Industry news
Back pain linked to nutrient flow
Posted Tue, 09 Aug 2011
A study has revealed that a lack of nutrients flowing to disc cells could lead to back damage.
Experts from Barcelona's Institute for Bioengineering found that bending, heavy lifting and twisting can disturb the balance of nutrients which could spark the onset of degenerative disease.
According to previous research, around 80% of active people will suffer from lower back pain at some point, but there had not been any conclusive study into why normal, healthy discs degenerate.
The Spanish experts used computer models of the human disc to look at the causes of stress in the lower back and published their findings in PLoS Computational Biology.
They changed cell density and disc height and made degenerative changes to the model discs in order to see what changes they would cause.