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So what is it now, you medical
experts?
We need to learn how to sit?
Oh, puhleeze. We've been doing
it all our lives. For many, sitting for eight hours straight
is pivotal to the job, not to mention that post-work leisure
time plopped on the La-Z-Boy watching TV or playing video
games. Oh, occasionally we'll get up to go sit in our cars in
order to sit in restaurants and eat.
You'd think, therefore, we'd
have this sitting thing down by now, that we'd be no slouches
when it comes to taking a load off.
Right?
Not so.
Turns out, we literally are
slouches. Doctors, chiropractors and ergonomics experts, who
make a nice living off our backs, say poor posture while
sitting is something of an epidemic.
Eighty percent of Americans
will cringe with back pain at some point in their lives, and
back injuries prove the top reason for missed work, according
to the National Institutes of Health.
This is something San Francisco
chiropractor Gregg Carb, for one, just won't stand for.
Carb has written a self-
published book, "The Science of Sitting Made Easy"
(Posture Press, $14.95, 176 pages), to address the problem.
Boiled to its essence, Carb's message is the same as Mom
hectored you with for years: Sit up straight, will ya?
Our spines are strong and
resilient, Carb says, but not impervious to the deleterious
effects of slouching, craned necks, twisted trunks.
"When you hold any body
position for long periods of time, your spine is gradually
reshaped into that very position through an adaptation of the
connective soft tissues," Carb says.
"Everyone has their own
style of sitting, so to speak. But no one's immune to gravity
and, therefore, you will experience (back pain) as a
result."
This is not some breakthrough
discovery, back experts concede. But, just as a dentist
reminds people to floss, a spinal specialist will preach
posture and body alignment, especially when we're on our
duffs.
"It's a huge issue,"
says Dr. George D. Picetti III, spine surgeon at the Sutter
Neuroscience Medical Group in Sacramento, Calif. "Sitting
is very hard on the spine, mostly in the lumbar (lower back)
region. The longer you sit, the more you compress the discs.
Throughout the day, the water content of each disc declines.
You're very vulnerable to lifting or something like
that."
Years of improper sitting can
lead to disc degeneration, which is permanent. But, Carb says,
mobility and comfort can be restored through rigid adherence
to, well, sitting rigidly.
"You will get some actual
form changes over time if you improve your posture," Carb
says. "It's almost like having braces (on your teeth).
But we've found we can loosen people up in a matter of
weeks."
What not to do while sitting:
Roll your shoulders inward, jut your head forward, round out
your lower back, sink your chest.
What to do to avoid those bad
habits: Set your seat back to a nearly upright position and
sit as far back into the seatback as you can, keeping your rib
cage and trunk upright and your head aligned directly above
your shoulders.
Picetti recommends lumbar
support — usually a molded foam pad — to promote the
natural forward arch of the lower back, called lordosis. The
support should be placed around the belt line, "but some
people have more swayback, so you've got to fit yourself for
it."
The other option is to spring
for a high-end, ergonomically designed office chair, such as
the Herman Miller Embody at $1,600. Picetti, though, says he
just uses "a regular chair with a lumbar support."
Paying close attention to your
breathing — deep breaths that expand the rib cage — is
another key, Carb says.
"Patients are always
worried about their head and shoulders being in the wrong
position," Carb says. "But if you keep your rib cage
up, the other parts will follow. That's how to do it without
overwhelming yourself doing too many things at once."
Indeed, trying to remember to
keep proper alignment and breathing while concentrating on
work tasks — or gaining another level on the hand-held video
game — is hard but not impossible.
The only proven alternative,
says Scottish researcher Dr. Waseem Amir Bashir, is to go into
full La-Z-Boy recline on the job. Bashir's study at a hospital
in Aberdeen, Scotland, compared magnetic resonance imaging
results of people reclining vs. sitting upright. It showed
reclining puts less strain on lumbar disc than does sitting up
straight.
"The study is
correct," Picetti says. "But how are you going to
work reclining without craning your neck forward?"
Two other alternatives are
sitting on a Swiss exercise ball in lieu of a chair, or
standing at a specially aligned chest-level desk. Neither is
practical, Carb says.
"I wouldn't want to stand
all the time, because there's the issue of blood pooling in
the lower extremities," Carb says. "If you do it,
you need to shift your weight around, get some contraction in
the muscles."
Picetti says the exercise ball
is beneficial only if you're an athlete with a strong core
muscle group and that "the average person is going to end
up with more back pain."
No, the only upright thing to
do is sit down and straighten up, just like Mom scolded.
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