Weight loss helps bad backs
12 December 2001
People with back injuries should not lift objects slowly and should never bend to lift far away from the body or lift something off the floor, but they should lose weight if overweight, American researchers have advised.
They found back-injured people had recurring injuries because they avoided using back muscles which hurt, instead using inappropriate muscles such as in their abdomen, sides or other uninjured back muscles even though they were unnecessary for lifting.
This increased the load on their spine which, over time, could lead to more serious injuries such as disc degeneration and surgery.
'Lifting objects slowly, as injured people also tend to do, intensifies the harm, because moving slowly just increases the length of time the spine has to endure those extra forces,' Ohio State University engineering professor William Marras said in Spine (December 1, 2001.)
'People with back pain guard the injured area by using more muscles than they need to. The more muscles they use, the greater the load there is on the spine.'
His study compared lifting activity of 22 uninjured adults to that of 22 people with lower back pain. Those with back injuries inflicted twice as much twisting force on their spine and 1.5 times as much compressive force as uninjured people when lifting the same object.
The injured used many more muscles in the back, creating larger forces on the spine, and on average weighed more. Weight increases force on the spine so losing weight could aid recovery, he said.
Last Reviewed: 12 December 2001
