Introduction

 

Dear Reader!

Welcome to my post for lordosis.

I will show you here, the main causes for lordosis, as well as, the related symptoms, eventual risks, and the ways the conditions of lordosis could be treated.

Before that I am going to give you a brief description of the lordosis, so that the topic will be easy for you to understand.

Every person’s spine has curves at the neck area, at the upper back area and at the lower back area. These curves’ purpose is to serve as a shock absorber, to maintain the right posture, and allowing flexible body movement.

When the spine develops an excessive inward curvature, usually at the lumbar (lower back) region, the condition is called hyperlordosis or swayback. This sometimes, but rarely, could affect the neck area.

As a result of hyperlordosis the pressure on the spine becomes uneven and creates pain, not just on the spinal column, but also throughout the legs, head and other parts of the body, and to the inner organs, as well.

In few words I will explain for you what are the types of lordosis?

 

Lordosis in the lower back, is also known as an Excessive Lumbar Lordosis, or Hyperlordosis

The hyperlordosis in the lower back – the lumbar area of the spine, is the most common type. This condition can be easily checked by being on your back on a flat surface. While inserting your hand under your back – the area between the buttocks and shoulder blades, there should be no resistance or not having a greater space.

Cervical lordosis

It is defined that your spine in the area of your neck shall have a wide “C” curvature.

The reasons for having cervical hyper-lordosis could be:

• There is an extension of the curve;
• The curvature in neck area is oriented on uneven directions – left, right or far forward;

 

Causes and Reasons

 

There are several factors that can be the causes and reasons for Lumbar Lordosis or/and Cervical Lordosis. Roughly:

 

For cervical lordosis they are:

• Kyphosis – having kyphosis could lead to development of hyper-lordosis in the cervical area of the spine;
• Scoliosis – the same as kyphosis, due to overly extended curvature is progressing the hyper cervical lordosis;
• Obesity – as to any other illness, obesity increasing the weigh unevenly throughout the body and is result for growing of the cervical lordosis;
• Poor posture – this is the most dangerous and most common issue for any other problems in the back, and for cervical lordosis as well;
• Lack of movement and exercises – this makes the spinal muscles weak, thus the spinal-column could not properly be supported and, consequently, is a prerequisite for the spine to lose its proper shape;

 

For lumbar lordosis they are:

• Kyphosis – here the kyphosis causes overall weigh on the upper part of the spine and as a compensation the lordosis increases, and becoming hyper-lordosis;
• Obesity – as well as for cervical lordosis, obesity in many cases could cause hyper-lordosis;
• Lack of movement and exercises – since in the lumbar area there is put a lot of pressure, the ligament between the vertebrae gradually decreases. Additionally, this causes a compression on the nerves and lymph channels;
• Legs length – with uneven legs length the spine is been constantly pulled on one side, and on the same side is increases the compression on vertebrae, which could be the result for their destruction;
• Hips – having uneven hips have causes like uneven legs length;
• Muscles – uneven muscles development unconsciously create uneven pressure on the spine, more specifically, in lumbar area and, so, the lordosis simultaneously growing into hyper-lordosis;
• Pregnancy – during pregnancy the low back muscles get tight, which, in many cases, leads to development of hyper-lordosis;

 

Symptoms and Results

I will cover just some symptoms of lordosis. They are sometimes unnoticeable – there is no pain, just a slightly more apparent curve.

Commonly there could be:

• An extensive curve in cervical area;
• An extensive curve in lumbar area;
• There is a large gap between the lower back and the floor when lying on your back on a hard surface;

In more severe cases the symptoms are:

• Pain and discomfort in the back;
• The pain in the lower back might be transmitted down to the legs;
• Restricted motion of the whole body, due to the tightening of the muscles, mainly in lower back;
• Numbness;
• Inability to control the bladder;

 

Risks and Complications

Having a severe lordosis reflected to the patient’s moving ability. This is usually happens to the patients with lumbar lordosis (in lower back).

Additional risk of lumbar lordosis is a constant back pain.

Believe me this is extremely troublesome.

 

The survey shows some of the major risks caused by the hyper-lordosis, which are:

• Spondylolisthesis: This is a condition of the spine where one of the lower vertebrae slides forward to the bone below;
• Osteoporosis: This is a vertebrae bones’ disease when the one is weakening and could easily by damaged;

 

Diagnosis and Treatment

First of all, for diagnose of lordosis, your doctor will take your medical history. After that will be performed physical examination. Meanwhile, the doctor will ask for the time when the curve of your spine became more noticeable and how it is affecting you.

The next step might include X-ray, or MRI, by which your doctor will identify whether there are some abnormalities and of what kind they are.

For my lordosis I chose MRI, which is considered as a technology that provides more accurate information.

 

Treatment

Treatment of lordosis is closely connected to the seriousness of the curvature of your spine. When the curve has a very light extend from the normal one, there could be applied some kind of exercises or/and physical therapy. In the case of severe unalignment there could be a surgical treatment.

In summary, I will mention some treatments for lordosis:

• With medications
• Using back-braces for lordosis
• Alternative treatment
• Surgery
• With exercises
• Inversion therapy

 

Medications

Medications for lordosis do not differ to those for typical pain relief. They usually prescribed in severe cases or after operation.

What is known, however, is that the medications are not the solution for lordosis.

 

Braces for Lordosis 

The braces for lordosis aiming to reduced the compression between vertebrae.

They also provide stability of the spine, usually in cases with wear spinal muscles.

For your clearer understanding, I’ve found some samples with braces for lumbar and cervical lordosis, from the internet:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chiropractic Treatment

Nowadays, the ancient curing practices become more and more popular.

Therefore, just as information, and, moreover, because I had prefect results from this, I am putting a short extract of Tai-chi method for dealing with lordosis:

“While not really a ‘treatment’, the art of tai chi chuan calls for adjusting the lower back curvature (as well as the rest of the spinal curvatures) through specific re-alignments of the pelvis to the thighs, it’s referred to in shorthand as ‘dropping the tailbone’. The specifics of the structural change are school specific, and are part of the jibengung (body change methods) of these schools. The adjustment is referred to in tai chi chuan literature as ‘when the lowest vertebrae are plumb erect…’^[21]” (source: Wikipedia)

 

Surgery

The surgery of a lower back is focused mainly on pain relieve and restoring the stability on the lumbar part of the spine.

This is usually performing in the following way:

Reduction of decompression, by elimination of the nerve pressure in between the vertebrae in the lumbar area, with tissue removal from this part of the spine.

Whatever how efficient the lower spine surgery could be, extremely dangerous it could also be.

At the slightest unintentional operation error, there will be needed an additional operation. Furthermore, this part of the spine is the supporting part of the entire spinal column. Besides, through this part of the spine passes a large number of nerves of the nervous system, and some of the main lymphatic channels. Therefore, the error might cause partial or total immobilization for an indefinite period of time, or in the worst case to paralysis.

I could not deny surgery as a means for improving human health. Surely operations are a necessity, but, from my view, just for some severe cases.

I feel sorry for people that have to be placed on surgery and then spend all their lives on medical supplements and pain killers, so to keep themselves in quasi-normal health state.

Well, nothing could be done when it is inevitable.

 

Can lordosis be prevented?

I haven’t come across to a defined method for prevention of lordosis. For keeping your posture and spine in healthy condition, there could be used:

• Fitness, without heavy lifting, for strengthening muscles;
• Stretching;
• Yoga;
• Pelatis;
• Daily walking for at least 30 min;
• Avoid sitting for longer than 50minutes; have a 5-minute break, stand up and walk around, talk to someone or take some deep breaths;
• Weight losing will help to reduce the stress on the lumbar or cervical area of the spine;

Another method to prevent lordosis (hyper-lordosis) is using Inversion Therapy.

Compare to all other means, by my reckoning, the Inversion Therapy is the easiest, the laziest and far more effective of all.

 

How Inversion Therapy works for Lordosis

Using inversion therapy increases blood flow, relaxes the spine and other groups of muscles. Jet the spine itself is realigning and, thus, the conditions of lordosis are relieved.

Furthermore, from my personal experience I can say that with constant using of inversion therapy, any signs or issues of lordosis will completely disappear.

 

Here is an example how all that happens:

• While inverting the hips and joints are pulled and any pressure there is removed, and any pain or tightening is released;
• The space between the vertebrae, where because of the pressure, from the gravity or incorrect posture, the intervertebral discs (jelly type material, a.k.a ligament) deformed or disappeared completely, will increase. Eventually, those discs will gradually rejuvenate by themselves;

 

In summary, there is a detailed research of the process:  

“This experiment introduced and described a noninvasive protocol which allowed an objective comparison between two popular inversion sys- tems. An attempt was made to determine their relative effects upon vertebral segment distrac- tion, spinal column configuration, heart rate, blood pressure, and perceived levels of discomfort. Our findings can best be summarized by remembering a few basic ideas:

1) Both inversion systems produced significant increases in L5-S2 distance.

2) Both systems decreased the depth of the thoracic curve while only the Gravity Gym de- creased the depth of the lumbar curve.

3) Both inversion systems decreased the C7- T1 2 distance as a result of changes in the thoracic curve.

4) Segments C7-S2, L1-S2, and L3-L4 were increased in length by the Gravity Gym but not by the Gravity Boots.”

(ref. 01 96-601 1 /86/O7OS-O254$O2.OO/O THE JOURNAL OF ORTHOPAEDIC AND SPORTS PHYSICAL THERAW Copyright 0 1986 by The Orthopaedi and Sports Physlcal Therapy Sections of the Amencan Physical Therapy Assoc~at~on).

From what was found from the research becomes clear that when using inversion therapy, by applying static inversion or/and doing sequenced movements while inverting, lordosis is curing.

 

And, now, let me show you how this could be done by utilizing inversion table for your lordosis:

 

Exercise 1:

• We will start with lying on the table on our back and inverting.
• As long as we are inverted, we relax and stay here for ten full breaths.
• Then return to the starting point.

 Results:

• We do this to open our spine.

 

You can watch the video-1 on the following link:  https://youtu.be/jcJC-IzCoWM 

 

Exercise 2:

Next, we turn and lie on our belly.

• Afterwards we invert.
• When we are completely inverted, we place our elbows on the table, in one line with our shoulders, and stay in this posture – the plank pose.
• We keep the chin to the chest and the look to the nose.
• Stay here for ten full breaths.

Results:

• This helps the spine to stay straight and, on the same time, the head, with its weight, will be pulling off the vertebral column.
• When we performing just plank pose, our spine is lengthening and its muscles are strengthening.

Exercise 3:

• If we feel comfortable, we continue to full cobra pose.
• We, again, keep the chin to the chest and gaze to the nose – this will open our shoulder, our chest and will pull off our entire spinal column.
• Stay on the pose for ten full breaths.

 

Results:

• When we stay here at full cobra pose, the lower back opens and strengthens and our lordosis gradually disappears.

 

You can watch the video-2 by using the following link:  https://youtu.be/H9V17lwTbpg 

 

Exercise 4:

We can now return to the starting position, relax for a while and then continue with full cobra pose.

• Since we are upside down, we do a full cobra pose.
• Again, we keep the chin to the chest and gaze to the nose – this will open the shoulder, the chest and the entire spine will pulled off. Stay on the pose for ten full breaths.

Results:

• With this exercise the lumbar part of our spine opens, strengthens it and our lordosis gradually disappears.

 

You can watch the video-3 following the link: https://youtu.be/2JX22F4yvI0 

 

Note: from second to forth exercises ought to be done, after you have become used to the inversion.

Note: To gain the best results, you will need to be determined and persistent. 

Note: For those of you who don’t feel ready, process slowly and gradually.

Note: To take full advantage of this, try following this sequence, without interruption.

Note: If you need a toiler during the practice – stop, use the toilet, then drink some water (for hydration) and wait 5 – 10 minutes. After that, start from the beginning.

 

The complete sequence of exercises you can find in my youtube channel on the following link: https://youtu.be/j5Bgvh4GmMs

 

What is the difference in performing these exercises on the ground or on the inversion table?

The difference is that when we turn upside down, gravity instead of pulling our body and, respectively, our spine down, it pulls them up. This contributes to the unloading of the spine. Besides, here we put less effort whilst doing the exercises.

 

Disclaimer:

All information provided here is not intended to replace professional medical care. That’s why always follow the instructions of your healthcare professional in prior starting the inversion therapy.

 

NOTE:

• Before involving the child to any inversion practices, it is strongly recommended that you first have a consultation with your child’s doctor to see whether it is suitable for them. Inversion therapy used by people under the age of 14 should be compulsory in the attendance of an adult;
• For the people with vertigo or high blood-pressure must first consult with their medical practitioner;
• Women, who are in their pregnancy, is advised to avoid inverting;
• For women, after pregnancy I would strongly urge them to take the advantage of inversion therapy (from statistics and from women I have talked to, more than 80% of them struggle from lumbar lordosis, years after giving a birth; on top of that, this creates other complications);

 

Conclusion

From what has been covered, it is obvious that the inversion therapy, with its entire means, is the most efficient type of treatment of lordosis, either cervical or lumbar.

With inversion therapy, the patients can grab the opportunities to overcome lordosis, and to strengthen their spinal muscle.

Moreover, it takes, as I know it from my own experience, the least time for recovery from lordosis compared to all other types of treatments.

Even if you don’t suffer form lordosis, you can use inversion therapy as a prevention tool, for eventual development of this kind of disease.

Finally, if you are one of those who have lordosis, know that you will gain a lot of health benefits when using the inversion therapy. It is, further, time-saving, easy to use and the most effective compared to all other therapies.