Upper back pain can be just as debilitating and painful as lower back pain and although it isn’t as common, it can be equally as troubling for the sufferer. There are a whole host of reasons as to why someone might suffer from upper back pain and anyone at any time could be affected.
A combination of lifestyle habits and external factors can contribute to causing someone to feel upper back pain, but whatever the cause, the pain can have an impact on every part of a person’s life. Dealing with upper back pain can be difficult as many medical professionals prefer to encourage natural healing methods over surgical or medicinal interventions.
With back pain of any kind, prevention is much better than the cure and so an understanding of what might cause upper back pain is important so that it might be avoided. Here are 8 of the most probable causes for upper back pain.
1. Poor Posture
Poor posture is one of the most common causes of upper back pain. The frustrating thing about posture is that it seems so simple but that it is actually a very complex issue.
Poor posture does not even necessarily mean extreme slouching or sitting at a desk all day, it can also refer to subtle shifts in weight that a person might incorporate into their stance or stride which can have a huge knock-on effect. Slouching and sitting incorrectly are the most common offenders when it comes to causing upper back pain through poor posture.
We have become a very sedentary species with a shift to office-based jobs where people spend great portions of their day sitting down. This means that the body is not ready to stand and weight bear because the muscles have been deconditioned or even conditioned but in the wrong way. It is important to stand and sit up straight!