Each day I remind my patients
about how sitting on their wallet can be adverse to the treatment of aligning
their spine. It isn’t conducive to helping an adjustment hold. Most men
understand when I say “it’s jacking you up on one side and making you
one-sided”. Sometimes plain English conveys the message more effectively than
technical terms.
The
condition is becoming so common that it has even been given its own name -
hip-pocket syndrome or wallet-neuropathy. It isn’t so bad standing with the
wallet in the back pocket, but when you sit while working or watching
television or driving on the wallet day in and day out, it slowly can lead to
low back pain and then transfer further up the spine to cause problems higher
compensatory in nature. Men who sit down with their wallets in their back trouser
pocket risk damaging key nerves. The wallet presses on nerves in the back and
over time can cause sciatica. This can lead to pain or numbness in the lower
leg, ankle or foot. Walking, sitting and lying down can become extremely
painful. Some people can only find relief when they stand still.
The simplest
solution is to simply remove the wallet from the back pocket and put it in the
front pocket or to take it out anytime you sit or drive. Changing one small
habit will amaze you at how much better you back can feel and how much longer
the chiropractic adjustment will hold. Muscles will be less traumatized and the
whole area will be happier therefore your back pain will be improved. It sounds
simple because it is.
With women,
crossing of the legs is something we learn to be proper early on. It almost
comes naturally. Unfortunately it, like sitting on a wallet, causes
misalignments and rotation in the hip/pelvis/sacrum and low back area. I
remember when I was young and had really long hair every time my mother took me
to get it trimmed the hairstylist would say uncross your legs and sit straight
or your cut will be uneven on one side. This is the same mechanism that
contributes to rotations and tilting in the low back. The Sacrum, or tail bone,
is a triangle shaped bone and we sit on the point of it. It’s common to tilt or
teeter one way or another like a seesaw. Crossing of the legs or sitting on one
side of a hip more than the other is something that I see commonly with women
and low back issues. It causes unevenness in the muscles of the low back called
the QL or Quadratus Lumborum muscles. These muscles run along both sides of
your spine and attach to the bottom of the ribs and the top of the hips
basically. Their function is to be a “hip hiker” and bring the hip and the rib
cage closer together. You can see how any tilt of your bottom or pelvis can
cause tightness on one side and a stretching on the other leading to unevenness
and therefore back pain not just in the low back area with crossing of the legs
or anything that leads to unevenness and tilt like sitting on a wallet. Any one
sided activities like: mopping, sweeping, vacuuming, golf, etc. can cause
unevenness in this area of the body and affect the associated muscles. Evening
out work load from left to right side whenever possible is a good idea and
stretching and warming up the muscles before extensive activities of this
manner is also a good idea to combat unevenness.
It is a
difficult habit to break and it causes us to relearn certain behaviors, but
when people stop or reduce the time spent in that position, they are amazed at
how much better their back feels. Incorporating small changes little by little
are easier than saying “I’m not crossing my legs anymore or sitting on my
wallet”. And your wallet is definitely something you don’t want to lose so it
is an important thing to keep on you but just in a different position. I always
joke with patients and tell them this little tidbit of information is bad for
business but good for you. Helping the patient is what my job is all about. Try
this small habit change for a week or two and you will see the difference. Your
chiropractor will probably notice too!
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