“I have a back” was one of the standard complaints of Hape Kerkeling’s mustachioed fictional character Horst Schlämmer. Everyone gets backs at some point. And actually, we all know what you should do to avoid lumbago or herniated discs: bend your knees when lifting heavy objects. sit less. Hold straight to prevent muscular imbalances. Some counter such advice by pointing out that the back, like the knees, is a design weakness. The body is only designed to last about 40 years, then it inevitably begins to fall apart. So everything is genetic.
For such back pain lateral thinkers, there is now news from the Stone Age: According to a study by New York University Neanderthal fossils confirm that today’s back pain is self-inflicted. It was long thought that the curvature of the lower spine in Neanderthals differed from that in post-industrial humans. In fact, anthropologist Scott Williams has found that he simply had a healthy spine, which was no different from that of pre-industrial Homo sapiens. This means that the “modern” curvature of the spine that can be found everywhere today is simply due to the vertebrae and intervertebral discs becoming wedged in the last 200 years. And we owe this wedging, one suspects, to reduced physical activity, poor posture when sitting on furniture that is too soft and atrophied back tissue.
From now on, the only correct answer to “I have a back” is: “Be watt more Neanderthal!”
Read more good news here.