Prehistoric man weighs in on back pain
Hmm…let’s see if we understand this correctly. For years, chronic back pain has perplexed doctors and patients alike. Yet a recently published study claims that Neanderthals suggest the reasons why. Really?
How could an early type of hominid that lived on planet earth between 200,000 to 30,000 years ago provide back pain insight in the 21st century?
Researchers assert that even with evolution, spines have remained the same until the death of Queen Victoria. To be clear, her death isn’t the cause of nearly 65 million Americans who annually report a recent episode of back pain, or that back pain is the sixth most costly condition in the United States. It’s just the time period when doctors began identifying back pain during the post-industrial era.
Comparing Neanderthal backbones with today’s version points to what most people don’t want to hear—that less physical activity combined with bad posture, from sitting on chairs and other furniture, add up to the majority of back pain suffering. While bones don’t tell the whole story because the soft tissue in the low back curvature cannot be studied, researchers generally agree that back pain is the result of today’s sedentary postures with more wedging (compression) compared to pre-industrial and Neanderthal predecessors. So, is it time to stand up and stretch?