One of them is to support the body pright. It is the only rigid column, running from the neck
above down to the hips below and obviously keeps us upright. It also does the jobs of
safely carrying the bundle of nerves known as the spinal cord from the brain to the arms and
legs. The spinal cord carries the nerves, which do the job of moving our hands and legs and
carrying back sensation to the brain by virtue of which we can feel things. The spinal column
also does a job of a shock absorber by virtue of the soft spongy discs placed between the
vertebrae or the back bones. It carries out all these jobs while fully maintaining the ability to
let us bend to pick up an object or to turn around and see if we can safely cross the road, i.e.
it allows us mobility. So it gives us uprightness, mobility, shock absorption and protection to
nerves.
In a way it is comparable to a multi wired, highly flexible and strong, rigid cable. In our case
the spinal cord is the cable. Twenty-four small bones, increasing in size from above down,
are placed in a very precise fashion stacked one over the other. At the bottom of these
twenty-four, we have the sacrum, consisting of five unified back bones and then the coccyx
or the tail bone which is in fact four unified back bones. So in all, the back consists of thirty-
three pieces but actually twenty-six distinct bones. If one looks at the spine from front it
appears to be straight. But if one looks at it from the side it has curvatures. The.neck part or
the cervical spine is convex in fn;:mt, the mid back part or the thoracic part is convex
behind and the lower back or the lumbar spine is convex in front again. The front convex
curvature of the lower back spine creates the socalled small of the back. For the
unawares, the small of the back is the space behind the lower back where a hand can be
placed when sitting on a chair with a further on. What is important is that at all working times
our posture must be such that the natural curvatures of the back are always maintained
especially if the work is prolonged one such as driving or desk jobs or computer work.
Claims of many a height increase programs that one can increase his or her height by
straightening these curves are ill founded, unscientific and misleading.
Each of the bones is connected to the other by three connections or joints like in a tripod and
multiple rubber band like connectors called ligaments. Two of them are small joints like our
finger joints kn.own as facet joints which work like ball bearings. The third and the most
important one is the cushion that is placed between each of the bones known as the
inter-vertebral disc or plainly the disc. The disc is the one that helps to jack up one bone
over the other by it's internal pressure and gives the $hock absorbing ability. It behaves like
a water filled balloon. It can also rupture just as q balloon does and that is what gives rise- to
the commonly known ailment of slipped disc. Improper work postures, overloading of the
disc due to' lifting of unusually heavy weights leads to the rupture. While the rupture itself is a
problem, the bigger problem it causes is by putting pressure on some of the nerves passing
by. It is the pressure over this delicate structure, which causes severe pain or partial or
complete paralysis or loss of function of the affected nerve. Even in a non-ruptured disc,
as years go by, the pressure in the disc/balloon decreases and so does the cushioning
power of the disc. This is known as degeneration, another word for ageing and medically
termed spondylosis. The facet joints described earlier also suffers the wear and tear arthritis.
Each one of us is going to age and so we shall get spondylosis. Of course, not all of us will
necessarily face the ill effects but a majority of us will suffer.
The different segments, the neck, mid back and the low back have different proportions of
functions to perform. The neck mainly has the mobility function, which allows us infinite
abilities. It is therefore more likely to be misused during movements and cause problems
due to excessive movements. The mid back predominantly has load transmission function
and less movement. Hence it fails the least. The lower back has the function of movement i.e.
bending as well as load bearing. Hence it primarily fails and becomes painful when
i9 there is abnormal movement or abnor.mal loading or both, i.e. bending over and lifting a
very heavy load.
The structure of the back would be incomplete without the muscles surrounding it. The
muscles do the job of tent anchors. They hold up the spine with all their strength i.e if they.
are strong enough. The strength of the back muscles is so apparently important in the overall
well being of the person, as we shall see in the forthcoming issues.
It is no wonder then that the back burdened with so many jobs is quite likely to fail at some
point. One would tend to less abuse his or her back if one is aware of it's importance in the
overall well being of the body. A back problem can not only cause us pain but it can also
make us immobile or may also make parts of our hands and legs not work or partly paralytic.
The adage "He/She is the back bone of our organization", is no small credit to anyone. An
organization can collapse without it's back bone and so would our body.
