80 per cent of the global population suffers from back pain at some stage in their lives, write Áine Kerr Engineer has developed self-help approach to easing back ache and improving posture
Back pain is the world's second-most common source of pain, with 80 per cent of the worldwide population estimated to suffer from back pain at some stage in their lives.
Heavy school bags, inadequate office furniture and long-distance driving have contributed to the increasing phenomenon of back pain, a condition which can seriously disrupt work and social activities.
Sitting with poor posture - on uncomfortable classroom furnishings, bending over an office keyboard or slouching on the couch - is a common and inter-generational occurrence which is attributable to more than 75 per cent of back pain, according to Colm Campbell, author of a book on solving back pain and owner of the Back Shop in Dublin.
Having previously worked as an electrical and mechanical engineer, Campbell has worked in the area of back pain for 25 years, all the time approaching its cause and prevention from an engineering point of view. His extensive research and problem-solving followed a decade of "niggling back pain" and a ruptured disc in his lumbar spine.
Campbell declined the option of having an operation based on the realisation that only 2 per cent of back-pain patients undergo surgery. The 80 per cent surgery success rate, as claimed by a professor of medicine specialising in back pain in the United States, failed to instil Campbell with confidence.
Determined to develop a "self-help" philosophy which would not involve a third party, Campbell launched his pain-free living method entitled "Spinal System-Life".
On measuring each individual's spinal curvature to determine the design of their "S" position, Campbell would subsequently manufacture custom-made office and home seats.
"I considered the spine as a vertical, flexible column which is prone to develop a fault. It collapses from an elongated 'S' shape to a forward slumped 'C' in the seated position. A basic engineering principal states that when bending a stiff object, the greater the bend, the greater the stress," he says.
His theory was simple. In the so-called "C" position, in which you sit forward with bad posture, back pain follows. The "S" position, however, provides relief and prevents pain. So with this in mind, Campbell designed and created a lumbar support for his car.
Some 25 years later, his customised seats claim to ease pain in more than 80 per cent of cases, he has attended to an estimated 10,000 customers and has written a book entitled The Engineering Solution to Suffering Back Pain.
The aim of his newly published book is simple, according to Campbell: "To encourage back sufferers to stop handing over the solution to their back pain to a third party, take responsibility for their own problem, concentrate on non-invasive treatment and forget about the quick fix."
Simon Curtis, an osteopath and member of the Irish Osteopathic Association (IOA), agreed that surgery should be viewed as a last resort. He attributed the increasing phenomenon of back problems to the increased amount of time people spend sitting in front of computer screens, where they even eat their lunch.
"People are failing to do enough daily exercise. If they did enough gentle exercises every day instead of sitting down all day, which weakens their back, their back would be much stronger," Curtis says.
Back problems can be divided into two brackets of acute back ache and chronic back ache, according to Frank Dowling, consultant spine surgeon with the Blackrock clinic, Crumlin hospital and Tallaght hospital. Every case of back pain is best treated by exercise because fit and strong people will adapt to the best posture, he says.
"People will often ask about what type of mattress or what type of sofa they should buy. I always say that you should simply buy what is most comfortable," he says.
"Back pain is a Western phenomenon because so many people are unfit. There are increased studies to show that in the Third World people suffer from bad backs but can remedy the pain because they are so mobile and strong."