Simply Riaz... Simply Myself...

Hi All! Coming back here after a long long time... Actually due to a reason... Wanted to share with you all a recent horrible experience which I had. Especially to friends in the IT world and all those people with jobs requiring them to sit throughout the day...

I sufferred from a slip disc just 2 months ago. For those who dont understand medical lingo, I will try to give you a simple explanation as much as I can...Your spinal cord is supported by many discs (basically bones). One of my discs, the lowest one on my back.. doctors cal it L5.. it got weakened (literally dead) over a period of time. And finally one day, when I tried to bend down and pick something, it just snapped out of its place and got dislocated! The pain was so horrible and I was unable to walk or sit for almost a week! Lying down was the only solace. After the ortho confirmed it as a disc slip, I took daily physio therapy sessions and finally the pain subsided.

Now the reasons on why my disc weakened as heard from the ortho:
1. Long hours of continuous sitting.
2. Wrong posture of sitting.
3. Failure to strengthen abs & back muscles while doing gym workouts, running, jogging, etcNow the most worrying fact according to the ortho is that this problem is very common nowadays among IT professionals and people whose job requires them to sit through the day.

So how to avoid this from happening?
1. Avoid long sitting. Sit no more than 20 mins at a stretch. Take a break. Just stand up, stretch for a couple of seconds and then continue. At longer intervals, take a short walk.
2. Correct ur posture. Your chair also plays an important role. There are many websites that educate you on correct sitting postures.
3. If you are working out at the gym, go for running, jogging, etc, make sure you do some excercises to strengthen your abdomen & back muscles.

Now I have to keep excercising my back and abs daily in order to prevent the slip from happening again. Because once the disc is weak and dead, there is no other alternative :-( If you have any kind of back pain, even if its very light pain, please do not ignore... I would strongly advise you to consult an ortho immediately and take preventive actions ASAP. I used to ignore the back pains that I used to get earlier and now I suffer. I pray to God that He keep us all safe from such pains and give us happiness!