How far do you have to travel every day to reach your office and back home? Whatever the answer, it is not the distance that you travel which affects health, say doctors. Instead, some other factors like the time you take to travel, the mode of travelling and the posture during travel will influence your health. There are many factors on the road that affect your state of `being healthy’ -- the windings routes, undulating surface of the roads, potholes, road humps, etc to name a few. The swaying of the body during journey, the sudden jerks that you are subjected to while going through a bumpy road -- all these may lead to spinal injuries, doctors say. Researchers in Bangalore found that there is an increase in the number of spondylitis-affected people among the working population who travel through the city roads. Those who travel in autorickshaw and two-wheelers stand a good chance of being affected by spondylitis. These vehicles have only poor shock absorbers, so there is a higher possibility to be hurt while going through bumpy roads. `` I had to travel about one hour to reach my office and the rough travel contributed to back pain and spondylitis. I had to go for a spondylitis ayurvedic treatment three months back. The doctors there asked me to travel in a bus and stand all the way to my office so that the pressure and injury to the spine is only minimal,’’ says Sheela Balagopal, a bank employee in Bangalore.So make sure that you have the right posture during your travel and try to avoid jerks as far as possible.
