Is Back Pain Evolutionary?
Should we blame our back pain on the evolution of the human form? Do we have back pain because we were really designed to walk on all fours (or at least use all of our limbs like apes) and some tweak in the evolutionary cycle converted us to upright beings thereby squishing our discs? A doctor from Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California seems to think so.
Dr. Aaron Filler, a spine specialist, has come to the conclusion that a shift in the structure of the spine, based on fossil evidence of a ape-like creature called Morotopithecus, allowed humans to walk and carry objects. This then created the perfect environment for back pain.
Great. So, now we can blame our aching backs on evolution. It's not our fault that we sit on our butts most of the day, lead exceptionally stressful lives, skip breakfast, rarely workout, and pop pain erasers as soon as we feel anything uncomfortable. Nah...it's the way we evolved. That's why we hurt.
Well, someone needs to let Nigerian and Filipino farmers know because they have four times less back pain than the citizens of wealthier countries. And the reason? Well, most farmers are active, don't sit around, use their bones, muscles, discs, and work out their stress.
If you want your back to hurt less, move. You may need help figuring out how to move, how much to move, how often to move, but the answer for most back pain will not be found in the fossilized remains of a questionable evolutionary link. The answer is to move.
