As a chiropractor in downtown Toronto, I reopened last week following a temporary closure due to COVID-19.
It has been wonderful to see familiar faces (I still see you smiling under that face mask!)!
We often see a lot of chiropractic patients with back pain and neck pain from sitting at an office desk for many hours. What we discovered once we reopened was people's spines had changed quite a bit after staying at home and working in awkward positions at their home.
What we've discovered is many more patients had misaligned pelvis' and low back with swelling that was causing low back pain. We also found the same in the mid back causing mid back pain. Naturally after a couple months of building up patients were looking for relief from their back and neck pain.
Once our patients started to get their chiropractic adjustments they started noticing immediate relief of their neck and back pain.
So why were people so different than before they were forced to work from home despite doing their home stretches and exercises?
Well, there are likely a few reasons why patients were so much worse than before and now having back pain and neck pain.
The first reason is an obvious one, they didn't have any chiropractic care in the last 2.5 months! Without chiropractic care, people in Toronto had to let their spines get worse before they were able to get better again. Regular chiropractic care is essential for maintaining the health of your spine. Without chiropractic care, our spines and our bodies start to get worse and we start to experience low back pain and neck pain.
The second reason why patients at our chiropractic clinic in downtown Toronto is that they were working from home in a bad setup. When you are working at your office, your workplace has likely invested in a decent desk and chair and you often have to ability to have an ergonomic assessment done to see if you are sitting properly. Proper ergonomics allows you to reduce the impact and stress on your spine and lessen the damage done to your neck and back while you sit. If you have to work from home in a poor ergonomic setup, you will increase the amount of damage you are doing on a daily basis.
The third reason is the lack of daily movement. Movement is key, the more you move around and get exercise, the better your body operates and you not only function better, you feel better in the process. Staying indoors for 2.5 months has significantly decreased the amount of activity for most people. As a result, they are sitting more and exercising less. This has resulted in tighter muscles, more swelling and more back and neck pain.
So now that you're having this neck and back pain, what should you do apart from the obvious answer of move more!? Well you should come to see us at our chiropractic clinic in downtown Toronto. We always strive to provide the best chiropractic care in Toronto! It doesn't look like any of us will be returning to our offices in Toronto anytime soon, so you need to see a chiropractor soon. If this is your first time seeing a chiropractor in Toronto, give us a call or send us an email, we would be happy to help you out and start you on the right path to getting your spine healthy again so you can live a pain free life!
