It’s Happiness At Work Week 2023! It’s time to put a stop to chronic pain in the workplace. Whether your job is desk-based or physical or somewhere in-between, back pain can strike at any time due to daily habits, posture, lack of exercise or too much heavy-lifting. Many people hesitate to find help as they…
How can you tell when back pain is muscular or a sign of kidney problems? The kidneys are positioned below the ribcage on either side of the spine and rest against the muscles of the lower back and become painful if you have infection or stones. Kidney pain can feel similar to muscular pains caused…
High blood pressure, or hypertension as it’s known, isn’t often a concern when it comes to short-term back pain, but if it sticks around, you can get stuck in a vicious cycle. When experiencing ongoing pain, electrical signals from your brain regularly stimulate the sympathetic nervous system in your body, especially in and around your…
Standing up for hours, leaning forward with your head tilted down… it’s not surprising that being a hairdresser or barber is tough on your back – a study conducted in America found that it’s one of the top fifteen high-risk occupations for developing lower back pain. Uncomfortable postures, long hours, washing clients’ hair and stress…
The menopause is often associated with hot flushes and mood swings. But did you know that these hormonal fluctuations can lead to a higher incidence of back pain? Oestrogen plays an important role in maintaining skeletal health, promoting the activity of bone building cells , helping to slow the breakdown of bones. A drop in…
When you’re suffering from back pain, going for a walk might be the last thing you want to do. You might feel you can hardly stand upright, let alone stride out. However, there is plenty of evidence to show that walking will help you both mentally and physically by keeping you flexible, strengthening your muscles…
Back exercises are best done first thing in the morning. After being in bed all night your back can often be stiff and the exercises will help loosen you up as well as waking up the support muscles of the spine. And we have a simple back exercise routine that takes less than five minutes…
Sometimes you’re just doing a simple, everyday movement – and zap! Your back goes into spasm. The pain is suddenly excruciating, you’re frightened to move and have no idea what’s happening to you. This kind of situation feels like an emergency because the signals your brain is receiving are alerting you to potentially serious tissue…
Do you spend more than four hours a day sitting down? If the answer is yes, you’re one of the millions of people who make up the ‘sitting epidemic’. Due to a decline in the prevalence of physical jobs, combined with the rise of desk-based work, working from home, use of the internet and car…
A slipped disc is also called a herniated or prolapsed disc – and it can cause a lot of pain. Discs themselves are soft cushions of tissue between each vertebrae. The jelly-like centre (nucleus) of each disc is soft, but enveloped by a tougher substance called the annulus. Their job is to be shock absorbers.…
