Chair Design and Back Pain

There is an epidemic of douleur lombaire in America today. Each and every year about 65 million Americans will suffer from back pain, and about 90% of all Americans will suffer from back pain at some point in their adult lives.

If back pain were a contagious disease, there would be extreme measures being taken to contain it. But back pain isn't contagious. There are two culprits that cause so much of the back pain that Americans suffer. Neither is a little organism like the ones that cause colds or flu.

They are both big and sit right in the living rooms and dens of back pain sufferers all across the land and in front of their desks at work. One culprit is the easy chair, and the other is the office chair.

Most Americans spend a lot of time sitting. We sit at home in front of TV sets or at dinner tables and we sit at work -- or at least many of us do. The design of the chairs that we use so much can either cause us back pain, or they can help to prevent back pain.

Modern men and women need back support. Our ancestors sat on the floor or on the ground. They sometimes reclined against pillows, but they were forced to provide their own support when sitting on the floor or the ground. There was no chair back to provide support for their backs.

Modern Americans, however, rarely sit on the ground or on the floor. They sit in chairs. They sit in chairs at home and they sit in chairs at work and they spend a lot of time doing both. It is imperative that the chairs that they sit in provide the back support that is required to prevent back pain.