Introduction

What do school, car rides, studying, cuddling with your dog, and watching The Bachelor all have in common?

Did you say nothing, Mr. Lamb? If so, you’re wrong.

The correct answer is… sitting!

Like most of you, I spend the majority of my days sitting. I sit when I go to school, I sit on the way to and from school, I sit when I eat, I sit when study, and even when I workout whether it be sit-ups or spin class, I sit. In summation, I sit a lot and you all sit a lot too! So why is this bad?

It is kind of obvious but sitting compresses the discs in the spine, creating pain and discomfort. (We’ve all been there.) Twisting in your chair and circling your neck are good solutions to help relieve the pain in the short-term, but unfortunately these exercises won’t be enough to maintain a healthy spine in the long run. Over time, the discs that cushion the vertebrae in your spine will  (most likely) degenerate. This condition is known as Degenerative Disc Disease. The compressed disc causes persistent nerve pain otherwise known as radiculopathy. Sometimes this nerve pain can radiate down your arms and legs and this is called radiculitis. The moral of the story is that sitting has bad consequences if you don’t modify your lifestyle. In some cases this disease is associated with the normal process of aging. Either way, you are at risk!

Degenerative Disc Disease cannot be treated, but radiculopathy and radiculitis can be treated by a Minimally Invasive Transforaminal Lumbar Interbody Fusion (MIS TLIF). While MIS TLIF is known to have many short-term, postoperative benefits, the long-term effects of MIS TLIF, specifically on lordosis, are largely unknown among the neurological community. (Don’t worry. I will be writing another blog post delineating what all this medical jargon means and why the preservation of lordosis is important for long-term spine health.) My research will be looking to see if MIS TLIF has a positive, negative, or neutral effect on lordosis by comparing patient preoperative and postoperative spinal parameter measurements.

My external advisor for my project is Dr. Jeffrey J. Larson, M.D., a neurosurgeon in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and my internal advisor is my fabulous Statistics teacher, Chris Lamb. I will be interning at CDA Spine in March. Click here to visit the website.

Lastly, I hope to incorporate some Yoga poses that will help relieve your spine into my weekly posts. Might as well be proactive right?

No matter how boring my research may sound, it applies to all of you! So, I suggest you join me on my journey and pay close attention:)

Until next time,

Hannah