Back Pain From Truck Driving School Bus or Van

"Man after that long haul my back is killing me!"

Boy we have all heard or said that that before. Here is a quick summary of a study that was done on a truck drivers back pain. You will be surprised by the outcome of the study

Well the bottom line is that those who work trucking jobs and others who drive for a living report more back problems than any one else in any other occupation. The basic scientific theory is that "constant, long-term, whole-body vibration" that can be caused by truck driving type professions accelerates the degeneration and increases the likelihood of spinal disc herniation. This leaves them with a belief that this is the source of lower-back pain and disability.

Here is a summary of the study:

"Researchers compared 45 pairs of identical male twins who had distinctly different driving patterns throughout their lives, in which one twin had spent a lot of time driving occupationally, and the other had not. The amount of spinal disc degeneration each man suffered was determined based on readings from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Twins were studied because in the absence of outside factors that affect spinal degeneration, a set of twins' spines should appear fairly similar at any given point in time."

You may want to read this next part twice...

"Driving time did not appear to affect spinal disc degeneration; men who drove multiple hours daily for many years were no more likely to have significant disc degeneration than their twins who did not. No other spinal disorders appeared more common in professional drivers, either, in this study."

This is great news if your considering going to truck driving school or if you already drive professionally. Basically, "Your spine may not suffer permanent damage from long hours on the road."

These Quotes came from:Reference: Battié MC, Videman T, et al. Occupational driving and lumbar disc degeneration: A case-control study. The Lancet 2002:360(9343), pp. 1369-1374.