The month of October has been designated Spinal Health Month, making it a great time to focus on what we can do to improve our spinal health.
Move Often
A sedentary lifestyle is extremely detrimental to your health. Regular exercise is beneficial to your health and well-being on so many levels. However, even if you exercise, sitting uninterrupted for hours at a time takes its toll on our body, our spine and other structures. Getting up and moving at least every half an hour can give you as many overall health benefits as regular exercise! However, it’s important to do both.
Strengthen Core Muscles
Keeping your abdominal, back, hip and other spinal stabilizer muscles strong is vitally important for good spinal health. Being sedentary weakens these muscles tremendously. Regular movement and general exercise are not usually enough to strengthen these important muscles. Targeted regular exercises don’t take much time and provide a tremendous return.
Avoid Injury
It seems obvious, but being smart about how you use your body and your spine is one of the easiest things we can do. Use proper mechanics while lifting or doing yard work or housework; set your work station up properly to reduce stress on your neck, shoulders, and spine; avoid high impact or repetitive movements; sleep in a posture which supports your spine; minimize high heels and heavy handbags; don’t sit on your wallet. These are just a few basic recommendations.
Eat a Healthy Diet
Remember the old adage You are what you eat. What we put into our bodies not only fuels us for our day, it is the stuff we are made of. As much as possible, shop the perimeter of the store and eat whole unprocessed foods as the majority of your diet.
Get Checked and Adjusted Regularly
Subluxations cause premature wear and breakdown of the spine. They also alter the function and alignment of the spine and its related structures, making it more work for your body just to go through normal motions. That means you expend more energy just walking and going through your day when you are subluxated.
The more positive things we do for our body and our spine, the less likely we are to get subluxated and the easier it will be for those subluxations to be corrected. So, all of these components work together in your best interest.