Bid adieu to back pain

The In camera committee recently held a talk on Safeguards against Back & Joint Problems by Dr. Rumi Fardun Beramji of Beramji’s Hospital on 14th December 2016. The function which was graciously hosted by Rotaryanne Divyaa & Mayank Kummar also saw Dr. Beramji distributing an illustrated booklet on spinal exercises and a CD on how to avoid backache to all Rtns. at a subsequent weekly meeting.

Dr. Beramji is one of the few qualified allopathic doctors who not only believes in alternative and holistic forms of healing but has actually completely given up his allopathy practise to focus on acupuncture.

Dr. Beramji who is an MD in Acupuncture relies on a host of alternative therapies to help patients get relief without the use of pain relief drugs which have their own side effects or expensive surgery. “Backache is the most common ailment in the world today. 80% of human beings sometime or the other will suffer from backache,” said Dr. Beramji. He explained how the changing occupations have given a shot in the arm to this ailment which didn’t even figure in the top 20 in India, 50 years ago. “Backache as an ailment has growing and today is the second ranked problem in the country thanks to change in lifestyle due to white collar work,” said Dr. Beramji.

Today even school kids want motorised transport to traverse half a kilometre whereas earlier distances of 3-4 kilometres were considered proximate enough to walk to,” said Dr. Beramji. He also said that the growing use of tablets and mobile phones have contributed to the higher frequency of backache problems especially amongst those under the age of 30 years. “We will have more patients than Drs available to treat them at this rate turning us into a country of young old people,” he added. The amount of slip disc cases have gone up because youngsters who are ready to work out in the gym are not being guided to invest time in flexibility training techniques such as Yoga.

Backaches, according to him are either physiological or pathological. Half of all physiological cases (manmade) are the result of bad posture or lack of proper exercise. Doing wrong exercise is worse than no exercise. Similarly getting prosperous around the waist too is damaging for the spine as is stress.

Every pregnant woman at some time or the other too experiences back pain due to the effects of carrying the weight of the baby in the womb. “Pregnant women need healthy food not fat laden rubbish food that causes a bulge and messes up their spine,” said Dr. Beramji. Post pregnancy too a proper diet and exercise regimen is needed to restore one’s body structure.

Pathological causes of backache include things such as congenital birth defects, vitamin deficiency leading to rickets or osteoporosis especially amongst women, or TB of the spine, injuries to muscle or ligaments.

Some tips that Dr. Beramji gave:

1) When you sit on a chair make sure your buttocks are touching the back of the chair.

2) Don’t bend down when lifting an object from the ground. Instead put a knee down and you can balance better and get up more comfortably.

3) Don’t use soft pillows into which your head sinks. Use a firm pillow made of cotton or foam which will give proper support to your neck. Don’t use synthetic pillows as these cause cervical slip discs.

4) When exercising ensure that your muscles for the front of the body and the back and right as well as left side of the body are exercised in such a way that all develop equally to maintain balance in the body.

5) The best mattress is to put a blanket on the floor and go to sleep. If not make a 3 inch cotton mattress with box pleats. Don’t go in for memory foam or a spring mattress. Lower down in terms of desirability is a 3 inch high density coir mattress with 1 inch 50 density hard foam.

6) Since husband and wife’s weight are often different, it’s a good idea to exchange the mattresses either one is sleeping on, weekly to ensure proper balance is maintained.

7) Calcium and Vitamin D intake has to be balanced in the right proportion so as to ensure that you neither have a situation of a leaking bucket neither do you end up with a problem of gallstones or kidney stones.

8) Fit a rod in your bedroom and give yourself a good stretch by hanging from it as often as you can.