Back pain is becoming as well known as the common cold and the likelihood is that most of us will experience it at some point in our lives.

Let’s face it, our day to day lives are becoming much busier and stress filled but we never stop to think about what affect this has on our backs. How many of us have found ourselves hunched over a desk or computer for two weeks, battling a deadline? Or helping a friend by carrying a box to their car? Even swinging a golf club a little too enthusiastically can aggravate your back. The bad news is that our lifestyles are one of the main culprits of chronic back pain. The good news is we can prevent it, but it does take work. These tips can help you prevent back pain and reduce your risk for future back problems.

Strengthen Your Core

Back pain can have many causes. Some causes include deterioration or rupture of a disc, muscle spasms, and tense muscles. To reduce your risk for these problems, strengthen your abdominal and back muscles. Do about 15 minutes of exercises a day that focus on this area. You can try back-friendly yoga poses, Pilates, and sit-ups. Any of these help support and stabilize the spine.

Maintain Good Posture

Regularly slouching at your desk or leaning to one side when you're watching TV can lead to chronic back pain or pinched back nerves. To protect your spine, remind yourself to sit up straight at your desk with your feet on the floor. Likewise, don't twist when you're watching TV. Your torso shouldn't be going in one direction and your feet and legs in another. Sit in a firm, comfortable chair with adequate lumbar support. Position the TV so you don't have to lean forward to see it.

Watch Your Diet

Convenience food in our current busy lifestyles means that we all find ourselves carrying around a little extra weight—especially around the middle— this puts added stress on your back. Try and maintain a healthy weight and do what you can to shed a few pounds.

Sleep

Sleep is an essential nutrient for our bodies and when your body is allowed to rest in its natural position, muscles are relaxed and sleep is more refreshing. Make sure that your sleeping position is comfortable and that your mattress supports your back.

Seek Professional Therapy 

If an injury or back pain occurs take measures to prevent or lessen most back pain episodes by seeking professional therapy. By having access to appropriate treatment for acute back pain at an early stage, recovery is expected within 6 weeks, whereasneglecting pain or an injured area contributes to chronic pain, weakness or recurrence of injury.

Protect Your Back

Nobody knows what’s around the corner and what health challenges we will face in the future but it’s always nice to know we are protected. Private Medical Insurance can be expensive but a health cash plan is an inexpensive way of getting health cover. Paycare offer health cash plans that allow you to claim back the costs of treatments such as seeing a physiotherapist or chiropractor if a future back problem was to happen. 

Nothing is more frustrating than having to payout on costly medical bills when issues such as back problems arise. What if we told you that you can claim this money back and seeking professional therapy no longer had to be expensive? A typical Paycare Plan protects you against the costs of dental, optical chiropody, specialist consultations, professional therapies, hospital cases and much more.  A Paycare plan is designed for you to use on a day to day basis and not like other insurance products you can only use in emergencies. If you would like to protect yourself against the cost of everyday health problems visit www.paycare.org or call 01902 252265 to find out more.