There’s a host of wellness products that can offer relief from lower back pain, but a lumbar support pillow is one of the cheapest and easiest interventions around. Designed to support the natural curve of your vertebrae, the small-but-mighty lumbar pillow encourages your back’s neutral alignment, which takes tension off of the spine, Dr. Chen said.

Read the full article at cnn.com.

This list recognizes female Castle Connolly Top Doctors who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, expertise and dedication in their respective fields. In addition to meeting the requirements to be selected as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor, these doctors also have additional qualifications, including research and academic contributions, volunteer work within healthcare, and training at top institutions.

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The biggest benefit to using a knee pillow is its effect on your lower body and spinal alignment, Alice Chen, MD, physiatrist at HSS explained. When you sleep on your side, it’s easy for all the weight of your top knee to rest directly on your bottom knee, leading to uncomfortable pressure. The same goes for your hips, which can also collapse forward, shifting your spine out of proper alignment and causing you to sleep more on your stomach than your side (a position experts say is bad for everyone’s back).

With a little additional space between your knees, courtesy of a knee pillow, the weight of your top knee is better distributed; your hips are parallel and stabilized; and your spine can stay in a more neutral position, Dr. Chen said.

Read the full article self.com. 

While back pain is a very individual condition, there may be one thing that can help most everyone: Walking. 

Researchers in Australia report that a daily walk might be all that it takes to reduce the likelihood that back pain returns. Findings from a newly published study showed that walking just 80 to 130 minutes a week – just 11 to 18 minutes a day – plus expert-provided pain education might be a low-cost, easy solution

Back pain can come from a lot of different sources, said Alice Chen, MD, physiatrist at HSS. “It can be related to muscle spasm, joint irritations in the back, ligaments, irritation of the back." 

For many people, an orthopedic surgeon is the first person that comes to mind when lower back pain strikes. But Dr. Chen noted that it’s important to consider someone who specializes in physical medicine rehabilitation. 

Read the full article at webmd.com. 

The Exceptional Women in Medicine list is compiled through a rigorous selection process that includes peer nominations, extensive research, and evaluation by the Castle Connolly research team. In addition to meeting the criteria to be selected as a Castle Connolly Top Doctor, these physicians have qualifications including contributions to healthcare through volunteer work, awards and honors, training at top institutions, research and academics, and innovations in their field of specialty.

Read the full article at castleconnolly.com.

“Gardening is a great form of exercise because it really allows you to use the large muscle groups which are the central foundation of core strengthening.  You can burn anywhere between 200 and 800 calories an hour, which is just as good as any form of exercise. Weeding and pruning and mulching and squatting are really excellent forms of using your muscle groups.” said Dr. Cheng. 

This segment aired on broadcast on July 15 and is available at cnn.com. 

If you are someone who sits quite a bit throughout the day, you know that a bad seating situation can wreak havoc on your hips, tailbone, and lower back. Even if you do your best to get up and walk around throughout the day, your chair, posture, and desk setup are crucial to alleviating back pain. And research indicated that sitting for prolonged periods of time can cause increased stress on the back, neck, arms, and lets and add pressure to your back muscles and spinal discs. 

Sitting for long periods can even weaken your core muscles and increase insulin resistance, said Dr. Chen. 

Seat cushions should also offer a firm enough surface to provide support but be cushioned enough that they are comfortable and mold around the contours of your body, added Dr. Chen. While the thickness of your cushion may come down to personal preference, it should offer stability as well she advised. 

Read the full article at health.com. 

The root of your morning muscles stiffness could be something as simple as the way you're sleeping. While we snooze, we can unintentionally move into some uncomfortable positions. This can result in waking up with our muscles twisted in knots. "Sleeping with the neck and back in a contorted position (like sleeping upright in a chair or sofa) can cause joint and muscle strain.  Sleep in a bed with adequate space and support," advised Dr. Chen. Specifically, make sure your mattress helps neutralize the natural curves of your spine and promotes proper alignment (it should hold your whole body without your hips sagging). Similarly, get good neck support from a pillow to maintain spinal alignment, said Dr. Chen. 

In addition to pushing too hard, training too much can also create problems. Your muscles require time to recover and repair between sweat sessions. When you don't give yourself adequate rest, you'll likely experience more extreme muscle soreness. "After a heavy workout, muscles can feel sore because there is swelling of the muscle tissue," explained Dr. Chen. And any time there's swelling, there's usually accompanying stiffness.

You may have noticed more morning aches and pains with the passing years. That's no coincidence. "As the body ages, the joints experience more wear and tear," noted Dr. Chen. This can cause stiffness, "especially when there are long periods of inactivity, like sleep." The answer here is also to stay active. “Gentle movements and light activity get the joint fluid loosened up, which alleviates stiffness," she suggested.

Read the full article at livestrong.com. 

Dr. Chen explained, “[Posture bras] can’t take the place of good core fitness, and wearing one won’t fix bad posture in and of itself. What posture corrector bras can do is try to coax you into more proper alignment, which is ears over shoulders over hips.”

Read the full article at Forbes.com.

Dr. Chen said that belly fat is a common factor, noting, “When you have a big belly, it often stresses your lower back because you’re using it as a counterweight to your belly. And fat in the spine can compress the nerves.”

This article originally appeared on 941thewave.com.

Dr. Chen cited, "If there is an area that hurts, I probably have some sort of intervention that I try to employ to use it. But those are just tools to get the patient back to being able to function and get stronger. I always tell my patients while fancy injenctions sound very promising, the goal is to get their function back, so we have to get the strength to support the structure so that it's not so painful. Its often times not so simple as sticking a needle in it."

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WTNH spoke to Dr. Waddell about the findings, who said, “Overall - whether you were wearing scrubs with a white coat or a tie or no tie with a white coat, white coat won. Everyone preferred a white coat overall." Alice Chen, MD, physiatrist at HSS, was not surprised by the outcome, and provided a comment to WTNH stating, “I definitely see that patients feel more at ease. They know who their doctor is and they seem more confident.”

Watch the segment at WTNH.com. This segment also aired during the evening news hour on June 12, 2019.