I am always asked whether or not clicking your fingers will give you arthritis. In this short video I will answer this question for you, as well as look at how it relates to clicking your own back or neck.

One of the questions I get asked a lot in the clinic is, “is my back sore because I am overweight?”  It is a hard
question to answer and I usually respond by saying that I see people of all sizes with back pain so it is not the only reason your back is sore, however, being overweight may not help the situation.  In the book The
Physiology of the joints by Kapandji, it says that every extra 1lb of weight a person is carrying equates to 10lb extra pressure on the discs in the lower lumbar spine.  This is quite a big effect and can account for some of the pain an overweight person feels.  This extra pressure on the discs can lead to problems like wear and tear and disc bulges and could also slow down your recovery time.  

Carrying extra weight can also lead to problems with other joints, especially the knees.  The flip side of this, is
that if you lose weight it can have a big effect on the joints. An article published by Harvard Health Publications stated “In one study, the risk of developing osteoarthritis dropped 50% with each 11-pound weight loss among younger obese women. For men who get their body mass index (BMI) down from 30 or higher to between 25 and 29.9, knee osteoarthritis would decrease an estimated 20%. A similar change in women of the same age could cut the incidence of osteoarthritis of the knee by about 30%”. 

Losing weight can help your joints and your recovery, but it can also have a huge effect on the risk of future health problems. We have all heard about the benefits of weight loss for general health reasons.   For example, a 22lb weight loss can reduce the risk of heart attack by 75% and weight loss can help reduce the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes and can help normalise blood pressure etc.  There is tons of information out there about this topic that is very interesting.  I may talk about that more in a future post.

The idea to take from this blog post is that being overweight may not necessarily be causing the back problems you are suffering from but may a contributing factor.  As with any problem, you need to have it assessed to see what the cause is and get it corrected.  Losing weight will help take some pressure off the joints and help protect them, but it will also help improve the overall function of your body.  If you have any questions or have a problem that you would like to have assessed, please contact us, and we can get you started on your road to recovery.


 


 

One of the most common statements I hear when someone comes to see me is, my back has gone out, can you pop/crack it back  in.  This statement leads to my usual response, if your back has gone out, then where did it go?   It is a common misnomer that people have that their backs can “go  out”. Unless you have a significant  injury with a traumatic joint separation and dislocation, it is unlikely that  you back is “out”.  What actually  occurs is that a joint complex has lost its normal motion and is fixed or stuck,  which can then cause pain, irritation to nerves etc.  Chiropractors, call this joint dysfunction a Subluxation.  Rather than 'popping' or 'cracking' it back we chiropractors perform an  adjustment, with the intention of restoring normal motion back to the  joint.  Various techniques that  chiropractors use do create a popping or cracking sound. So what is this popping sound that you hear during a chiropractic adjustment? One thing I can say is that is not “bones cracking”.