Whether we like it or not, our musculoskeletal system has not been built to last. Irrespective of gender, race, age or activity levels, 80% of us will suffer with lower back pain at some point in our lives. Despite these high figures our ability to manage this epidemic is limited, with many treatments appearing ineffective, due in part to our limited understanding of how the spine works, its functional limits and why it goes wrong.
Whilst genes may account for some aspects of back pain, they do not hold all the clues. Alison McGregor and her team have been exploring the roles of environment, lifestyle, injury and degenerative disease on the structure and function of the spine. By working with back pain patients and elite rowers, they hope to understand how to prevent injury and enhance performance.
Biography
Alison McGregor is a Professor of Musculoskeletal Biodynamics in the Department of Surgery and Cancer, where she manages the Human Performance Group and is President of the Society for Back Pain Research. She trained as a physiotherapist at King’s College Hospital, qualifying in 1989, and then went on to study Biomechanical Engineering at Surrey University which led to a PhD project in spinal mechanics and lower back pain at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School.
Alison is one of the investigators at the Medical Engineering Solutions in Osteoarthritis Centre of Excellence Funded by the Wellcome Trust and the EPSRC, where she leads an initiative into the use of technology to further rehabilitation of this common disease.
A pre-lecture tea will take place from 16:45 in Seminar Room 1, Glenister Building