full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Jen Gunter: 5 things you should know about back pain

Unscramble the Blue Letters

One: Back pain isn't just limited to the spine. Our back is made of bones called vertebrae that run from your neck to your tailbone. These vertebrae form the spinal column, which hseuos the spinal cord. Each verbraete is also connected to the others by ligaments. Between each vertebrae are discs which provide cosiuhn and help absorb and distribute pressure. Within this sctruture of connections are also joints, muscles, tendons and nerves. But our back isn't held up by just the spine. In fact, a lot of that work is done by our core, which includes our abdominal muscles, low back mlesucs, hips and glutes and pelvic floor. The muscles in our core take pressure off the rest of the spine. Every day, we put all kinds of pressure on our backs when we walk, stand, carry our groceries, lift boxes, and even when we sit. So it’s not only sinpal pressure but torn muscles or spilped discs that could be contributing to back pain. But pain itself is even more complex. Often, it's how pain signals are processed in the nevers, or in the brain that perpetuates the pain. Other factors, like sertss and anxiety, can alpifmy pain. This complexity is why treating back pain can be so frustrating, and why it's enticing to seek out all sotrs of medically scesupt care.

Open Cloze

One: Back pain isn't just limited to the spine. Our back is made of bones called vertebrae that run from your neck to your tailbone. These vertebrae form the spinal column, which ______ the spinal cord. Each _________ is also connected to the others by ligaments. Between each vertebrae are discs which provide _______ and help absorb and distribute pressure. Within this _________ of connections are also joints, muscles, tendons and nerves. But our back isn't held up by just the spine. In fact, a lot of that work is done by our core, which includes our abdominal muscles, low back _______, hips and glutes and pelvic floor. The muscles in our core take pressure off the rest of the spine. Every day, we put all kinds of pressure on our backs when we walk, stand, carry our groceries, lift boxes, and even when we sit. So it’s not only ______ pressure but torn muscles or _______ discs that could be contributing to back pain. But pain itself is even more complex. Often, it's how pain signals are processed in the ______, or in the brain that perpetuates the pain. Other factors, like ______ and anxiety, can _______ pain. This complexity is why treating back pain can be so frustrating, and why it's enticing to seek out all _____ of medically _______ care.

Solution

  1. spinal
  2. vertebrae
  3. slipped
  4. nerves
  5. amplify
  6. sorts
  7. stress
  8. suspect
  9. structure
  10. houses
  11. muscles
  12. cushion

Original Text

One: Back pain isn't just limited to the spine. Our back is made of bones called vertebrae that run from your neck to your tailbone. These vertebrae form the spinal column, which houses the spinal cord. Each vertebrae is also connected to the others by ligaments. Between each vertebrae are discs which provide cushion and help absorb and distribute pressure. Within this structure of connections are also joints, muscles, tendons and nerves. But our back isn't held up by just the spine. In fact, a lot of that work is done by our core, which includes our abdominal muscles, low back muscles, hips and glutes and pelvic floor. The muscles in our core take pressure off the rest of the spine. Every day, we put all kinds of pressure on our backs when we walk, stand, carry our groceries, lift boxes, and even when we sit. So it’s not only spinal pressure but torn muscles or slipped discs that could be contributing to back pain. But pain itself is even more complex. Often, it's how pain signals are processed in the nerves, or in the brain that perpetuates the pain. Other factors, like stress and anxiety, can amplify pain. This complexity is why treating back pain can be so frustrating, and why it's enticing to seek out all sorts of medically suspect care.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
chiropractic treatment 3
physical therapy 3
lumbar spine 2

Important Words

  1. abdominal
  2. absorb
  3. amplify
  4. anxiety
  5. backs
  6. bones
  7. boxes
  8. brain
  9. called
  10. care
  11. carry
  12. column
  13. complex
  14. complexity
  15. connected
  16. connections
  17. contributing
  18. cord
  19. core
  20. cushion
  21. day
  22. discs
  23. distribute
  24. enticing
  25. fact
  26. factors
  27. floor
  28. form
  29. frustrating
  30. glutes
  31. groceries
  32. held
  33. hips
  34. houses
  35. includes
  36. joints
  37. kinds
  38. lift
  39. ligaments
  40. limited
  41. lot
  42. medically
  43. muscles
  44. neck
  45. nerves
  46. pain
  47. pelvic
  48. perpetuates
  49. pressure
  50. processed
  51. provide
  52. put
  53. rest
  54. run
  55. seek
  56. signals
  57. sit
  58. slipped
  59. sorts
  60. spinal
  61. spine
  62. stand
  63. stress
  64. structure
  65. suspect
  66. tailbone
  67. tendons
  68. torn
  69. treating
  70. vertebrae
  71. walk
  72. work