Hip pain is a common problem that I see on a daily basis. It can be very confusing to many people because of where they think their hip is located and where the hip creates pain when it is inflamed. The hip joint is actually located in the area of your groin and creates pain in the groin and down the thigh to the knee. It is NOT located in the buttock.

Hip pain creates pain in the groin, front of the thigh down the front of the leg to the knee, and in the area where the lower buttock meets the leg. The picture below shows the area of the buttock where you will feel pain if the pain is coming from the hip.

What you should notice in this picture is that, except for that small area that is colored red, the hip does NOT create pain in the buttock. Most of the pain that you may feel in your buttock, leg, side of hip, and even in the groin is actually created by the back. So when patients come to see me and say their “hip hurts” or they have “bursitis,” it usually means that one of their nerves from the lumbar spine is creating their pain. The picture below shows where the nerves in the back travel to after they leave the spine. As you can see, most of the lumbar nerves that come out to the spine cover what most people think is their hip. The two specific nerves that I would look at in this picture are the L4 and L5 nerves as they cover most of the areas of the hip and buttock.

At SpineCare, we advocate for less sitting for long periods of time, possibly standing up for a few minutes every thirty minutes or so because sitting is a terrible position for the spine. Sitting with the head down, which all of us do way too much, creates a lot of stress on the spine and the discs. Now a new study shows it is just plain bad for your health to sit for long periods of time! Either stand up and walk around every 30 minutes or use a standing desk.

According to the World Health Organization, one of the leading risk factors for death is something we do everyday – or don’t do! Physical inactivity comes in at 4th on this list. Sitting down could possibly lead you to a premature death.

Even though we all have busy lives, we are surrounded by activities that involve us sitting down often. To get to work, we sit, whether it’s in a car or on a bus. At work, we tend to sit the majority of the day (depending on the working environment.) We come home from a long day’s work to relax and SIT in front of the TV and unwind.

According to a CCN article, it seems even if you exercise enough, the impact of sitting still exceeds the benefits of trying to stay fit and healthy, researchers from Toronto found. A study from the Annals of Internal Medicine found that sedentary behavior (a group of behaviors occurring while sitting or lying down that requires very low energy levels) can cause chronic conditions, such as Type 2 Diabetes, as well as cause death from cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Sitting for more than 8-12 hours a day (prolonged sitting) can increase your chances of developing Type 2 Diabetes by a whopping 90%. To overcome this, you must become more aware of how much sitting you actually do. Here are a few quick tips to help you reduce your sitting time:

• Try using a standing desk at work.
• Set goals to get up and walk about for a minute every 30 minutes.
• While watching TV, instead of forwarding the commercials, take a break and walk around.
• Take the stairs instead of the elevator.
• Walk after you eat lunch.
• If your co-workers are nearby, get up and talk to them rather than sending emails.