The Impact of Stress on Lower Back Pain

Quick Intro - My wife and I just had our second child last week! Mom and baby are doing great, in case you were wondering. Since this blog documents my chiropractic journey, I wanted to write a post about the effects of stress on lower back pain.

On my last visit to my chiropractor in Pennington prior to our son arriving, Dr. Pagano explained that when the baby arrives, my stress levels will naturally go up and this can impact my back. It's an exciting time, but also one that brings a lot of extra stress. The lack of sleep isn't going to help matters either! So how did my back respond to the added stress? Pretty good, actually. I wasn't completely without pain, but it held up nicely. Even when I slept in the hospital on a makeshift bed, my back felt pretty good.

When we came home from the hospital, the constant running around started to bother my back. I wanted to spend more time with my daughter also, since this was a big change for her, but that also meant more running around with a three year old! Fun, yes, but I'm not 25 years old anymore! So it was about 5 or 6 days in that my back started to feel a little funky. That said, it hasn't been bad and my stretching has really helped matters. I plan to start exercising again soon, so we'll see how the combination of a second child, more stress, lack of sleep, and working out impact my lower back issues. :-)

Here are some quick tips for those of you with bad lower backs who will be experiencing additional stress:

1. Prep before the stress hits! I knew that the baby would arrive soon, so I upped my exercise program and my stretching. I didn't want to be in a situation where I couldn't work out or stretch properly for a few weeks straight.

2. Limit the stress, if possible. Sounds funny, right? What I mean is stay away from additional drivers of stress, when you know that one area will be bringing most of it. For example, if a certain someone special really bothers you, stay away from them until the stress dies down. Then you can handle their hijinks like you normally would.

3. Even if you are tired, keep an eye on activities or movements that will bother your back. For me in the past, lying a certain way or bending a certain way could throw out my back. I haven't had that issue in a while now, but I was conscious of this during the high stress time. You might be able to catch something before it negatively impacts your back.

In closing, the stress only slightly impacted my bad back, especially since I followed the tips I mentioned above. Above all, stretching and keeping an eye on bad form really seemed to help.

Good luck.

The Patient

The Common Pitfall of Chiropractic Patients - Don't Get Overconfident Says My Chiropractor!

I've been going to a chiropractor now for about 7 weeks and I must say that I feel great! My back is doing well, I'm working out, and I'm able to do things painlessly that once caused a lot of problems. I've been jogging, lifting weights, circuit training, etc. with no major problems. I'm blown away with the results of going to the chiropractor. So at my last visit to Dr. Pagano, I asked "Why do you think I'm doing so well so quickly?? My back feels incredible and I'm only 6 to 7 weeks in!" Dr. Pagano looked at me and said, "You are definitely doing well, but chances are that you'll do something careless as you test your back..." This comment stems from a lot of experience. So I asked him to explain.

Basically, as people start to feel better, they test the limits of their back, neck, or whatever problem they were once facing. Think about it, I'm doing it now. I've been increasing my running over the past few weeks along with weight training, I'm picking up my daughter more, carrying more weight, shoveling snow, etc. I wake up and feel great, but very easily I could wake up and not feel so great... Dr. Pagano knows that I'll do something in the future that doesn't agree with my back, so I shouldn't get overconfident. Good advice and I'll take it!

So for now, things are going extremely well. I'm going for a chiropractic adjustment every other week and will hopefully push that to once a month. That is, until I do something stupid!! :-)

The Patient