Studying Neanderthals to understand back pain

Sitting hunched over our work desks for long hours has altered the shape of our spines, leading to weaker backs that are always in pain

- Jen Thomas

Lower back pain seems to be an indicator of age, if not a rite of passage in our times. From the sheer challenge of standing up after sitting on a squishy couch, to rolling gingerly off the floor after playing with the dog, to simply groaning and getting out of bed in the morning, lower back pain has the world's population in a vice grip. If you suffer from back pain, you can rest assured that you're not alone. According to an article titled 'Back Pain, published in the National Library of Medicine, billions of dollars are spent annually worldwide on managing back pain. From my experience dealing with collapsed intervertebral discs, it can be a measurable and terrifying decrease in your quality of life.

When discussing the rise of back pain-related issues, we can place some blame on the modern workplace environment, begrudging the fact we sit all day. Indeed, this is a modern phenomenon: the 90-degree bent angle we force our bodies into at our work desks for long hours. If our ancestors sat for that long, they would likely be eaten or have squandered their time in finding food to eat. However, sitting is the new hunting and gathering lifestyle; it's how we earn to pay for groceries. It's not likely to disappear any time soon.

A study titled 'Inferring lumbar lordosis in Neanderthals and other hominins' looked at intact Neanderthal spines, and compared them not just to the spines we have now, but the spines we had pre-industrial revolution, just a few hundred years ago. The results are enough to convince you to get up off the couch and stretch.

NEANDERTHAL VS HUMAN SPINES