Interesting facts on back pain
Lower back pain is widespread throughout the world, both in Western and Eastern cultures. In Western countries, in which more data are available, approximately 80 percent of people will at least one time in their lives suffer a back pain episode so severe as to require bed rest.
Many things could be done to improve this situation. You as an individual should complain whenever you find inappropriate seating in public offices or buildings or in public transit vehicles. If your car’s seats are inadequate, you should complain to your car dealer; better still, look for another car or consider having your car retrofitted with better seats. I was about to write, “When choosing lounge furniture …” but an American friend of mine has advised me that in the U.S. a “lounge” generally is a bar or a women’s rest room. So I will re-phrase. I mean to comment on furniture used for relaxing at home. So I will say that when choosing living room furniture (which nearly always seems designed to cause or perpetuate back problems), you should persist until you find chairs that are properly designed. When you are in a furniture store and find seating that is poorly designed, you should tell management there that this is the case. If you complain either to a car dealer or a furniture store manager, nothing will change instantly. But enough complaints can result in reform.
Few airlines provide seating that adequately supports the lower back. This has serious consequences for some individuals who must fly long distances over a period of many hours.
Office workers should demand seating that provides adequate lumbar support. There are many sophisticated-looking and expensive office and secretarial chairs on the market that provide no lumbar support whatsoever. On the other hand, chairs that provide good support can often be found at moderate prices.
Although poor seating design is a major factor contributing to the development of lower back pain, another, more important factor is becoming increasingly evident. Where once our school physical education instructors were concerned with poor posture in our children and corrected it when they saw it, they now seem more interested in producing the best football team, the highest-scoring basketball player, and the fastest sprinter. Physical education teachers in all parts of the world no longer seem to equip our children with the information that is so necessary if they are to care for their own physical needs during a lifetime on this planet.
Spinal pain of postural origin would not occur if this basic education were given to individuals at an early age. Ask any 12-year-old child if he or she has been shown at school how to stand correctly or how to sit correctly. Chances are that the child will tell you that he or she has never been shown either of these two fundamental postures. Similarly, chances are slim that the child has been told about the harmful consequences that may occur if posture is neglected.
If these matters are of concern to you, you might politely request that your school administration or P.E. teachers make postural physical education a priority. In addition, you might suggest that administrators evaluate school furniture for its effects on posture. Good postural habits must be instilled at an early age.
These are steps that you as a concerned individual can take to help to bring about some of the changes that must occur if society is to grapple sensibly with the enormous problem of back pain. In the United States alone, this problem costs from $50 to $70 billion a year in everything from medical expenses to days lost from work.
