An office environment can be hard on our backs. Humans simply weren’t designed to sit in front of a computer every day. Dr Christopher Lynden has seen the results this sedentary life on our spines during his 25 years as a neurologist and chiropractor. He’s a back expert, appearing on US TV as a ‘Sports Doctor’ and carrying out ergonomic evaluations in corporate settings. And if you have back pain, he says that your chair might well be part of the problem… but you could make it part of the solution.

We need to move around the office or stretch at least once an hour

“A supportive chair can help people experiencing back pain, particularly lower back pain,” says Lynden. He explains that up to 85 per cent of us will have significant back pain at some point in their lives. This can become disabling to the point that we cannot attend work if we don’t change the way that we sit pretty quickly.

“A supportive chair can help prevent slouching, which increases the likelihood of back pain,” he says. “It can also support good posture, relieving pain if an injury like a disc herniation or spinal strain is present.”

‘Ergonomic’ is a design which takes the user into account. “Ergonomic chairs keep one sitting upright, usually by inducing an exaggerated lumbar curve,” says the doctor.

He suggests looking for a chair that maintains your lumbar lordosis (inward curvature); this is much better for the spinal discs, supporting ligaments and musculature. It should also swivel so that you can reach all of your desk area easily, move up and down fluidly, and allow your seat to tilt forward slightly.

If you can’t afford a really good chair (which can cost anything from €100-€3,000 and even more for the exclusive brands, Lynden recommends some tricks to help.

“I have patients roll up a towel or use a stiff, small pillow placed in the curve of the low back to accentuate their lumbar curve. They will find this far more comfortable when sitting in the office or driving long distances.”

You can also try a ‘saddle’ or ‘inflatable bubble’, a device which sits on top of your normal chair. The constant, slight movement on the seat helps to keep back muscles strong. Other gadgets include a seat wedge, which helps to tilt you forward slightly (you can improvise with a ring binder stuffed with a jumper), or a Sissel Sitfit which “combines the advantages of the sitting wedge, gym ball and wobble board”. www.backinaction.co.uk stocks a selection of these products.

Lyden says that for those who will sit many hours a day, typically at a computer, using a ‘ball chair’ or ‘kneeling chairs’ can really help, by keeping you upright and employing the postural muscles. Alternatively, sitting on a large exercise ball will keep the lower back from becoming stiff, maintaining flexibility of the discs, while improving spinal joint and muscle functioning.

The chair is only one part of the picture, however.

Lyden says that we need to get off our behinds and walk, move around the office or stretch at least once an hour. So consider your trip to the coffee shop medicinal.

The statistics on the fate of those who sit all day make grim reading. A study at the University of South Carolina suggested that it substantially increases our risk of dying, even when we exercise regularly outside of work. That’s because the largest muscles in our body, such as those in the legs, aren’t working when we are sitting. This slows down our metabolism, meaning an increase in cholesterol, sugar in the blood and body weight.

To try to combat this issue, Standing Desks have gained in popularity. They remain controversial though. Lyden says: “Standing at a desk can be much better than sitting slouched in a chair throughout the day, but standing can be fatiguing and therefore isn’t feasible for most people.”

One solution is to use a desk which easily converts to standing so that you can alternate sitting and standing. Terra by NextDesk is one of the best, but at over €1,000, it’s a bit pricey. Try a cheaper, fixed alternative first before you buy.

If getting a new chair or chair gadget hasn’t helped, Lynden has some advice: “Stretch the spine, slowly and gently, daily. Also, see a good chiropractor, as nothing else has been shown to be nearly as effective, in numerous clinical studies, at relieving the biomechanical problems causing spinal pain. Especially with disc injuries, use of manual traction tables (‘flexion-distraction’) and spinal adjustments can do wonders to relieve pain and actually correct the underlying problems.

“Keeping one’s core muscles strong through regular exercise will also help to prevent many spinal problems. Abdominal exercises and lumbar extension exercises are vital for long-term health and stability of the spine. If one has a disc injury or arthritis in the spine, taking 1,500-2,000 mg each of Glucosamine and MSM can be helpful. These compounds do not alleviate pain directly but glucosamine is a precursor, or building block, for the body’s connective tissue. Therefore it helps you to heal and slowly rebuild that type of tissue.”

His last tip?

“Avoid recommendations for spinal surgery. Many studies on long-term efficacy show it to be a poor option for spinal pain, with dismal long term outcomes. Is surgery needed at times? Of course. But I prevented hundreds of surgeries in my career and sent out only three people to orthopedic surgeons, out of the many thousands I successfully treated. Instead, the orthopedists and fellow neurologists in my area referred their patients to me, for effective conservative measures and therapies.

“Many of those MDs came to me as patients themselves. Ask around to find a conservative practitioner or chiropractor your friends swear by. Chiropractic doctors have a three times higher patient satisfaction rating than anyone else in health care.”

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.