Take Breaks from Smartphone Use Every 20 Minutes. Smartphones have become ubiquitous, and people seem to be interacting with their electronic devices at every opportunity. In this study, researchers asked participants to sit and use their smartphones for varying lengths of time while they measured the muscle activity in their neck and shoulders, as well…

Pelvic Girdle Pain Can Persist Up to a Decade After Giving Birth! A ten-year follow up with 370 women who experienced pelvic girdle pain (PGP) during pregnancy revealed that 10% still suffered from the condition. Further analysis revealed that women with a history of low back pain prior to pregnancy had a 2.28 times greater…

Short Leg Associated with Lumbar Disk Herniation. A new study investigated the role of leg length discrepancy and the occurrence of lumbar disk herniation. It has long been theorized that inequality in leg length may lead to abnormal transmission of load across the vertebral endplates and degeneration lumbar spine and the disk space. The study…

Manipulation Better Than Injection for Disk-Related Neck Pain. Investigators compared the outcomes (overall improvement, pain reduction, and treatment costs) of over one hundred patients with a symptomatic cervical disk herniation who were either treated with spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) or imaging-guided cervical nerve root injection blocks (CNRI). The results show improvement in 86% of the…

Back Pain & Pregnancy. Brazilian researchers report that back pain affects about two-thirds (68%) of women either during or following a pregnancy, with the greatest risk during the second trimester. Additionally, they found symptoms often worsened at night for 71% of the women in their study, and one in four developed back pain from prolonged…

Neck Trauma Linked to Jaw Pain! In this study, researchers followed up with individuals who had been seen in an emergency room for neck pain resulting from a car accident and found they were up to six times more likely to report jaw pain than their peers who had no history of neck trauma. This…

Manual Therapies Reduce Pain & Disability. A recent study investigated both the short- and long-term benefits of manual therapy in the treatment of neck and back pain. Participants age 18 to 65 received twelve weeks of treatment that included spinal manipulation, spinal mobilization, stretching, and/or massage. At the conclusion of treatment, 64% reported improvement in…

Behavior & Low Back Pain. Low back pain is a prevalent musculoskeletal disorder that can significantly affect individuals, business, and society. Identifying behavior-related factors that contribute to low back pain may help in the prevention and reduction of this potentially disabling condition. Based on data from the 2009-2012 National Health Interview Survey, investigators found links…

Trigger Points & Women with Migraines. A trigger point is a hyperirritable spot in the tissue surrounding a muscle that many people commonly refer to as a “knot.” In this study, researchers examined the head, neck, and shoulder regions of 143 women with either episodic or chronic migraines and found they each had an average…

Physical Activity May Reduce Risk of Sciatica. According to a new meta analysis, leisure-time physical activity may reduce the risk of developing lumbar radicular pain, or sciatica. Researchers reviewed data from 18 published studies that included over 100,000 participants and found those who exercised at least one to three times per week were about 7%…