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throw a strain on one side of the body. These are enjoyable, but you
do need to have an awareness of your ability and be wary of injury.
Golf involves walking and striking a ball around a course, striking
the ball anywhere between 72 (many courses have a par of 72) and
110 times. For most of these shots you will actually have to strike the
stationary ball hard. This means that you have to perform a swing
which will result in you repeating an action which will judder your
BENEFIT FROM MOVEMENT AND EXERCISE 85
spine many times in the course of a round. Many people who play
golf have back problems from this one-sided hitting. That does not
mean that you should avoid it; just be careful. Have lessons from
a professional, but avoid repeated striking on a golf range. You are
better playing on a course, walking between shots, rather than
standing still and striking a hundred balls.
Racket sports such as tennis, squash and badminton all demand
fast movements, rapid changes of posture and twisting. This, coupled
with one-sided hitting, make them sports to be careful with, as it is
easy to strain the back while playing these sports.
Pitch and contact sports
Sports such as football, hockey and rugby are all potentially hazardous
for anyone with a back problem. Rugby is a contact sport and is not
suitable for anyone with a back problem. Football is also a game to
avoid for people with a back problem, because of the rapid twisting,
stretching and kicking. Hockey is not a contact sport, but it combines
the movements of football with one-sided hitting.
All combat sports are not good for the back.
Competitiveness
It is natural that people like to give their all when they play sport. To
be competitive, to play to win, are for many people at the very heart
of sports. The problem is that in order to win, you have to try harder
and that may mean straining that bit more, twisting further than
you mean to, and so on. It is not easy to pace yourself in competitive
sports, and if you are competitive by nature and you have a back
problem then you may be better o considering another sport where
you can a ord to let your competitive urge have free reign without
the unnecessary risk.
86 50 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY...
Before taking up any new sport, it is worth getting advice and having
a tness program worked out with a professional tness coach who
is aware of the limitation you have with your back.
87
Chapter 6
Consider Adapting
Your Lifestyle
If you have a back pain problem which just keeps aring up, you
really ought to examine your lifestyle and consider whether there are
certain things that you do which are contributing to the are-ups.
That is, don t think that the back pain happened just because you
twisted or li ed badly. It could be that there are other things that
contribute to the problem, and that the twisting movement simply
pulls the trigger of a gun that is already primed and loaded ready to
go o .
This chapter is all about reducing your risk and also about
considering some things that you can actively do to help.
31. Stop bad habits
All habits are a form of learned behaviour. We talk about some habits
being good , in that they serve some useful purpose. For example,
brushing your teeth a er a meal and putting on your safety belt as
soon as you get in the car are both good habits to get into. On the
88 50 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY...
other hand, we talk about bad habits when they are aesthetically
unpleasant, hazardous to health or liable to lead to other problems.
Smoking
This is one of the very worst things you can do in health terms. Ever
since Richard Doll and Austin Bradford Hill proved the association
between lung cancer and cigarette smoking in 1950 the evidence
has accumulated of smoking s adverse e ects on all aspects of health.
Back pain is no exception.
A research study from Norway in 1996 studied 6,691 people
between 16 and 66 years of age. There were equal numbers of
males and females. The researchers found that those who smoked
were twice as likely to report pain as those who did not smoke. The
interesting thing is that the smoking history was an independent
factor, meaning that it actually seemed to have an e ect on pain
levels in itself. It is possible that the e ect of smoking is actually
involved in the mechanism of pain perception. It also seems possible
that it magni es the problem, by reducing the body s ability to repair
itself.
If you need help to stop smoking, your GP can arrange help with
a smoking cessation clinic.
Alcohol
Sensible alcohol drinking is OK. That means no more than 21 units
a week for men or 14 units for women, a unit in this sense being a
small glass of wine, a pub measure of spirits or half a pint of beer.
People with chronic back pain o en do drink more than this, but
there is a potential problem. Alcohol is a depressant, not a stimulant.
Its apparent stimulatory e ect a er a small amount comes from
the fact that it reduces the activity of inhibitory neurones in the
nervous system and one s mood may seem to li . That is a relaxing
e ect. When one has more than that, more neurones are inhibited,
CONSIDER ADAPTING YOUR LIFESTYLE 89
a ecting movement, making speech slurred and so on. Even more
can lead to disordered thinking and the disinhibited behaviour of
drunkenness.
Regular heavy drinking will cause the inhibitory neurones that I
mentioned rst to function at a poor level. This is the depressant
e ect of alcohol: as well as a ecting emotions, it can allow pain
signals to be perceived more readily. That is, pain is felt more o en
and more regularly than it would be by somebody who does not
drink heavily.
So, sensible and responsible drinking only is my advice.
Recreational drugs
I refer here to so-called recreational drugs, like cannabis. People
sometimes claim that they get ease from back pain with cannabis.
My view is that this drug is not safe and has been shown to be
positively dangerous to certain people, who may experience anxiety
or even have a psychotic illness precipitated by it. Added to the fact
that they are illegal, I think recreational drugs should certainly be
avoided on health grounds.
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