Tips for a healthy back – Part 1
(Hi, I'm Dr.
Joe 'BackCrack' Cipriano, a chiropractic physician in Greenville, SC. All of
the people you see in my videos are real, actual patients. My y-strap
decompression adjustments get the results people have been searching for. I'm
here to help! For appointments and other information, please visit my website, www.DrJoeBackCrack.com, and
to watch my crack-tastic videos, please visit www.YouTube.com/DrJoeBackCrack.)
I love seeing
and helping my patients. I’m sure most caring doctors feel the same way. Similarly,
I’m also quite confident that most will tell you this: The less often we have
to see you, the happier we are (if it’s for the right reasons, of course) –
that means you’re doing okay on your own, and don’t need much help from us. But
how can you do this? In my field, specifically, how can you take good care of
your back so you don’t need to see me very often? So I don’t have to give you more
intense cracks for more serious problems? I’ve got lots of great
tips for you, but I know the attention of an online surfer is short, so I’m
going to limit the tips to just three today, and maybe we’ll circle back for
some more another time. Here’s what we’ll cover today, then: First, even though
I don’t want you to see me often, if it can be helped, I would like you
to get an assessment from a chiropractor at the first sign of back problems, no
matter how small. Second, I’m going to suggest that you focus on your posture.
And finally, I’ll provide some links to some helpful back stretches and
exercises.
So, let’s start
at the beginning – when you first feel just a little bit of back
pain. Trust me on this: Don’t wait until it gets worse. The earlier we can help
you, the less often we’ll need to down the road, and this is surely the case
will any medical ailment. If you’re anywhere near me (and you can find our office address right here on my
website), then please, book something ASAP through our
online booking form. If you’re nowhere near me, and can’t make the trip, I
have several affiliated
chiropractors linked on my website who would also be happy to help you. And
finally, if you’re nowhere near me or any of my associates, I always
default to Yelp. Reviews on Yelp are usually
a good indicator for quality and patient satisfaction, but beware fake
reviews. (When I use Yelp for anything, I’ll usually check to see how many
reviews each reviewer has posted; if they’ve only posted one, and it’s just for
the business I’m looking at, I get skeptical. But if they have hundreds of
credible-looking reviews, I take them more seriously.)
Second, and
even before you have any back pain at all, focus on your posture! Truly,
not enough people do this. If you’re at a desk job, please take frequent breaks
and walk around. Five minutes can go a long way towards good back health
– that one email can wait. Also, make sure your computer monitor is at the
right height, so you don’t need to slouch to do your work. Ideally, the top of
your screen should be right around your eye level, and the distance between
your eyes and the screen should be about an arm’s length. It might also be wise
to consider a wearable posture corrector. Some of my patients have reported
great success with this
one, available on Amazon, but obviously, you don’t want to wear this thing
24/7 – be sure to follow the instructions closely.
Speaking of
instructions, I’ve also found a few really good instructional videos to help
with your back health…First, yoga is unbelievably good for your
back, so here’s a really
great video for beginners. The more flexibility and strength you have, the
fewer problems you are generally going to experience, but do ensure in advance
that you’re healthy enough to do yoga before you try it. Same thing with the McKenzie Approach in this
video – make sure you’re healthy enough to try it. And, if you are, trust
me, it is going to make a world of difference for you.
Exercise, good
posture, and early problem detection from a professional – it’s not rocket
science, right? You have the tools you need, don’t you? Might as well use ‘em,
so you don’t need some more
serious back-cracking down the road! And with that, I’ll bid you farewell
for now, and I’ll hope to see you at my office soon, but – if you follow the
tips in this post – not very often at all.