I believe spinal hygiene is underrated with respect to the importance it has on someone’s quality of life. People are often misinformed, don’t understand or simply don’t care about it because they do not feel any immediate pain.
However, to better understand its importance we must ask the question of what spinal hygiene actually is. Spinal hygiene is the maintenance of a spine through either spinal manipulation (restoring joint function) or mobility based spine exercises. These two recommendations will maintain and improve proper muscular tone, joint movement and the flexibility of the spine.
In this short article I will give a brief overview of the spine and why spinal hygiene is important.
The spine is made up of 33 bones that travel from the base of the skull to the pelvis. The spine protects the most important thing in the body which is the spinal cord. The spinal cord begins at the base of the skull and extends all the way down to the low back where it then spreads out into nerve bundles. The spinal cord sends out spinal nerves that exit out of the vertebrae (spine bones) to feed the body in order for the brain to communicate with the rest of the body.
Every thing we do in this world is controlled by our brain, which relays and collects information from the spinal cord. Wouldn’t you say this is vital for health? In that same regard then it would make sense that “armor” that protects the spinal cord should be maintained and taken care of if something goes wrong.
A person’s quality of life is everything. When what they love to do on a daily basis is taken from them from an injury or deterioration of the muscle/joint than it can cause a downward spiral of not just physical stress, but have a significant impact on mental health. A persons self-efficacy and self worth decreases, they may become depressive and/or feel helpless. Maintaining spinal health will significantly make a difference in a person’s life. The problem is people tend to only take charge of their health when something bad happens.
I find people are more compliant with maintaining things that are external. People will always take care of something that is exposed and visible because of the risk of being judged. People are simply unaware what is happening under the skin especially if they are not feeling any pain. The rationale behind this is that no pain, no need to seek treatment. However, this philosophy is why people get into health problems. People often times are doing damage to their spine without any symptoms, but one day wake up and have breath taking spine pain. In order to “avoid the straw that broke the camel’s back” spinal hygiene is important. By taking care of spinal hygiene a person’s muscular tone, joint function and spinal flexibility will be optimal. This will help significantly prevent spine pain from occurring.
This brief article is not to scare people but to educate on the fact that spinal health is one of the most underrated areas of maintenance that needs to be addressed for longevity and improvement of quality of life.
