If you have back pain it can take over your life. It’s difficult to work, exercise, interact with your family or do daily functions like shopping or taking your kids to school. At Total Chiropractic Care and Wellness, we see people coping with back pain every day and we know that our patients are always looking for relief. We help them in a variety of ways including chiropractic techniques and other services such as spinal decompression.
Total Chiropractic Care and Wellness Can Help Treat Back Pain
Total Chiropractic can very likely help you with these treatments, but we’re always on the lookout for new research and advances in the area of back treatment. So we were fascinated by an unusual new treatment option that researchers hope will help people with back pain in the coming year. Researchers believe that a special type of underwear may help bring relief to back pain sufferers.
Back Pain Underwear and Super Powers
The special underwear is the brainchild of engineers at Vanderbilt University. If you’re thinking “tighty whities” or something you’d find at the lingerie section of your favorite department store, think again. This underwear looks more like a superhero outfit.
Karl Zelik, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the school, told USA Today that he started thinking about a solution to back pain when he began feeling pain while picking up his young son.
“I’m sick of Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne being the only ones with performance-boosting super-suits. We, the masses, want our own,” Zelik said. “The difference is that I’m not fighting crime. I’m fighting the odds that I’ll strain my back this week trying to lift my 2-year-old.”
The researchers began creating the super-suit and they came up with a device that activates elastic bands which relieve stress on back muscles when you do physical activities like lifting children.
How the Smart Underwear Works
According to Smithsonian Magazine, the underwear, often dubbed “smart underwear” is made of a vest and shorts which resemble bicycle pants. The vest and shorts are connected by straps that cross from the shoulder to the shorts. The device has a tiny motor located in the vest when the motor is off the elastic moves with your body, but when it’s switched on, the device prevents the elastic from stretching. If you’re bending over the rubber-like material that’s attached to the thigh area tightens. This takes pressure off your back muscles.
“It’s a bit like compression garments, but specially designed to transfer force to your legs in a way that won’t slip or give you a wedgie,” Zelik told the magazine. A prototype was tested on 8 patients who lifted various weights while leaning at different angles. The researchers said the underwear reduced tension on the back by 15 to 45 percent. Zelik says he hopes to be able to put his underwear on the market within five years.
Total Chiropractic Will Design Your Pain Management Plan
At Total Chiropractic Care and Wellness, we wish the researchers luck in finding new ways to treat back pain. We’ve helped people of all types deal with their back or neck pain and we can help you. All of our patients receive individual treatment and care and we can design a plan for you. Contact us today.
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