Mechanical causes of back pain
We come back to the same question that we asked in the previous chapter – why do we
humans alone suffer so much from back pain as compared to all other animals. Back
pain is extremely common in today's society. In fact, back pain is one of the most
common reasons why people seek medical care.
The increasing incidence of back pain, particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries is
undoubtedly related to our sedentary lifestyle. As we have evolved socially from farming
societies to our current technological status, the demands placed on the human body
have changed. When humans had to be physically active to earn a livelihood such as
farming or hunting, back pain was virtually unheard of. Till the time that we, the human
race, were hunters or farmers and on our feet most of the time, this arrangement of
bony blocks for the backbone was fine. This is because the physical activity of hunting or
farming involves usage of the muscles and connecting tissues (ligaments and tendons)
around the spine thereby strengthening them to provide support to the spinal column.
Even today, farmers and those engaged in physical work are less affected by back pain
than urban blue-collared executives. Physical activity strengthens the muscles and
ligaments of the spine. The day we decided to spend our lives sitting down and stopped
using these muscles, we have created nothing but problems for our spines and ourselves.
A fixed posture such as bending forwards while sitting stresses the spinal joints, discs,
ligaments and as time passes, the body reacts to this stress resulting in loss of joint
mobility, degenerative changes in the joints and intervertebral discs.
In people who sit hunched in front of computer and TV screens for long hours, the
paraspinal muscles weaken due to disuse. Ligaments and tendons are similarly affected.
Disuse leads to wasting of muscle tissues. Disuse and wasting of the paraspinal, buttock
and back muscles is also seen in the case of taxi and truck drivers and desk jobbers like
accountants and clerks, call centre and data entry employees, check out staff in
supermarkets, accountants, software engineers and just about everyone in the IT
industry. WOW!! That’s half or more of the entire working human population!