament.
• Shooting pain. Pain that radiates down your arm, and may be accompanied by numbness of tingling in fingers, could indicate nerve irritation.
• Loss of strength. Weakness in an arm or leg or having a “wooden” leg or resorting to shuffling to move around may indicate a possible neurological problem.

Other types of neck pain may not require immediate medical intervention, but become the source of chronic pain. These can include worn joints and disk disorders. Both of these are often affects of age. Neck joints experience wear and tear with age and can cause osteoarthritis in your neck. The cushioning disks between your vertebrae can become stiff and dried out, narrowing the spaces in your spinal column where nerves come out. Other disorder is when the disks in your neck herniated, meaning the inner cartilage material protrudes through the disk’s tough cartilage covering. Bone spurs can also cause pain by pressing on your nerves.

If your neck ailment is considered temporary, all that may be necessary to alleviate the pain is to stop doing what you did to cause the pain in the first place, take over-the-counter pain medication, apply either ice or cold therapy, and then rest. Check with your doctor before taking any medications or using a particular therapy method to make sure your treatment plan is right for you.

If your neck pain is chronic, you don’t have to live with it. We’d love to provide you with a thorough evaluation and see whether our innovative minimally invasive surgeries can provide you with a long-term solution to a pain-free lifestyle.

Both heat and ice have their place when it comes to pain relief and treating an injury, and determining which one to use may depend on what type of injury you have along with your personal preference and prior success with a particular method. Heat is often recommended to alleviate muscle spasms, while ice is generally suggested for back injuries as a way to keep a check on inflammation.

Ice works by narrowing the space inside your blood vessels, which in turn limits blood flow and decreases the metabolic requirements of your body’s soft tissues. It also reduces the level of your body’s naturally-occurring chemicals that are a response to inflammation but need to be kept under control to avoid excessive formation of scar tissue at the site of your back or neck injury or source of pain. Ice also acts as a natural anesthetic to help reduce the sensation of pain.

As a temporary fix to back or neck strain, take aspirin or ibuprofen and ice the area as needed for the two or three days of when inflammation of the area is most likely to occur. After that, ice as needed. Ice therapy is often referenced by the acronym RICE, which stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.

For individuals who suffer from short-term lower back pain such as a back strain from over-exertion or jarring of the body, many feel that heat, such as a heat wrap, can help to improve function and reduce pain. Exercise combined with heat wrap compresses may help alleviate symptoms until the back feels better. Others may utilize chiropractors for an adjustment and to help re-align the spine.

Before choosing either heat or ice as a short-term solution to back or neck pain, we recommend that you always speak first to your family physician to help determine a course of action that is best for you and based on your medical history.

For a more permanent solution to chronic back or neck pain, consider talking to us at The Minimally Invasive Spine Institute and finding out how a minimally invasive back or neck surgery could potentially help you to return to a pain-free lifestyle!