A healthy back and spine, of course, are vital to your well-being. The spine protects the spinal cord, which transmits signals back and forth between the brain and the body’s other parts. But you have to be careful with all the body’s joints and protect them to maintain a good quality of life. Here are some tips to keep in mind during routine daily activity:

Keep your weight under control. Every excess pound you carry puts unnecessary strain on joints, including hips, knees and ankles. Excess weight also puts strain on your feet.

A recent study examined whether chiropractic spinal manipulation could lead to an increased risk of cauda equina syndrome (CES), a rare but serious condition affecting the bundle of spinal nerve roots in the lower back that requires emergency surgery. This retrospective study analyzed medical record data for over 130,000 adult patients from academic medical centers who received either chiropractic spinal manipulation or physical therapy evaluation for low back pain in the United States.

In a study published in Nature Mental Health, scientists have found that individuals suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) may face a higher high risk of brain aging.

CMP is a leading cause of disability, affecting more than 40% of the world’s population and impacting patients’ cognitive function. Although the exact mechanism is not fully understood, thus hampering prevention and treatment efforts, research indicates that inflammatory markers associated with brain aging are higher in CMP patients, suggesting a link between brain aging and CMP.

A new study has found that adults initially receiving chiropractic spinal manipulation for newly diagnosed radicular low back pain (sciatica) were significantly less likely to be prescribed Tramadol over the following year compared to those receiving usual medical care.

Tramadol is a synthetic opioid that has been increasingly prescribed for low back pain in the United States (U.S.) over the past decade. While Tramadol has a lower potency compared to other prescription opioids, it still carries risks of persistent use and adverse events.

While the design of our electronic devices has progressed over time to be more user friendly, many of us are still spending long stretches of our days working at a desk with a computer. Setting the work station up properly and maintaining good posture while we’re at it can go a long way toward eliminating the musculoskeletal aches and pains that can come from such work. here are some tips to bear in mind:

You don’t have to be an adult to experience the ill effects of a sedentary lifestyle. Kids sitting for hours in front of computers, televisions or hand-held devices are setting themselves up for problems later in life. Not only has childhood obesity reached epidemic proportion in the U.S., Chiropractors are seeing an increase in the number of children suffering from neck and back problems.

Your hips, which bear considerable weight, can become painful as a result of injury or disease. They can also suffer from stress brought on by the improper alignment of other parts of the body. The hip joint, like the body’s other joints, is a point at which tendons, muscles and bones come together to allow particular movement. As with the other joints, the hips are susceptible to pain and discomfort.

Frequent musculoskeletal pain is linked with an increased risk of exiting work and retiring earlier, according to a new study from the University of Portsmouth. The paper found the association between musculoskeletal pain and retiring earlier persisted even after accounting for working conditions, job satisfaction and gender. The researchers found that people with musculoskeletal pain complaints tended to retire earlier compared to pain-free participants.

Low back pain is a major cause of disability around the globe, with more than 570 million people affected.

A systematic review and meta-analysis, conducted by an international team of researchers, included 95 studies with the goal of understanding the clinical course of low back pain.

For people with new back pain, pain and mobility problems lessened significantly in the first 6 weeks, but then recovery slowed. Many people with persistent low back pain (more than 12 weeks) continue to have moderate-to-high levels of pain and disability.

Your back and spine are made up of a complex latticework of bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments and nerves that are critical to the functioning of your entire body. The spinal cord, after all, the highway on which signals travel back and forth between the brain and the other parts of the body, runs down the middle of the back.

Chiropractors may be best known for the procedure of spinal adjustment, but they have a variety of techniques at their disposal. one of them is massage therapy, an effective way to ease pain and loosen stiff muscles. Getting a massage is not just a way to pamper oneself at the spa. And there are different types of massage.

Many of us spend a good portion of our workdays sitting at a desk. Too much sitting, of course, is not good for anyone. We are not meant to be sedentary creatures. And recent research has concluded that it’s important for anyone who needs to sit for extended periods of time to get up and walk around at least once every hour.

With support from the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institute of Health, Gregory Hicks recently led a clinical trial with researchers at UD, Duke University and the University of Pittsburgh to test new ways of treating chronic low back pain in adults 60 to 85 years old. The study, called the Manual Therapy and Strengthening the Hip (MASH) Trial, is believed by the research team to be the first clinical trial to assess the efficacy of an intervention matched to an at-risk subgroup of older adults with chronic low back pain and coexisting hip pain and muscle weakness.

While your college student is home on break, you might want to have a discussion with her or him about the benefits of chiropractic treatment during the school year. After all, chiropractic treatment is not just for older adults with back problems. It’s beneficial for all people and college students are among those poised for benefit.

It’s not a comfort, of course, to know that millions of Americans are afflicted with lower back pain. Just know that if you are one of them, you’re not alone. As common as the problem is, there are steps you can take to minimize your exposure to the problem. Here are a few that are recommended by the American Chiropractic Association:

Exercise is generally beneficial for you, but there are right and wrong ways to go about it. You certainly don’t want to injure yourself while doing something that’s meant to benefit you. Here are a few things to consider:

The spine is divided into three areas: the cervical spine, which is, essentially, the neck; the thoracic spine, which is the upper back, and the lumbar spine, which is the lower back. The spinal cord runs through the individual vertebra — the bones that make up the spine — and nerves emanate between those bones to the various parts of the body, carrying signals from and to the brain.

A car accident or other serious trauma, like a fall, are likely causes of back pain. But the pain can develop from a variety of sources that are not quite so obvious. Here are a few of the conditions that can play a role in creating back pain:

Spinal stenosis: a narrowing of the space around the spinal cord. It’s a condition often caused by arthritis. In the narrowed chamber, pressure can build on the spinal cord.

The burden of spinal pain can be aggravated by the hazards of opioid analgesics, which are still widely prescribed for spinal pain despite evidence-based clinical guidelines that identify non-pharmacological therapies as the preferred first-line approach. Previous studies have found that chiropractic care is associated with decreased use of opioids, but have not focused on older Medicare beneficiaries, a vulnerable population with high rates of co-morbidity and polypharmacy.

“Chiropractic care and physical therapy are among the best options we have for treating low back pain, and can help reduce reliance on treating pain with opioids and other pain medications,” said Eric J. Roseen, DC, PHD, Director of the Program for Integrative Medicine and Health Disparities at Boston Medical Center. “Guidelines released during the study period went from recommending these approaches as second line treatment, after other treatments fail, to first line treatment to be used before traditional pain medications.