The moment that you feel a painful pop in your back, the worry can be worse than the pain. It hurts now, but it’s also scary, knowing that for the next few days, weeks, or even months is likely going to be punctuated by significant pain. Back issues can have consequences that reach far beyond your spine, and can affect the functionality of your entire body.
Preventing Exercise
One of the most glaring consequences of back pain is reduced mobility. In order to keep your body healthy, regular exercise is extremely important. Because back pain prevents you from being able to move around too much, it can actually stop you from exercising, which can result in further pain throughout your skeletal and musculature system.
Bad Posture
When you feel pain, you will naturally, and unconsciously, adjust how you move and hold yourself to minimize impact on the affected areas. This can cause you to adopt positions and movements that are bad for your spine, and as your posture gets worse and worse, your back problems will compound.
Problems Breathing
Your ribcage, the skeletal structure which surrounds and protects most of your most important internal organs, is directly connected with your spine. Back issues, therefore, can very quickly become ribcage issues. One common consequences of misplaced ribs is trouble breathing, as the out of place ribs literally press and constrict your lungs. If you have restricted breathing for too long, it can even cause brain damage…
Herniated Discs
In between spinal vertebrae are discs, softer tissues which prevent the vertebrae from having direct contact and scraping against each other. A herniated disk is when one of those softer tissue barriers shifts out of place, causing pain and discomfort not only in the spine, but in the extremities as well.
Subluxation
When your vertebrae become separated from each other and are not able to perform as they should, that is known as subluxation. Subluxation is a process; more caused by neglect and disuse than a particular injury, and can have a number of symptoms beyond the spine, dizziness, headaches, balance issues, and even frequent urination.
Many people have an “ignore it and it will go away” approach to pain. While this is a commendable practice when it comes to bruises and scrapes, spinal issues only get worse through neglect. If you have back problems, you should get them checked out by a professional, such as those at the Coastal Spine and Pain Center in Jacksonville, Florida. If you don’t, you might find your back pain translated into problems all throughout your body.
