It hurts and it’s expensive! Whether it’s a pinched lower back, a throbbing sciatic nerve, or an electric shock that radiates down the kidneys, back pain poisons our lives and digs the hole in social security. Six million consultations per year with the general practitioner, fifty thousand people who miss work every day, in total, one person in five suffers from the back, recalls Claudine Proust in The Parisian.
So, to avoid “turning our backs” on the evil of the century, the French Association for the Fight against Rheumatism (Aflar), the France Spondyloarthritis Patient Association and the AbbVie laboratory are launching an information campaign this Friday to combat the idea that suffering is inevitable. Provided, first, to make the correct diagnosis.
Is this lumbago that torments us regularly linked to a bad gesture or an inflammatory problem? “If the pain gets worse on movement, it’s mechanical. If, on the contrary, he relieves himself during the day by moving, there is every chance that it is inflammatory, ”replies Dr. Virginie Pécourneau, rheumatologist, in the daily newspaper.
It is then necessary to avoid entering what specialists call “a vicious circle”. To let back pain linger is to limit your physical activity. And “if you lose muscles, notes the journalist, the joints suffer”.
Because the main enemy remains a sedentary lifestyle, with the famous “car-work-sofa-computer-dodo” regime.
If there are medicines to relieve, the main remedy is us. “The bipedal body of the human being is not made to live seated, its intervertebral discs are not equipped for modern life”, underlines a specialist in The Parisian. Moving is therefore essential, choosing the right postures is essential to lighten your back, as everyday life reminds us: prefer the shower, sit in front of the washing machine, avoid sofas that are too low, have your hands resting on the desk and screen at eye level to work.
And everything will be better!