Proper posture while using computer lessens back pain

So what is it now, you medical experts?

Oh, puhleeze. We’ve been doing it all our lives. For many, sitting for eight hours straight is pivotal to the job, not to mention that post-work leisure time plopped on the recliner watching TV or playing video games. Oh, occasionally we’ll get up to go sit in our cars to go sit in restaurants and eat.

You’d think, therefore, we’d have this sitting thing down by now, that we’d be no slouches when it comes to taking a load off.

Right?

Not so.

Turns out, we literally are slouches. Doctors, chiropractors and ergonomics experts, who make a nice living off our backs, say poor posture while sitting is something of an epidemic.

Eighty percent of Americans will cringe with back pain at some point in their lives, and back injuries prove the top reason for missed work, according to data from the National Institutes of Health.

This is something San Francisco chiropractor Gregg Carb, for one, just won’t stand for.

Carb has written a selfpublished book, "The Science of Sitting Made Easy” (Posture Press, $14.95, 176 pages), to address the problem. Boiled to its essence, Carb’s message is the same as Mom hectored you with for years: Sit up straight, will ya?

Our spines are strong and resilient, Carb says, but not impervious to the deleterious effects of slouching, craned necks and twisted trunks.

"When you hold any body position for long periods of time, your spine is gradually reshaped into that very position through an adaptation of the connective soft tissues,” Carb says.

"Everyone has their own style of sitting, so to speak. But no one’s immune to gravity, and therefore you will experience (back pain) as a result.”

This is not some breakthrough discovery, back experts concede. But, just as a dentist reminds people to floss, a spinal specialist will preach posture and body alignment, especially when we’re on our duffs.

"It’s a huge issue,” says Dr. George D. Picetti III, spine surgeon at the Sutter Neuroscience Medical Group in Sacramento, Calif. "Sitting is very hard on the spine, mostly in the lumbar (lower back) region. The longer you sit, the more you compress the discs.

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