Each week, Watkins Memorial Health Center sees about four patients with back pain, but that number increases in the weeks before midterms and finals.

How students carry their backpacks is the biggest concern, Patty Quinlan, nursing supervisor, said.

“Their class assignments have increased and they have more studies they’re working on so their backpack is getting heavier,” Quinlan said.

She said college students’ back pain could be attributed to improper backpack positioning, poor posture and faulty mattresses.

Emily Richardson, Derby junior, frequently has intense back pain that started five years ago. Richardson, who is 5 feet 4 inches tall and weighs 100 pounds, has a hard time handling the weight of multiple books and other class necessities in her backpack.

“It’s been getting worse lately,” Richardson said. “The more I walk and the heavier my backpack is. It makes the pain more intense.”

Karen Loudon, physical therapist at Watkins, said using both straps on a backpack and putting heavier objects closest to the back could help relieve the strain put on muscles.

“You need to keep the backpack weight about 15 percent or less of your body weight,” Loudon said.

Even if students don’t carry a backpack or bag, poor posture can still cause back pain.

“It’s easier to keep muscles in shape now than to retrain muscles back to their original purpose,” Loudon said. “The more years of getting into that poor posture and the stiffer they get, it’s just harder to change that position.”

Loudon said another problem occurred when people popped their own backs because it could lead to hypermobile joints, or joints that are too loose.

When a joint is hypermobile, there is more stress put on the joint and it’s not as stable as usual, Loudon said.

“It can become a vicious cycle because when you pop it, the more you do it, the more you feel like you have to do it,” Loudon said. “We would recommend that people not do that on a regular basis.”

Loudon said she had seen students who were already in a bad fixed posture.

Because of her back pain, Richardson said she could only study in one place for an hour before the pain became so bad that she had to move to a different place.

“I don’t really feel like I have a comfortable place to sit to study,” Richardson said. “When I have to sit down and do a lot of work it’s not very fun for my back.”

Richardson usually takes aspirin or ibuprofen to help alleviate her pain but last summer, she saw a chiropractor once a week or every two weeks.

Students who visit Watkins for back pain are educated on proper positions for sitting and lifting. Sometimes, a physician will recommend that a student see one of the three physical therapists at Watkins.

Quinlan said if students were unable to see a physician, yoga could help. And for students who smoke, quitting could also lessen pain, she added.

“If you keep your aerobic levels up high then you’re going to have a better oxygenation of your tissues which is going to help your spine,” Loudon said. “But if you’re a smoker, all the chemicals create a quicker degenerative process that goes on in the spine.”

— — Edited by Melissa Johnson