Dr Phani Kiran S By Express News Service CHENNAI: A sedentary lifestyle has led to an increase in the time spent sitting during work hours, travel and at home. Sitting for a long time every day is injurious to health, with increased risk of diabetes, heart diseases, depression and cancer. An average person with a desk job spends at least eight to 10 hours sitting in a day. Back or neck pain is one of the most common symptoms experienced by them. Prolonged sitting affects the muscles, ligaments, discs and joints of the spine. Inactivity tends to weaken the spinal, abdominal and gluteal muscles, reducing the core strength. Hip flexors and hamstring muscles become shortened and lead to stiffness and thereby increase the strain on the lower back. Dr Phani Kiran S A bad posture, such as slouching forwards or hunching, sliding to the edge of the chair and leaning back too much, bending the neck to look down or up while looking at the computer screen — leads to chronic repetitive overstrain on the trunk muscles and spine. The lumbar discs are subjected to high pressures in a bad posture. This may lead to accelerated degeneration of the discs leading to increased risk of disc prolapse. Prolonged use of mobile phones is usually associated with forward flexion of the neck. This is one of the leading causes of upper back, neck and shoulder pain. Weight gain is an eventual outcome of sedentary lifestyle and it also strains the spine and increases the risk of developing chronic back pain. So, if you spend hours sitting and suffer from chronic back or neck pain, then the following measures will help you get better or prevent spinal pain: Good posture: Maintain good spinal posture while doing daily activities, including household chores, sitting at work, bending and lifting weights and travelling. Choose ergonomic chairs with adequate back support, thigh support, adjustable height and arm rests. Walk or stretch your back muscles often. Exercise: Regular exercises to strengthen the spinal muscles, abdominal muscles and core muscle is extremely important. Those who sit for long hours, women after child birth, and the elderly are likely to have weak core strength that leads to more stress on the spine and the back muscles. Sleep: The spinal muscles are continuously at work. They need adequate rest to recover overnight to be ready for the next day. The discs in the spine lose some water during the day. When we sleep, the discs recover the lost water pressure. If the sleep duration is inadequate, over a period of time, the repetitive stress leads to muscle fatigue. Diet and sunlight: Adequate water intake is essential to prevent dehydration. The function of the discs in the spine depends on its ability to retain enough water in its matrix. Loss of this ability is the first step towards disc degeneration and related problems. A balanced diet rich in calcium and vitamin D is essential for muscle and bone strength. Low vitamin D is associated with increased risk of falls in the elderly. Loss of calcium from bones leads to osteoporosis which in turn leads fractures. Quit smoking: The only factor that is proven to lead to early disc degeneration, apart from genetic composition, is tobacco smoking. The discs in the spine do not have their own blood supply and they depend on the adjacent vertebral body for oxygen, glucose and other essential nutrients. Smoking results in reduced blood supply to the vertebral bodies and this affects the permeation of nutrients into the discs, setting off an acceleration of disc degeneration and related problems. (The writer is a senior consultant spine surgeon, Institute of Advanced Spine Sciences, Gleneagles Global Health City )

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