Make Digestion Your Friend
Have you experienced issues with your back or your spine? Most of us were told at an early age not to slouch, sit up straight and maintain good posture. We know, though, as we get older, that it takes much more than that when it comes to maintaining a healthy spine.
We had the unique opportunity to talk with Hooman Melamed, MD, FAAOS, top Orthopedic Spine Surgeon and Sports Medicine Specialist, about care for the spine. Before getting into what he recommends, it’s worth hearing how he got started in orthopedic spinal issues and disorders. We learned that early on as a teenager, he wanted to be a neurosurgeon. When he attended college at UCLA he found they had no neuroscience degree for undergrad, so he petitioned for a neuroscience major and low and behold, they created it! He also recalls he was falling three weeks behind in physics, and was freaking out one evening sitting the University Research Library, unable to solve a problem. His midterm was coming up and if he bombed it, it would ruin his chance of ever going to medical school. He spent three hours working on that problem, and lucky for anyone who has been under his spinal care, it finally clicked and he solved the problem. The subject of physics didn’t come easy to him, but every problem after that got easier. He started learning about the relationship between biomechanics and physics, which he loved, and eventually took the path of becoming an orthopedic surgeon.
Right away, he let us know that he doesn’t just look at the spine. A lot of what goes on with each of us has to do with our lifestyle. “A real spine surgeon knows when not to operate. You treat the whole body,” Dr. Melamed explains.
Keeping that in mind, here are Dr. Melamed’s tips for taking care of your spine:
-Pay attention to how you sit. Many of us sit at a desk all day. Slouching puts a lot of strain on your spine. Even if you think you’re not slouching, you might be developing Tech Neck. Tech Neck is when you look down. You look down at your phone, your laptop, your ipad, etc. Dr. Melamed told us that he’s seen a lot of younger people in their 20’s who have Tech Neck, and it is something that years ago he didn’t ever see.
-How you position yourself when you sleep is really important. When we go to sleep at night we want our spine to be neutral. That said, it is best to sleep on your back or on your side. Try not to sleep on your stomach, as this causes you to twist in a way that is not good for your spine.
How we sit and how we sleep may seem like minor things, but Dr. Melamed let us know that these two things when done improperly each day create repetitive micro trauma, which is how we ultimately get injured.
-Regular exercise is important, especially as we age. As we get older our body starts losing water and elasticity. He recommends stretching at least three times per week, focusing on your core and trunk stability. This helps to protect your spine, hips and knees. He did let us know, that horseback riding and golfing can be hard for the back. Horseback riding wears out our spine. When we golf, we torque our trunk with a quick movement, that is not healthy for the spine. Sports are good for our body as a whole, as we need to keep moving. A good rule of thumb is to do exercises with our own body weight, or lighter weights, and be sure to do movements that are slow and controlled.
-Nutrition is also important for our health. We should be avoiding inflammatory foods. Your gut health may seem like it doesn’t affect your spine, but again, it’s about the whole body treatment. If you have good gut health, you have a strong immune system. If you have a strong immune system, then you don’t have inflammation. So, when your body gets injured, your body can focus on the compromised area to heal. If you have what he calls “silent systemic inflammation” all over your body, when your body is injured, it doesn’t care about the injured area because it’s to busy fighting other battles in your body.
-High quality supplements help. Along with overall nutrition in avoiding inflammatory foods, Dr. Melamed reminds us that we can still be deficient in certain nutrients. He suggests high quality supplements such as D3 + K2, Fish oil, Vitamin B12, Curcumin, and Zinc.
A few other keys points to all of this, is that if some of these things are a challenge, focus on one thing you can do each week, and take it one step at a time. Keep in mind that everything is connected and helping to care for your whole body will help you in times when you are injured.
Finally, if we learned anything from the way Dr. Melamed’s path to becoming an orthopedic surgeon started, it’s to stay determined in reaching your goals and not give up.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4339077/
https://hartfordhealthcare.org/about-us/news-press/news-detail?articleId=29278&publicid=462
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