8 Pieces of Clothing and Accessories that Can Be Harmful to Your Health

Here at Healthy Holistic Living, we search the web for health news to share with you. This article is shared with permission from our friends at Healthy Back Institute.

Sometimes the causes of neck and back pain are obvious – hours spent hunched over your steering wheel or computer … an injury from a weekend basketball game … or wrenching your back while digging in your garden.

Other times, your neck and back may ache, and you have no idea why – this is perhaps most frustrating of all. When you’re unclear on the cause, it can be difficult to treat accurately let alone find a cure. If you want to know how to relieve back pain fast, here’s an unexpected factor to consider: clothes that cause back pain. In fact, even if you know the reason for your pain, your clothing could be making it worse.

Avoid These Clothes That Cause Back Pain and Neck Pain

If you want to know how to relieve back pain and fast (and neck pain, too), avoid wearing the following items.

8. Flip-Flops

The lack of structure of flip-flops, including having to “hold” them on with your toes as you take each step, actually alters your gait, leading to a shorter stride length and a larger ankle angle as you grip the shoes with your toes. Not only can this cause issues with your lower legs, knees, and hips, but also wearing flip-flops can cause back pain.[i] According to Auburn University researcher Justin Shroyer:[ii]

“We found that when people walk in flip-flops, they alter their gait, which can result in problems and pain from the foot up into the hips and lower back … Variations like this at the foot can result in changes up the kinetic chain, which in this case can extend upward in the wearer’s body.”

7. High Heels

Wearing high heels alters muscle coordination patterns in your trunk and hips, which research suggests may lead to “abnormal spine loading patterns and increases the risk of developing musculoskeletal injuries.”[iii] If you must wear heels, keep them short and limit the amount of time you spend in them.

6. Heavy Backpacks

When you carry a heavy backpack, it may cause changes in postural angles and increased pain. Among children, research shows worsening postural changes in those carrying backpacks by weight of the pack and time spent carrying the load.

This puts the children at increased risk of pain, which, in turn, is a strong predictor of back pain in adulthood as well.[iv] The warning holds true for adults, too, however, especially if you carry an overly stuffed backpack regularly.

5. Tight Neckties

If your necktie is too tight, it can lead to less range of motion in your neck and increased muscle tension in your back, neck, and shoulders. How tight is too tight? If you can’t slip a finger between your neck and your shirt collar, your tie is too tight.

4. Skinny Jeans and Pencil Skirts

How to relieve back pain fast? Lose those outfits, no matter how nice they might look. The problem with skinny jeans and pencil skirts is they can make it difficult to move naturally. When you need to bend over, you may not be able to bend at your knees, potentially leading to a pulled muscle or disc problems. Both skinny jeans and pencil skirts can also change your normal walking gait and posture, leading to back pain.

3. Heavy Necklaces

There aren’t clothes that cause back pain, but accessories. Your neck is already responsible for supporting the weight of your head. A heavy necklace can be the tipping point. As chiropractor Tim Hutchful of the British Chiropractic Association told the Daily Mail:[v]

“Anything that pulls the neck forwards or backward tips the head away from its point of neutral balance … This can create neck tension, pain, and damage, and long-term could encourage a slouched posture with damaging consequences for the back.”

2. Halter Tops

Halter tops have a tendency to pull your neck forward as they don’t distribute weight evenly across your shoulders. This is especially true for women with a large bust and may occur from any halter top, sports bra, bikini top, etc. Hutchful continued:[vi]

“The strain on your neck will create muscle tension and can pull you into a highly damaging form of posture called “anterior carriage” where the neck sticks forwards on the body, with the shoulders rounded and slumped.”

1. Improperly Fitted Bras

If we’re talking about clothes that cause back pain, you want to get this one right because it literally supports you. An improperly fitted bra will not give you the proper support, which can put you at risk of back and breast pain. Thin straps are common culprits, as thicker straps can help to spread out the pressure on your shoulders. Richard Moore, a consultant osteopath, and sports massage therapist told the Daily Mail:[vii]

“If you are well endowed, an ill-fitting, unsupportive bra can cause you to slump and fold your shoulders forward, and lead to painful postural disorders.”

For best results, see a specialist for a professional bra fitting.

How to Relieve Back Pain Fast: Soothing, Deep Heat Therapy

If you struggle with back or neck pain, I can’t say this enough: trying heat therapy with a far-infrared heating pad is a must. Keep one at the office and one at home. You’ll be so glad you did because as soon as you apply it to your back or neck, you’ll feel the soothing deep heat.

This is where far-infrared heating pads blow ordinary heating pads out of the water. Far-infrared rays lead to vibration effects at the molecular level, which improves transportation of oxygen and nutrients, ultimately helping to support regeneration and healing. The heat given off by ordinary heating pads, on the other hand, will only penetrate your skin, not the deep layers of tissues underneath, where pain resides.

The thermal effect of deep heat therapy on your tissues causes blood vessels in capillaries to dilate, which improves blood circulation and promotes pain relief healing and wellness. Researchers have, in fact, stated:[viii]

“ … heat doesn’t just provide comfort and have a placebo effect – it actually deactivates the pain at a molecular level in much the same way as pharmaceutical painkillers work.”

While the pain-relieving effects of ordinary heat therapy pads usually disappear as soon as the heat is removed, far-infrared rays offer much longer pain relief, as the heat is capable of penetrating down two to three inches (compared to just 2-3 mm for regular heating pads). But don’t take my word for it. The Deep Heat collection of far-infrared heating pads come in three sizes to fit your unique pain.

The Ultra, for instance, is designed for neck, back and spine pain relief. Every feature — from the lengthwise canal that keeps pressure off of your vertebrae to heating stones placed precisely for the hard-to-reach (and relax) paraspinal muscles along your spine …. to cervical support for your neck sends penetrating heat deep into every square inch of your back. Try LosetheBackPain.com’s Far-Infrared Back Pain Heating Pad for 90 days risk-free — if you’re not thrilled with it, you get your money back.