Neurologist explains why he gave up powerlifting after hearing of its life-destroying effects

A neurologist has explained why he regrets powerlifting after hearing about its potential life-destroying effects.

Dr. Sergej Stjepic, a neurologist from Chicago, Illinois, revealed on TikTok three things he would never do, knowing what he knows now about health.

“I wouldn’t have powerlifted that much,” he said. ‘For example, squatting very heavy weights.’

Powerlifting describes the use of a barbell while squatting, bench pressing or deadlifting.

It involves lifting a certain amount of weight in one go, rather than repetitive exercises.

But it’s harmful because it can “reduce the overall disc height in your spine,” he said.

When the height of your intervertebral discs is lost, pinched nerves, bone and joint inflammation, and pain can occur.

The degeneration of intervertebral discs in the spine can cause loss of space between the joints, causing feelings similar to arthritis pain. In some severe cases, the pain may be constant.

“Reducing disc height causes bone-on-bone friction and can sometimes cause both neural foraminal narrowing and central canal narrowing,” he explained in the video.

This, he explained, can cause you to pinch the nerves that run through your spine, causing extreme pain.

Neural foraminal stenosis is the narrowing of the small openings between the vertebrae in the spinal column through which nerve roots pass.

It does not always lead to symptoms, but if a nerve becomes trapped in the opening it will be painful.

The Cleveland Clinic likened it to “what happens to an electrical cord when you close a door on it and wedge it between the door and the frame.”

It said: ‘Ultimately, the pressure on the cord can damage it, affecting the way it conducts electricity.

‘Similarly, (neural foraminal constriction) can put pressure on affected nerves. Ultimately, that can affect the signals traveling through the nerve, causing nerve pain and sometimes permanent nerve damage.”

“Powerlifting is ultimately very bad for your spine,” said Dr. Stjepic.

Pinched nerves occur when too much pressure is placed on a nerve by surrounding bones or muscles.

According to the Mayo Clinic, the pressure can cause pain, tingling, numbness or weakness.

Dr Stjepic said he wouldn’t have played football either.

“I definitely wouldn’t have played football in college. I probably wouldn’t have played football at all. My children certainly won’t do that,” he said.

“There’s such a thing as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, they find it in 18-year-old kids… we don’t know why it happens other than repeated hits.”

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a brain disorder likely caused by repetitive head injuries.

According to the Mayo Clinic, it causes the death of nerve cells in the brain.

‘I wouldn’t do any kind of alcohol or drugs, especially if I was younger, under 20.

“Your frontal lobe continues to develop until age 25, but even more important than that is the gross amount of development your brain undergoes from age zero to 25.”

He added: ‘People who would develop schizophrenia in the future, who are genetically more likely to use marijuana, tend to have their schizophrenic episodes much earlier than they would have had.

“It just hinders your development.”

There is a wealth of research linking marijuana use to schizophrenia later in life.

Recently, researchers supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse estimated that 30 percent of schizophrenia cases in American men ages 21 to 30 are linked to cannabis addiction.