What is the reason for lower back pains, and how to prevent them

The main structural cause is the habitual sitting in a bad position and the increasingly passive sedentary lifestyle with up to 10 -16 hours of sitting per day. All this starts at the age of two, toddlers play too little outdoors, and even indoors the immobility in front of screens is long lasting. Perhaps the deficiencies of collagen and vitamin D also have an effect.

By far, the most effective treatment and prevention for the onset of lower back deterioration is to change the sitting posture. As a result, the fascia joints start to carry weight again (they carry about 30% of the weight), the pressure on disks diminishes and becomes even, and thus does not expose to prolapses.

Another almost equally important thing is to get the upright back moving, for example, by using the swing mechanism of the seat or walking twice an hour.

It is also possible to sit in a traditional chair in an upright position: at the very front of the chair, with the thighs spread apart and the pelvis tilted forward. This requires good concentration, awareness and learning.

In the human back, at the L5 vertebrae, the blood vessels are weaker than elsewhere, whereby, when immobile, the L5-L4 disk deteriorates more rapidly in the absence of oxygen and nutrients. Lower back movement rejects this, but it is only useful in the upright position.

We can’t change our sedentary lifestyle, but we can easily change our ergonomics.

A two-part, swinging, high-quality saddle chair, quickly adjustable table and elbow pads on the sides of the body make a decisive difference in the health of the lower back.

Such sets cost only a few hundred euros (about € 150 for school furniture). Schools, society and businesses should definitely provide people with that, because sick leaves, diminished productivity because of pain, and expensive and ineffective care are unnecessary, also for the economy.