BACK PAIN: The human back is a complex matter. Life in general, and driving in particular, puts great strains on it. Susan Jones ponders the issues
Back pain ranks as second only to headaches as the most frequent pain location, according to the Mayo Clinic's website. It can occur for no apparent reason and at any point in your spine, but the most common site for pain is your lower back, because it bears the most weight and stress.
Motorists can and do suffer from back pain, especially if they drive for too long or if they are tensed up.
Even though back pain is rarely life threatening, the annual cost in lost productivity, medical expenses and compensation benefits runs into millions annually. Prevention is possible with simple steps such as exercise and new ways to sit and stand. The back is a balanced network of bones, ligaments, muscles, and nerves, all working together to balance and bear the weight of your body and the loads you carry. The spine has a series of curves - in the neck, upper back and lower back, and these curves help to absorb the impact of day to day living. Several factors may contribute to back pain including poor muscle tone, excess weight - especially around your middle - and improper or heavy lifting.
Colm Campbell, proprietor of The Back Shop in Exchequer Street, Dublin, is an engineer from Dublin with no medical background. About 20 years ago something happened which changed his life. One day he was taken ill with a back pain so severe that he passed out and was rushed to hospital with what was later diagnosed as a ruptured disc.
"I refused an operation," he recalls, "and in great pain, and against medical advice and with my wife assisting me, I left the hospital. I began to research the whole subject of back pain and I discovered that 75 per cent of it is directly attributable to sitting with bad posture."
Campbell experimented with his car seat and, after much trial and error, managed to design one which allowed him three to four hours of pain-free driving.
Soon afterwards he was approached by a health board and asked to design a chair for a mentally handicapped quadriplegic. It was a success and this gave Campbell the inspiration to design and patent a spinal column measuring chair which provided him with the information to tailor office, home, and car seats to provide perfect posture.
The car seat is an extended mould which fits over the original car seat and ensures the perfect driving position for the back. It costs €230.
Sitting in the normal driving position in a regular car seat means that the knees are too far above the hips and this reduces the angle between the spine and thighs.
"Anything below 90 degrees puts tremendous stress on the lower spine and can tweak the sciatic nerve," says Campbell. "This can result in pain which in my own personal experience is far greater than back pain."
While car seats are well engineered with many clever adjustments, he believes that they totally neglect the seat's main function - to support the spine in good posture. "Almost all car seats seem designed to ensure that drivers sit in the incorrect 'C position'. The whole thing is then compounded when using the clutch and brake. Pressing on the pedals transmits large forces up the legs and into the lumbar spine."
The car seat mould he designed at The Back Shop is a tailored back support which straps around the back of the existing car seat and is made using his Spinal Systems method. It converts the average 'C' seat into one that is an 'S' and results in great relief from existing back pain, and greater comfort for all drivers with or without a back complaint.
It can be viewed on the website at www.back-shop.com - the site also contains a lot of general information on back pain and useful links to relevant sites.
"Driving will exacerbate any back problems," says Mr Frank Dowling, orthopaedic specialist with the Blackrock Clinic. "A lot of hype has been talked about the ergonomics of car seat design, but the surprising thing is that car manufacturers found that the more 'scientific' the design the more uncomfortable people found it to be."
Many newer cars are lower, the seats are lower and so the back is in a more bent position, he says. In order to strengthen the back he suggests that people do isometric exercise and generally try to ensure that the trunk and stomach muscles are toned. Dowling also advises that drivers take occasional breaks during a car trip.