Chest Size and Back Pain
As a massage therapist I occasionally get the question from not only women but also from men does chest size contribute to low back pain? The truth is that in my opinion chest size does affect low back pain when you look at it in terms of the #kineticchain. So for a brief moment let me explain what the kinetic chain is and also why my belief is that it does contribute to low back pain.
Most of the time I get the question from individuals who have a large bust size and half for most of their life or have recently gotten a breast implants of a substantial size compared to what they did have. This could be cosmetic or reconstructive or part of a gender reassignment surgery series there could be a number of reasons why this question comes up. Sometimes it comes from husbands who are concerned about their wives chronic back pain and not wanting to upset their spouse asking impartial third-party they believe might have an opinion on the subject worth listening to in either regard here is where I stepped in on the subject. The kinetic chain consists of six major join groups. These joint groups provide points of leverage and strength throughout the body but more importantly these joints I have a major role in movement in three dimensions. A prime example of why the kinetic chain is important when you look at somebody who's walking many people believe that walking comes from the legs when in reality walking comes from the spine. Our spine and hips moving a very specific way in order to create the action of walking but we rely on our major joints to amplify the original affect that the spine makes in order to allow us to actually walk.
One of the 20th century's greatest minds on functional #movement was a woman named #IdaRalph. In her time she was considered an outcast and over opinionated woman who wanted to be in the field of #medicine but not be a #nurse. She wanted to help people and when faced with the overwhelming sexism of the time moved away from the East Coast and moved to the Midwest where she found a more receptive audience or willing to listen to her and study her theories and human movement. The information she helped produce is the foundation of much of modern medicine's way of looking at human movement. It is part of her study where I gather as significant amount of my modern education in #massagetherapy and human movement.
With all this being said what does her philosophy and modern technology tell us about excessively large breast tissue and low back pain? The answer is pretty simple you're adding a significant amount of weight and leverage to the top half of the body the low back and glutes have to create the opposing force so that it prevents us from falling over this could be well walking or even while sitting down. If there's an excessive amount of weight on one part of the body the opposite and lower part has to make up for it by creating stronger muscle restrain to overpower the weight distribution problem. This can be true going up the body or down from higher parts of the body. In general I told people that the modern way that we deal with this is through the use of underwire bras which are supposed to provide additional support and provide an opposing force going across the back higher up on the kinetic chain that should lessen the pressure on the low back and #glutes. Now in some circumstances this can only do so much good and therefore considering a breast reduction should be something you talk about with an orthopedist and a surgeon prior to taking anyone else's advice. But I have seen it throughout my years of massage therapy that when you reduce breast tissue size if it excessive compared to the persons frame it can significantly reduce pain in the lower back and tightness in the group muscles. An interesting point of fact is that for men a lot of times making their #abdominalmuscles stronger actually helps a significant amount of low back pain. So if somebody has a breast reduction it is not uncommon for a physical therapist after surgery to suggest working the #abdominal muscles and strengthening them significantly in order to give the low back and #glutes the ability to recover and loosen.
If you were considering #breastreductionsurgery or know someone who is my recommendation is always to look at the current state of your spine and pelvis. Amount of pain or deterioration could be a result of several different factors. Do you want to make sure you were a lot more serious problems first. Once those tests have been completed then it's time to have a conversation with a doctor or surgeon or both in order to state your intentions and what you'd like to do. A significant case can be made to many insurance company said it's cheaper to provide #breastreductionsurgery and years of spinal surgeries injections. As always with insurance be persistent and be aggressive.