Recreational sport against chronic back pain

Janine Fritsch is a qualified biologist and medical editor in the team. As a lecturer in a specialist medical publisher, she initially designed, edited and wrote patient guides. In 2001 she switched from traditional book-making to what was then a new world of online editorial offices and helped set up a health portal.

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One hour of exercise once or twice a week helps prevent pain in the lumbar vertebrae. Those who do more achieve an even better effect.

For a long time people relied on protection against back pain - without much success. Today the opposite view is taken: exercise is good, even if it hurts. Bed rest is even explicitly advised against in the therapy recommendations of the guidelines of specialist societies.

Rahman Shiri and his team of doctors from the Finish Institute of Occupational Health took a closer look at what kind of back pain can really be influenced by regular exercise.

The researchers scoured numerous studies in a comprehensive analysis for suitable data to see whether the amount of exercise in leisure time - this included sport, but also everyday activities such as walking and climbing stairs - had a lasting influence on back pain in the lumbar spine area, the most common form of back pain . The researchers found what they were looking for in 36 studies with a total of over 158,000 participants.

Does not affect occasional back pain

To their surprise, they found that physical activity is not always proven to help: It had no particular influence on lower back complaints if they only occurred occasionally during the last month or during the last six to twelve months.

A lot helps a lot

Chronic and frequent pain conditions that lasted for at least twelve weeks or occurred for more than 30 days within the last year improved significantly: Those who did sports or other physical activity several times a week reduced their risk of chronic complaints in the lumbar vertebrae area. More sport also seems to help more: with light activity the risk decreased by 11 percent, with moderately active people by 14 percent and with highly active people by as much as 16 percent.

A volume of exercise of at least half an hour to one hour once or twice a week was described as slightly physically active, and moderately active when the participants moved one to three times a week for one to three hours. Those who were active more than three to four times a week for two to four hours were classified as highly active.

The authors conclude from the study results that physical activity in leisure time can potentially prevent chronic back pain in both men and women. Why the effect does not occur in occasional painful conditions remains unclear.

The exact effect of movement on complaints of the lumbar spine needs to be investigated in further studies. In addition to physical activity, other factors should also be given greater consideration. Because smoking, body weight or psychosocial factors such as depression, fears and the individual way people deal with pain also play a role in the development of chronic back pain.

Folk ailments of modern people

While back problems were hardly known a hundred years ago, today almost everyone suffers from them from time to time: at least once in their life, statistically speaking, everyone in Germany has back problems. Among the notifications of incapacity for work, they make up around a quarter and are therefore the first cause of sick leave.

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