World Spine Day 2025 is celebrated on October 16. Every year on this day, people around the world learn more about how to take care of their spines. The subject for this year, “Invest in Your Spine,” encourages people to pay more attention to their back and neck, which are the most important parts of the body’s structure.
Dr. Gaurav Batra, a neurosurgeon at Max Super Speciality Hospital in Vaishali who specializes in the brain and spine, told HT Lifestyle that the spine is the body’s framework and allows most movements. Some daily activities, unfortunately, are quietly harming the health of the spine, which can cause chronic back discomfort and even worse problems.
“Back pain builds up slowly and gets worse over time.” Being conscious can help you avoid most tension that comes from your posture, ergonomics, and habits. Dr. Batra noted even small changes in how we sit, walk, and sleep can have a major effect on keeping our spines healthy and pain-free.
These six habits could hurt your spine, along with professional advice on how to fix them:
- Sitting for a long time and having bad posture Sitting for lengthy periods of time with a bent back and bowed neck puts stress on the lower back, weakens muscles, and speeds up the wear of discs.
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- Tip: Sit with support for your lower back, keep screens at eye level, and get up and move around every hour.
- Using your smartphone too much When you bend your neck over and over while using your phone, it puts more strain on your cervical spine, which can cause “tech neck,” neck pain, and stiff shoulders.
- Tip: Keep your phone at eye level with both hands and stretch your neck gently on a regular basis.
- A life of inactivity Not moving around enough weakens the muscles that support the spine and core, which puts more stress on the discs and ligaments and causes long-term low back discomfort.
- Tip: To keep your spine in balance, be sure to stretch, strengthen your core, and walk quickly on a frequent basis.
- Picking things up the wrong way When you bend over to pick up anything heavy, it puts a lot of stress on your lower back and can trigger disc damage or acute muscle spasms.
- Tip: Keep the object close to your body and bend your knees and hips. Don’t rotate while raising.
- Sleeping on the wrong mattress Mattresses that sag or are too soft might throw off the posture of your spine and stretch your back muscles too much when you sleep.
- Tip: A medium-firm mattress will give you better support.
- Lying on your stomach This position puts too much stress on the spine by hyperextending the neck and lower back.
- Tip: To keep your spine in its normal position, sleep on your side with a pillow between your knees. This material is only for informational purposes and should not be used in place of professional medical advice.