Physiotherapists in Burgess Hill treat many different conditions including the issues profiled below.

Discs and Height

Physical activities change the nature of the intervertebral discs throughout the day and night. The volume and the height of discs can change by up to twenty percent, with a person.s height varying by anything from fifteen to twenty five millimetres. Most of the change in height happens during the first hour after getting up as the body weight loading is applied to the spine. During the night the opposite happens with the disc being unloaded so it sucks in water from the tissue around it until it reaches a balance of pressures on both sides.

This daily cycle of pressure variation changes the water content of the disc regularly and may be part of the explanation as to why back pain sufferers have more pain in the mornings due to the increased tension present in the disc complex. Resting or performing heavy work can cause changes in the hydration of the disc, carrying a twenty kilogram backpack for three hours has been shown to reduce the volume of the discs by 4.5 percent. The amount of water content in the disc does not achieve a specific resting level; it depends on how much loading is going on and for how long.

Good and Bad Lumbar Posture

Good and bad lumbar posture has often been decided on grounds that are not sufficiently scientific and future recommendations need to be based on solid research. Early research on the effects of different spinal postures indicated that maintaining a lumbar lordosis reduced the pressures inside the disc nucleus. This seemed fine until it was realised that these pressures were being transferred to the rear disc walls and the facet joints. As the facet joints are known to be frequent causes of low back pain and the nucleus of the disc is not a source of pain the idea that a lordosis is desirable in all circumstances does not stand up to examination.

Overall having some flexion in the spine is better in static positions whilst a slight lordotic posture is better when walking. Too much flexion interferes with the ability of the muscles of the back to protect the spine, so a moderate position should be taken between too much flexion and too much extension. The benefits of slight flexion are mirrored in the typical habits of people in postures, such as crossing the legs or putting a leg up on something at a bar, both actions which increase the flexion of the lumbar spine.