By: Dr. Sereena Uppal

Holidays can be a pain in the neck if you relax too much.  BC’s Chiropractic Doctors offer a few suggestions for holidays.”  It is common for many people to visit their chiropractor and massage therapists following the holidays with physical complaints that are related to doing too little or too much over the holidays. 

According to the BC Chiropractic Association, here are some back health tips on holiday to make your time off more enjoyable and pain free:

• If you have to drive more than two hours to visit friends and relatives, take a break; get out of your vehicle and stretch. This temporarily restores normal posture, which will help prevent a recurrence of neck or low back conditions.
• When loading your vehicle for the trip, organize your luggage and packages into smaller loads, as opposed to one large suitcase, cardboard box or carrying case.
• Wear your seatbelt. Adjust vehicle headrests so that they are no more than two inches behind the centre of the back of the head. Many of the estimated 20 million car accident victims suffering whiplash injuries in North America could have prevented much of the injury had their vehicle seat headrests been adjusted properly.
• It’s OK to be a couch potato this weekend, but don’t slouch on the sofa and don’t fall asleep on the recliner, as two or three vertebrae in the spine can assume a sharp angle. When you sit up, the normal movement isn’t restored. “We often see people walking into our offices with their heads sideways, because by slouching, the position of the joints irritates the nerves and blood vessels, causing muscle spasm,” says Dr. Nixdorf.
• Avoid bending directly over the oven door to lift out the turkey. Crouch down, pull out the oven shelf, and use your legs for better balance. Avoid putting all the leverage on the lower spine. This helps reduce the sharp leverage on the lower spine.