Navigating Healthcare: A Guide to Modern Medicine and Wellness

Spine

preventing spinal stenosis

Preventing Spinal Stenosis: Sports Practices and Exercises for a Healthier Back

Originally posted on: https://healthbennies.com/preventing-spinal-stenosis-sports-practices-and-exercises-for-a-healthier-back/   Spinal stenosis, a condition characterized by the narrowing of the spinal canal, poses a significant…

cervical spine deformities advanced surgical techniques 2023

Benefits of a Standing Desk

Standing-DeskOffice furniture was staid and boring for decades.  Except for the big boss in the corner office, everyone else had a metal desk and a small upholstered chair that rolled on four casters on a plastic mat.

Then came cubicles a/k/a “cubes”, the workstations that became the bane of many office worker’s existence because they could hear the conversations of co-workers yet all they could see were high metal enclosures.

The office furniture manufacturers have incessantly tweaked their products to accommodate employee’s various needs.  Office chairs and desks were designed to be aesthetically pleasing, but ergonomically correct.  In some workplaces a whole-office ergonomic analysis was done on individual employee work stations to ensure that employees were working comfortably and without restrictions.

How to Protect Your Back During Daily Tasks

Protect Your Back During Daily TasksUnless you live in a warm-weather state where you can enjoy (or merely tolerate) doing yard work all year around, once the last of the snow has disappeared, it is time to start thinking about yard work once again.  Even if you’ve been shoveling snow all Winter, you’re likely to use different muscles, plus you will be squatting and bending, as opposed to lifting and throwing the snow.  If you have a snow blower, or your spouse or a service takes care of the snow, you might be out of shape somewhat, so, before you plan on doing yard work, you might want to begin by doing stretches, squats and lunges a few weeks before you tackle the raking/thatching and bagging up of debris, or tending to the yard in general.  It really will help to be more flexible for the job at hand, and, you sure don’t want to overdo your unused muscles just because you insist on doing all the work in one weekend.  That’s the way to likely incur pain in the back, or aching shoulders.

Probably the best and most-important advice from a top spine doctor in Summit, New Jersey would be to bend your knees.  Those 40-pound bags of topsoil are a challenge for a lot of people once gardening begins in earnest.  First you must heft them out of the back of your car and that can strain your back, especially if you twist and turn your torso the wrong way.  Why not have a four-wheeled dolly at the ready to move those heavy bags from the car to where they will be used?  Also, getting up and down from a kneeling or squatting position may be awkward or difficult for some.  Don’t risk damaging your back – why not treat yourself to a rolling garden seat to make gardening easier and more enjoyable?

Common Causes of Back Pain in Seniors

Chronic back pain is a common problem reported by about 50 percent of adults living in community care facilities, according to one study. Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a disabling and challenging pain condition affecting older adults, who sometimes have to seek out professionals or the top spine specialist to find answers for their problems.

There are three primary reasons back pain tends to get worse with aging:

  1. Decreased muscle strength and mass associated with aging (sarcopenia).This could be due to a decrease in number of muscle fibers, the size of the individual fibers or both.
  1. Fast twitch fiber atrophy is also associated with aging. This results in slower muscle contraction but this can be reversed with training.
    1. Decreased muscle attenuation is associated with aging muscle.

What is Corpectomy?

A spinal specialist may recommend that a patient undergo a corpectomy in some instances. A corpectomy is a surgical procedure on the spine. Corpectomy in its simplest sense means “remove the body.” In this case there is a removal of vertebrae. A spinal surgeon will remove bones or discs to relieve the pressure on a patient’s nerves and spinal cord. During the procedure, the surgeon will remove portions of the bony sections which comprise the spinal column as well as discs that may be adjacent to the section being removed. Once the NJ spinal surgeon removes the discs and bones, there will be an empty space which will need to be reconstructed. The bones will be replaced through a bone graft or bone substitutes. In some cases there is missing tissue that is causing bone to rub against bone. The tissue must be reconstructed in order to prevent further damage. There are two basic reasons that a spine specialist might suggest a corpectomy for a patient: to remove pressure that is being put on the spinal cord or to stop any abnormal movement or motion between the vertebrae.