At least once a day a patient complains that their new found back or neck pain is because they “are getting old”. Â Usually this person happens to be in their forties and is experiencing these symptoms for the first time. If you have been one of these people you know that my response is pretty similar time and time agaon, due to our sitting society:
This pain is less a cause of your age and more an effect of all the sitting that you do. Â In NYC, most people work at office jobs, where they enter in the morning, maybe take a lunch break, and then continue sitting again through the end of their day. Â Often, these long hours sitting are also done with poor ergonomic set ups. Â I encourage everyone to get up at least every 20-30 minutes, a drastic change from their usual 8 hours. I also talk to them about appropriate ergonomic changes to make, and when necessary I visit their office and perform and ergonomic assessment with recommendations.
Recently one patient that I have worked with (and who now has a desk that he can raise to work while standing or sitting) Â sent me this article from the NY TIMES: