Hello, gravity? Really how much pressure can joints and spines take. Men have more of a problem as they have more mass.
How serious? Billion$ - low back pain is the No. 1 cause of disability in people under the age of 45.
JSonline - A study of more than 800,000 young adults found that obesity and height increased the risk of having low back pain...The study, which was presented Friday at a national meeting of spine surgeons, involved 17-year-old male and female Israeli military recruits who had undergone medical exams before service induction between 1998 and 2009.
The risk of low back pain was relatively low in both male and female recruits. Obese males were 16% more likely to have low back pain; for females it was 21%.
Height also increased risk. The tallest males (average height, 6 feet) were 44% more likely to have low back pain, compared with the shortest males (average height, 5 feet 5 inches). Tall females (average height, 5 feet 7 inches) were 22% more likely to have back pain than the shortest females (average height, 5 feet 1 inch).
"The most simple explanation for that correlation is that the mechanical load of overweight and body height (on the lever arm) may cause early failure of the back-supporting mechanism and cause early (low back pain) complaints," said lead author Oded Hershkovich, an orthopedic surgeon in Israel.
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