Severe back pain and driving!

[shivmarwaha]

hi all
I have been down for 4 wks due to disc prolapse in l4_5 and l5 s1. Bad lower back pain as a result and a complete bed rest. Doc says its because of extensive driving. I have a baleno and drive about 100 km a day. Now i have been off work and would john back soon. Doc says that bucket seats in indian cars are bad as lumber support is nil. Can you suggest mods to the seat to handle this.
Thanks
Shiv

[DCEite]

There is a lower back support cushion(i dont know what exactly its called). Have seen many advertisements of it in magazines. Will let you know as soon as i get exact details.

[ntomer]

Hi shivmarwaha,

I too suffer from intermittent back-pain. Amaron sells 3 types of back-rests - one for car seats, another for regular chairs/sofas and one to be used on beds while sitting. I have been using all three and they help quite a lot. They cost 599, 699 and 799 respectively.
I bought mine from a pharmacy in Shipra mall. And I think they are available on all leading pharmacies.

Cheers

Nitin

[GTO]

Thanks for the tip, ntomer. Will check them out myself since the Vtec seats offer a dismal level of support.

@shivmarwaha : You could also try replacing the front seats with better after-market ones.

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by shivmarwaha

hi all
I have been down for 4 wks due to disc prolapse in l4_5 and l5 s1. Bad lower back pain as a result and a complete bed rest. Doc says its because of extensive driving. I have a baleno and drive about 100 km a day. Now i have been off work and would john back soon. Doc says that bucket seats in indian cars are bad as lumber support is nil. Can you suggest mods to the seat to handle this.
Thanks
Shiv

My sympathies. As one that had to undergo surgery for the same issue, I fully understand your situation.

Get out of low-slung cars, get yourself an SUV or MUV that gives a much more upright stance. If you drive primarily in the city, get an Innova.

Dump the Baleno - fast. It may sound cruel, but your back is more important.

[Venkatesh.C]

Originally Posted by Steeroid

Get out of low-slung cars, get yourself an SUV or MUV that gives a much more upright stance. If you drive primarily in the city, get an Innova.
Dump the Baleno - fast. It may sound cruel, but your back is more important.

yeah. CAnt agree more. There are lots of cars that offer better height and entry exit ergonomics like the tall boy cars (santro,wagonr,estilo) or the taller sedans (sx4, corolla and maybe the city)

[lohithrao]

Originally Posted by GTO

Thanks for the tip, ntomer. Will check them out myself since the Vtec seats offer a dismal level of support.

@shivmarwaha : You could also try replacing the front seats with better after-market ones.

Experienced it myself too, esp back suffers a lot on long drives.

How much replacing the front seats will cost? with a good after market seat?

[thefreak]

I too have had perennial problems with the lower back. Not as bad as you though. My sympathies.

I regularly drive around with a small cushion and it provides decent support. Has considerably lessened the degree of pain that I experience. May take some time getting used to though.

[DCEite]

Why would you say that, Steeroid and VenkateshG. What has a low slung car to do with back support, other than the fact that one has to bend down to get into the car. Isnt this a purely seat problem?

[Steeroid]

Originally Posted by DCEite

Why would you say that, Steeroid and VenkateshG. What has a low slung car to do with back support, other than the fact that one has to bend down to get into the car. Isnt this a purely seat problem?

I think it should've been very apparent, DCEite - in a low slung car you sit with your legs either stretched horizontally or with your knees bent on either side of the steering wheel. Neither of these are optimal seating positions, especially when you spend a bit of time in the car (everyone does, these days - thanks to traffic). The more 'normal' your seating position is, the more comfortable your back is. No amount of additional back support is going to help when your basic posture is bad to start with.

Remember that things like Disc Prolapse are more often than not RSI (Repetitive Stress Injuries) and not Trauma (caused by one incident/accident). Which means that when you stress your discs using the wrong position repeatedly, it ultimately results in injury. These injuries result out of wrong posture over a period of time, even if they ultimately show up on account of one incident of severe trauma.

Maintaining the right posture is of utmost importance if you wish to avoid RSI. Once you've had an incident, you need to take extra care not to aggravate your injury.

I spend long hours on the road in India - hence I bought myself a larger vehicle that helps me sit upright and isolates me from the shocks of bad roads. Here in Dubai I spend a max of an hour a day on the road - half an hour each way, sometimes stretching to an hour and a half. I dont mind using a regular roadcar here, though I must admit the Smart was much more comfortable to drive in than my current car.

I am not an expert in these matters - TBHP member Brainscooper who is a very close friend of mine and was involved in the process that put 17 stitches on my spine should be able to elaborate more on this since he is a well-known neurosurgeon.

[razor4077]

Originally Posted by DCEite

Why would you say that, Steeroid and VenkateshG. What has a low slung car to do with back support, other than the fact that one has to bend down to get into the car. Isnt this a purely seat problem?

I concur. I have a bad back, and will be undergoing surgery in a few months time... so I guess can comment from first-hand experience. The problem is not about the height of the car, but the kind of lumbar support that its seat provides you.
I own a Santro and a Lancer, and have access to quite a few other cars. The Lancer is the lowest, but it's not that bad in terms of lumbar support.
SUV's are not the answer... the Scorpio, for example, left me with a very stiff back after a long drive.

One of the tried and tested methods to keep stiffness and pain at bay is to take frequent breaks and stretch your back and legs, especially on long drives. Support cushions, as suggested by some, also helps.
If someone knows of any more tried and tested products, pls share them with us. Would be really helpful to some of us battered and bruised folks

[S@~+#0$#]

Maybe a dumb question, but I'll ask anyways. Would racing seats like Sparco or Recaro be a solution to these problems? I found them to be more ergonomically designed and hence they offer excellent lumbar support but not sure if they would help.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by shivmarwaha

hi all
I have been down for 4 wks due to disc prolapse in l4_5 and l5 s1. Bad lower back pain as a result and a complete bed rest. Doc says its because of extensive driving. I have a baleno and drive about 100 km a day. Now i have been off work and would john back soon. Doc says that bucket seats in indian cars are bad as lumber support is nil. Can you suggest mods to the seat to handle this.
Thanks
Shiv

Sad to hear that Shiv.
In 2002 I fell down and suffered a prolapse in the same discs(maybe it was slightly lower, don't remember exactly).
I had to completely stop biking, and the doctor forbade me to drive low slung cars.
He said the worse car I could drive is an esteem, and the best car I could drive was the santro.
An indica was also okay if it had power steering. So thats the time I bought an indica.
for around 1 year after the incident I kept on feeling back pain after driving, but it was more to do with my not being diligent with my excersises.
But after following a proper regimen this problem vanished.
Now I am able to drive for hours at a stretch without the lower back pain related to slip disk. Of course there is fatigue but everybody gets that.

Since you have recently recovered, I suggest you try to drive a car where you can sit with back completely straight. The Santro is an excellent car for such a purpose(even better than getz) as the seat is very high and your knees are not folded towards your chest as they would be in cars like Baleno/accent etc.,

Also for the duration of your drives you can wear a belt. I used to do that sometimes, but the doc told me to wear belt only when driving, otherwise I would get dependent on them.

He also advised me to do back relaxing exercises if I feel discomfort.
I presume you spend 1.1.5 hours at stretch in the car. For your immediate need take a very think cusion and put it under yourself. This will raise you slightly and you will not be sitting in the curved position.

Its all about posture. The doctor must have told you "Sit with back straight, no curving forward". you need to follow that while driving, and most low slung cars do not allow you to sit with back straight.

My doc specificely told me that tall people who are not into back exercises or do not have very strong backs and drive low cars like esteem/baleno/accent etc., tend to get back pains and in rare cases slip disk due to driving.

[DCEite]

There was an article sometime back about a new study which concluded that sitting up straight is not good for the back. Infact, a 135 degree angle is better for the back.
Here is an excerpt from that article:


A sweeping study now confirms what ergonomic gurus long have preached: Reclining at a 135-degree angle is better for your back than sitting up straight.

In West Michigan -- ground zero for office-chair production -- designers are glad to hear the rest of the world is catching up. They've been incorporating reclining positions into their creations for years.

"We tell our clients, 'Forget everything your first-grade teacher told you about needing to sit up straight, because it's not the best posture for you,'" said Ken Tameling, seating general manager for Grand Rapids-based Steelcase Inc. "We're big believers in recline postures. ... It's the driving force for design for us."

Ditto for Herman Miller Inc.

"(The study is) proof positive that 135 degrees is the best angle for a healthy back," said Bill Dowell, the Zeeland company's research director and a certified professional ergonomist. "But we've always been a proponent of reclining. All of our chairs recline to at least that angle because we know it's a healthy posture."

Dowell said the study conducted at the University of Alberta Hospital in Canada used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to confirm what previous studies have found: The 135-degree recline relieves back pressure. The finding should not be that surprising, Dowell said, because researchers have found the human body automatically achieves that posture when weightless in space or water.

"It's a natural posture, so intuitively we probably should have known it all along," he said.

OK, but how is it possible to lean back and comfortably reach your computer at the same time?

"Some people out there will tell you it's not practical to recline when you're at a computer. Well, we think that's hogwash," Tameling said.

Workers just need the right kind of chair that allows them to recline without moving away from their work, he said.

Steelcase offers that in its popular Leap and Think chairs. Similar features are in Herman Miller's Aeron and Mirra chairs.

Leaning back may be good for your back, but experts say the best thing for office workers is to get an individual ergonomic review because work stations are unique.

"What you have to do at your desk makes a lot of difference in the way you'd set it up," said Marti Mehari, an occupational therapist and ergonomic specialist at Spectrum Health. "A lot of times people need to listen to their own body. ... If it doesn't feel comfortable, it's not good."

See this:


Source: BBC NEWS | Health | Sitting straight 'bad for backs'

[thefreak]

Now one issue with the correct seating posture while in car is that to get the maximum advantage of the seat belt a person should be sitting as erect as possible.

In the seating posture mentioned above there is a chance of slipping below the belts and getting killed in a crash!