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Pledge to Keep Your Spine Healthy with These Tips on World Spine Day

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Published on October 05, 2021. EST READ TIME: 3 minutes

Lower back or spinal pain is one of the leading causes of disability and can make it impossible for you to live the life you want. This World Spine Day, on October 16, you need to sit up and pay attention! This day is also celebrated to encourage authorities to create more spinal care centres. But as they say, prevention is better than cure. Apart from having a Mediclaim policy for emergencies, you need to go that extra mile to keep your spine healthy in the first place. Habits like staying physically active, maintaining proper weight, and quitting smoking can help, for instance. Let’s learn more about these simple healthy tips for a healthy spine.

Tips to Maintain a Healthy Spine

Make exercise an integral part of your lifestyle:

While exercising is mandatory to stay fit, certain targeted exercises help in strengthening the core muscles in your lower back and abdomen. Simple exercises that help in strengthening and stretching the back, hamstrings, and abdominal muscles will reduce pressure on the spine and keep your muscles, joints and ligaments healthy. These exercises will also help in reducing inflammation and speed up the healing process in case you get injured ever. You can consult a fitness or yoga trainer or physiotherapist to get an expert opinion.

Re-evaluate your sitting posture:

Whether you are working from home or an office, if you have a desk job, you are more prone to pain in the lower back. That’s because when you stay seated for a long period, the discs in your lower spine get loaded, which can create or intensify back pain. Maintaining a good posture in a comfortable chair with lumbar support is a must. Also, you should avoid slouching and take short breaks to walk around.

Go for a walk to support the spine:

To reiterate, getting up to stretch your body or walking around the house or office at least once every hour is good for your spine. You can also buy a stand-up desk and work from there intermittently. When you are talking on the phone, it is a good habit to walk instead of sitting on a couch. Remember, the spine requires movement to stay healthy.

Watch out for your sleeping position:

When you go to sleep, your spinal structure gets some much-needed rest after working the whole day. So, to ensure that your spine is in a comfortable position, your mattress and pillows must provide it enough support. The mattress should be firm enough to not allow the spine to sag. You should also adjust the pillow according to your sleeping position to alleviate back strain.For example, back sleepers should place a pillow beneath the knees and side sleepers should place it between the knees.

Pamper yourself with a massage therapy:

A good back massage is not a luxury, but a necessity. It has therapeutic value. It increases blood flow, loosens tight muscles and tissues, and provides a sense of relaxation. If you think visiting a massage therapist is a costly affair, you can buy a massage chair.

Maintain a healthy weight:

The bones, jelly-filled disks that act as cushions between your vertebrae, and the series of nerves that make up your spine, feel extreme pressure when you gain a few kilos. If you are overweight, you are more prone to back pain. So, hitting the gym to shed those extra pounds will help your spine.

Stay hydrated:

You must have heard that staying hydrated is good for your digestion or skin health, but water is also good for your spinal cord. Water supplies adequate nutrients to the spine and improves shock absorption among many other benefits.

Pay attention to any warning signs:

If you are experiencing any pain in the back that refuses to budge, see a doctor. If medical treatment is deemed necessary, make sure you have a Mediclaim policyto protect you financially and help you avail quality healthcare. You need to get a health insurance which gives you an extensive coverage, so that at the time of emergency you don’t need to exhaust your funds. For instance, at HDFC ERGO medical insurance coverage is available from 5 lacs to 1 crore (sum insured) and they offer free preventive health check-up^* as well, among other things and subject to terms and conditions of the policy.

Conclusion

This World Spine Day, try and adopt the healthy habits discussed above to reduce the burden on your spinal cord. Also, ensure that you tell your friends and family members about this so that they don’t suffer from spinal pain. And while prevention is the key, having a Mediclaim policy with adequate cover is vital to deal with medical emergencies.

Disclaimer: The above information is for illustrative purpose only. For more details, please refer to policy wordings and prospectus before concluding the sales.

^*On continuous renewal only.

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