Why Walk?

As I hope everyone knows by now, May is Walk Your AS Off month. But why walk? Surely it’s better to rest if you’re suffering from back pain?

I’d say that yes, resting is important. Pain is your body’s way of saying that something’s wrong, and it’s a good idea to listen to your body. But if you rest with AS then you’re likely to experience more fusion. Remember when your mum used to tell you that your face would stick that was if the wind changed? Well that’s the case with AS. If you rest too much then the fusion will freeze your spine.

It happens a lot to people with AS, mostly because they don’t know that they have it until the fusion has started. When it happens it’s called Bamboo Spine. Thankfully, it doesn’t make you tasty to Pandas, so you’re allowed to go to the zoo for a walk if you want to. But it does start the process of the kyphosis that I mentioned in an earlier post.