Skip to main content

Back pain & cervical cases have surged during lockdown : Dr Ravi Garg


Chandigarh: With people being confined to their homes during the lockdown period and the concept of ‘work from home’ gaining prominence, people in tricity have been spending long hours in front of computer, laptop & smartphone screens. The prolonged hours in one position has been instrumental in the surge of back & cervical related cases, shared Dr. Ravi Garg, a seasoned brain & spine surgeon at JP Hospital.  

According to Dr. Ravi Garg, “Back pain, particularly lower back pain is the most common form of pain. Chronic back pain is a leading cause of disability worldwide and one of the most common reasons for people of working age to drop out of the workforce. Earlier these health problems used to be seen in over forty years old patients but now the issue is being witnessed in even less than 30-year-olds."

He said that about 70-80% of the population experiences back pain at some point of their life. Most of the time the cause of pain is mechanical which means it is because of strain on muscles. But some other causes may be slip disc, lumbar spondylosis, lordosis, spondylolisthesis, spinal stenosis etc.

Dr. Garg highlighted, “Back pain may be localised to back only or there may be associated with radiating pain in one or both the legs. Usually, if the pain is mechanical it settles by itself and can occur in intervals, which is not worrisome. But there are some symptoms like radiating pain in one or both the legs, weakness, tingling or numbness urinary or stool retention etc, which should be taken seriously & a doctor should be consulted. Most of the time back pain and radiating pain get better with conservative treatment. But if in patients even after trial of conservative treatment intractable pain persists, in some of such cases surgery is a good option. ”

Bursting the myths of back pain, Dr. Garg debunked the notion that wearing a spinal belt and using pain killers can bring to end back pain problems.

He underlined, “Wearing spinal belts for a prolonged period may weaken the spinal muscles and should be avoided in the long term. And if some people think that painkillers are the only treatment they are wrong. Painkillers are advisable for short duration for acute pain but its prolonged usage may lead to side effects like gastritis, ulcers etc.”

So what is the prescription? Dr Garg’s advice is a prevention strategy to start with. He suggests that one should avoid long sittings in the same posture in front of computer screens. Adds Dr Garg, “Taking a break in intervals or walking for a minute in the middle of work is a good practice. Children should abandon the bad habit of reading, whilst sitting on bed. And while reading or doing work one should always make sure that his or her neck does not bend too much.”  

Sums up Dr Garg, “Do regular exercises and maintain body weight because over weight also increases the pressure on the lower back.”

 


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Little Zac Thomas makes his special place at India Book of Record

  Zac Tenny Thomas has set the record of fastest skip counting done by a child. Zac is currently four years and ten months old. He has performed skip counting from the number 2 to 100 in just 3 minutes and 41 seconds. The talented young child originally belongs to Kottayam, Kerala but currently he is based in London , UK . In math, skip counting can be defined as the method of counting forward by numbers other than 1. To skip count, we keep adding the same number each time to the previous number. Proud and joyous parents of the young boy said, “Zac has always been fascinated by numbers and picked up skip counting on his own by watching TV videos like Number blocks. Honestly, we were quite amazed by the way he picked up skip counting without any actual training. When he started doing it from numbers 1 to 15, we then encouraged him to go further.”    The amount of time required by Zac to learn and practice skip counting was not much. With a zest to learn the child was...

Glaucoma cure: Revolutionary medical intervention introduced by Dr Varun Baweja first time in India

Roopnagar :  A major stride has been made in the field of ophthalmology - the medical specialty dealing with diseases of the eyes. Dr Varun Baweja, an ophthalmic surgeon from Punjab has introduced a revolutionary iStent technique to cure Glaucoma in the eyes, similar to cardiovascular stents. Dr Varun Baweja, a pioneer in the eye stent technique, is the first eye surgeon of India to get a certification from England for carrying out the iStent inject surgery. This eye surgery is used to treat Glaucoma disease, commonly known as ‘Kala Motia’.   "The best thing about this path breaking surgery is that the patients get the same medical intervention sitting in India which normally is available abroad at a heavy  cost," said Dr Baweja, a Consultant Ophthalmologist at the Baweja Multispeciality Hospital in Punjab's Roopnagar, near Chandigarh. It is pertinent to state that Dr Varun got his poster published in the American Academy of Ophthalmology Journal in 2009 and has pe...

Award winning expert Acharya Manish promotes Ayurveda across India

Award winning Ayurveda expert and motivational speaker - Acharya Manish, has initiated a social campaign to counter the spread of COVID 19. Acharya Manish uses age-old therapies of Ayurveda to promote the 5000 - years - old vedic science. It is noteworthy that Acharya Manish has founded ‘Shuddhi Ayurveda’ an Ayurvedic Clinic and Research Centre at Zirakpur, which already has presence across India through 105 clinics which are helping patients adopt Ayurveda to counter all types of diseases. To fight against COVID 19 an intense research conducted by Ayurvedic doctors under the guidance of Acharya Manish was done and an immunity boosting pack – ‘Shuddhi Herbal Immunity Package’ was made. Using this pack and specialised anti COVID medications Acharya Manish started an initiative to help needy people, who were not able to afford expensive medicines, against the Coronavirus. A helpline number   8273183731  was established, where calls from across the country were and ar...