Even though NeuroMicroSpine is quite a long drive from the infamous Cape Canaveral, Dr. Giovanini is excited to learn about how the spine can change simply by taking away gravity. Kelly may have returned to normal height after returning to Earth, but Dr. Giovanini says that there are more permanent solutions available.
But you cannot compress your spine significantly without injuring. Sometimes when people have herniated disks etc, they do grow shorter… but that is not fun. As you grow older, you grow shorter due to wearing out of the disks.
Yet we can feel its effects every day and experience its cumulative damage on our bodies over a lifetime. No other force affects us so dramatically. What force are we referring to?
Additionally, rotation of the spine can cause facet compression allowing the rims of the facets to bind and lock.22 All twisting or rotational exercises must be considered with caution, as these types of exercises will create high compressive forces on a disc that has lost half of its ability to bear load.
3 inchesThere is less gravity pushing down on the vertebrae, so they can stretch out - up to 7.6 centimeters (3 inches). To some degree, a similar stretching of the spine happens to you every night. When you lie down, gravity isn't pushing down on your vertebrae.
Your Height Changes All Day Long You're tallest when you wake up and you may be as much as one centimeter shorter by the day's end. “The discs in your spine get compressed from being upright all day,” says Todd Sinett, DC, a New York City-based chiropractor and author of The Truth About Back Pain.
From the shape of the spine it is justifiable to assume that the segmental lines of gravity run ventrally to all the other vertebrae also. The result will be that gravity tends to pull the spine forwards, and the muscles that must act to prevent a fall must be the muscles of the back.
Normally, there is a natural curve in a person's spine, but in space there is no gravity pulling down on those bones, so they naturally straighten out. And as the surrounding muscles weaken, the bones may stiffen even more, causing the vertebrae to stack on top of each other and erase that natural curvature.
1/2 inchFor starters, you stretch about 1/2 inch every night while you sleep, and during the day you shrink back down 1/2 inch. Why? Because of “gravity” pulling down all day and smushing your body. Astronauts actually grow up to 2 inches when they float in space!
Your height fluctuates by roughly 0.3 inches from the time you wake up to the time you go to bed due to compression on your spine throughout the day. If you measure yourself in the morning, you'll likely notice that you're slightly taller than you are in the evening.
The spine is very strong. In fact it can handle hundreds of kilograms of pressure. This is a good thing too, because something as simple as lying flat on your back with your knees elevated can put up to 25 pounds of pressure on your spine.
Does halo-gravity traction hurt? Some children have a headache or pain around the pin sites for a day or two after the halo is attached. However, most kids adapt quickly to being in traction. By stretching and lengthening the neck, halo traction often relieves symptoms caused by a spinal deformity.
Chiropractors, and other manual therapy practitioners, may be able to help with cases of sway back posture. By addressing any underlying structural issues, you may be better able to correct poor posture habits.
Spinal Decompression Decompressing, or stretching the spine, can take pressure of the disks and allow them to heal. Decompression may be done through surgical or noninvasive procedures, but changing the way you sleep can also help.
Gravity causes muscles, joints, and bones of the back to compress the spine over time, contributing to chronic back pain.
Astronauts may have no trouble moving heavy objects in the weightlessness of space, but that doesn't mean that the experience isn't hard on their backs. Astronauts on long-duration spaceflights routinely report back pain, both during and after the flight.
In recent years the dangers of sitting to our health has attracted a great deal of attention as researchers have proven there is a link between lack of movement and injury/disease. All this attention has prompted many great improvements in the workplace to overcome the fact we have many jobs that require us to be seated and computer bound.
When we develop back pain we tend to look at the last thing we were doing and blame that for the reason of our pain. Many are aware of the dangers to the spine from lifting things poorly but what is not common knowledge is the damage to our spine and discs from sitting.
Getting a stand up desk would be a great starting point. A standing desk, also called a stand-up desk, is basically a desk that allows you to stand up comfortably while working. Many workplaces are implementing these now as they also see the value to their employees and reducing loss of work time due to back pain.
We know exercise is great for our body and improving our stability and strength is a great way to build resilience to our discs and the back. If you work out with good form and are able to maintain neutral spine in every movement you will be fine.
I hope this article enlightens you to the potential dangers of sitting and gives you some great strategies of how to overcome this and avoid the nasty injuries that result. It is not as simple to tell someone not to sit as there are so many occupations that this is a necessity.
Rotation or twisting of the spine affects the discs and facet joints. Twisting causes the concentric rings of the annulus to slowly separate, or delaminate, allowing circumferential openings for nuclear material to traverse through.4 The load bearing ability of the disc is substantially reduced with twisting, as half of the fibers become disabled due to their oblique orientation. Yet with rotation, there is an increase in lumbar muscle co-activation, resulting in greater spinal compression on the discs that are already weakened in their twisted state. Additionally, rotation of the spine can cause facet compression allowing the rims of the facets to bind and lock.22
Exercise 2: Seated back extension machine and “Roman Chair” exercises both cause excessive compression with repeated flexion/extension, leading to fatigue fracture of the neural arch.
As the spine extends (or bends backwards) the facet joints are loaded, and the interspinous ligament is compressed, both at risk for injury. Perhaps the biggest issue with spine extension is the bending of the neural arch loading the pars interarticularis. The neural arch is slightly flexible and analogous to a paper clip. It will bend back and forth several times before it breaks, but it will break. Not surprisingly, repetitive spine flexion/extension cycles causing bending of the neural arch will result in fatigue fractures, leading to spondylolisthesis- a fracture of the pars interarticularis where one vertebra actually slides forward on another due to the loss of anterior shear support. 20,21
Mechanisms of Injury. Understanding the biomechanics of the spine and injury mechanisms of spinal tissue is important for injury avoidance and improved performance. Functionally, the muscles of the arms and legs and the hips and shoulders are designed to create movement throughout a range of motion.
A fully flexed spine is associated with myoelectric silence in the back extensors, strained posterior passive tissues, and high shear forces on the lumbar spine. 1 Many low back injuries can be prevented by simply avoiding training the spine through its range of motion and avoiding full lumbar flexion.
Submaximal micro trauma of tissue will cause inflammation that can result in a muscle spasm, where the individual will experience a feeling of tightness in the low back. Muscle spasms are born out of the inflammatory process and are a signal of significant tissue damage.
As the spine flexes (bends forward, flattens, or rounds), several tissues are at risk of injury. Muscles provide support for the spine as it begins to flex ; however, as the spine approaches full flexion, the support responsibilities shift away from the muscles and onto the intervertebral discs and ligaments.