Everyday Habits That Are Destroying Your Spine

These Daily Habits Destroy Your Spine

Back problems are very common in the 21st century, usually caused by a sedentary lifestyle and from holding or looking at new gadgets. While many reasons may be the cause of your bad posture and chronic pain, scientists are revealing ones that we bring upon ourselves. For example, your job could be the leading cause of a chronic backache. If you’re not getting enough rest it is also bad for your posture too. Here are some popular habits, which according to scientists, lead to a chronic backache:

1. Smoking

everyday habits that destroy the spine

Smoking is a dangerous habit in itself, but aside from its dangers, it can cause backaches because nicotine disrupts the normal blood flow around the spinal cord.

Researchers found that the condition of the cells in intervertebral disks depends on how stable your day and night cycle is. According to scientists, when our circadian rhythms are disrupted, either due to age, chronic insomnia, and night shifts, these cells start to function badly, leading to chronic inflammation which makes us more susceptible to the development of pain in the lower back and the degeneration of intervertebral disks.

2. A disruption of circadian rhythms

Other studies showed that some natural anti-inflammatory chemical substance in our bodies are produced better throughout the day. To slow down the aging of the spinal cord you should stick to a schedule that doesn’t make you feel like a zombie in the middle of the day.

3. Working while standing

everyday habits that destroy the spine

While sitting too much is harmful, the necessity to stand all the time can be just as harmful to your health. The way you stand can have an impact on the condition of your neck, spine, and shoulders. A bad posture can have terrible consequences when it comes to your spinal cord, causing chronic pain and serious curvatures. In order to stay healthy, our muscles and joints need flexibility and bad posture is one of the first signs that you are doing something wrong.

If your head or shoulders are in the wrong position, it means that you aren’t controlling the upper part of your body well enough. This may lead to curvatures and makes your body have to compensate for the bad posture during movement, leading to even bigger stress on the body. So, to avoid having bad posture, we need to stand, sit and lie in ways that have the least strain on our muscles and ligaments.