Downward Facing Blog

Two weeks ago I was back in my hometown - KL - conducting workshops and attending wedding. In between of which I met up with friends and ex-students. One of which is a friend from college, Joshua.

I was sympathetic when Joshua told me the episode of low back pain that he was suffering.  After listening to his story (over a free lunch), I was inspired to write about this modern malady that is haunting so many people. Here’s how it begins:

Joshua woke up one morning, going about as usual, until an unassuming sneeze took him down. He was paralyzed in the house for 6 hours until help arrived.  Joshua was later diagnosed with slipped disc. 

I remember my cousin sister told me years ago how she was frightened by sneezing because it always gave her pain in the lower back.  I found it hard to believe how something as trivial as sneeze could contort her with low back pain?

Truth is: sneeze is not the ultimate cause of the pain; it is only the incident that triggers a painful reaction to accumulated physical, mental, and/or emotional stress and overuse. Nevertheless, sneezes do subject the torso to very high levels of torque. So next time, lean back instead of bending forward when you sneeze.

 Under the recommendation of his uncle, Joshua is now walking around in a lumbar corset. The lumbar corset compresses against the abdomen in order to unload the vertebral column. Although there hasn’t been obvious recovery from wearing the lumbar corset, we did conclude that it at  least protects Joshua against injury and acts as a mechanical reminder  - bending the knees, instead of folding from the waist, when need to.

Not only is Joshua having to deal with the pain but he also has to give up his passion: racing. Apart from the physical pain, weight gain has become a serious issue - He could hardly fit into the race car seat. It is not uncommon for people in pain to gain weight. In contrary to common belief that pain killers are the culprit for weight gain, the gain is attributable to inactivity, as it hurts to move. This weight gain can also be abrupt and extreme due to high levels of stress hormone.

When Joshua goes to his regular physiotherapy he notices surprisingly high number of young patients in the clinic. Isn’t back pain happens only to old people? I still remember hearing old people complaining about back pain caused by their “old bones”. So how do these young patients get “old bone” at such young age?

One of the obvious factors come from the sedentary nature of modern life and work, which subjects us to sitting long hours in chairs; be it at work, school, or at home.  Apparently sitting in chairs limits the range of motion in the hips. For yogis, this means it takes longer time for you to be comfortable in Padmasana. For the householders, this transpires into low back pain. Scientific research has shown people most susceptible to low back pain have the least range of motion in the hips. This is true regardless we are fitter than average or committed couch potatoes.

You may want to get off that chair you are sitting on now and sit on the floor as you continue to read my next article on how I fixed my own low back pain in just three days.