Archive for the ‘Body’ Category
Review: ‘Healing Back Pain’ promises permanent elimination of back pain without drugs, surgery, or exercise. Here at Back-Pain-Therapy.com, we’re not too sure about the title, or even the premise. It is really about Tension Myositus Syndrome (TMS) and discusses only that one specific cause of back pain.
Also, much of the discussion, essentially, is that much of your experience of back pain resides in your psychology, and the book pretty much ignores many other factors which have been scientifically proven to be very significant, i.e., diet, nutrition, etc. This argument (that it is all in your head) was the prevailing one before modern medical science began to better understand the spine, nervous system, and the brain, and no doubt many who suffered probably suffered more after having been told their condition was merely psychological. Many who have back pain have demonstrable physiological injuries. Further, the best neurologists we are aware of will tell you that even now the brain and the nervous system are not understood well enough to make such sweeping claims about how much of a person’s pain may or may not be due to psychological factors. So to sum up, we’re not too sure how much of a service Dr. Sarno is doing for back pain sufferers by reviving this old idea.
But with all that said, the book does explain why conventional treatments for this type of pain don’t work, which is useful, yet the author then proceeds to claim this is the major cause of pain in the back, neck, and shoulders.
Hmm. Maybe. No doubt it will help some. Our founder hasn’t found the book all that useful, but he thought we should post it for those who might. It is informative, and it may very well help you better understand and discuss your pain issues with your physician, but it’s not definitive in terms of self-help. In fact, this is not really about self-help, nor even about healing back pain, not all that much anyway, but it may contribute to your understanding of the (sometimes major) role the mind can play, and like many others apparently have, you may find it far more helpful than we did.
The REAL-EaSE(R) cervical shaped neck support helps release neck and shoulder tension. Suggested use is 10 to 15 minutes a day. It cradles your neck at the base of your skull and thereby create a gentle traction that helps release muscle tension in the neck, and apparently, or so some say, in the shoulders and jaw. It is very small and lightweight and so good for the traveller. It takes the weight of your head off the shoulders and neck, allowing for full, deep, total relaxation.
Although opinions vary widely, our founder bought one and likes it. He says, "I read someone’s comment somewhere that it is very uncomfortable to use. I have found the exact opposite to be true. I mainly use it before retiring. If nothing else, it is very relaxing."
For many back pain sufferers, much of the pain is in the muscles. Muscles contract as a reaction to inflammation, causing pain and potentially leading to more inflammation. It can be a vicious circle, and — surprisingly to some — regular exercise can help.
Whether and how much this resource will be helpful to you, and what kinds of equipment and exercises may be most suitable, will depend on the type of back pain you have, the cause(s) of that pain, and the severity.
Foremost, you'll need to okay it with your primary physician, and as a back pain sufferer, you should take great care before beginning any exercise program or adding a new piece of equipment or set of exercises to your existing routine. There is no question that it is of utmost importance to be careful, but in spite of what Rush Limbaugh says on his radio show, study after study prove that people who may have an occasional minor injury while making a sustained and appropriate effort to stay physically fit are most definitely not the ones driving up the costs of medical care.
Every credentialed expert there is seems to agree that there is virtually no end to the potential benefits of being physically fit.
Even so, some people seem surprised that someone who has back pain should, or would want to, work out at all.
But they shouldn't be.
For back pain sufferers — actually, for nearly everyone — there are many benefits to a regular exercise routine that includes both aerobic and progressive resistance strength training.
Further, the right kinds of exercise can do more to help control pain than most people realize, and there is nothing any better than being fit. The right kinds of exercise are good for almost everything, improving the functioning of all your tissues and organs, increasing your energy level and improving your endurance, helping to fight off disease as well as many of the worst effects of our modern, stressful lives. Exercise gets blood and oxygen into your muscles where it's needed, and that helps clean out and metabolize toxins in those muscles that can be related to increased inflammation, which can increase your pain.
Additionally, sufficient exercise, of the right intensity and type, releases endorphins (your body's natural pain-killing opiate) into your system, helping to control the pain and helping sometimes to break the vicious circle of inflammation causing muscle pain, and that in turn causing more inflammation.
Finally, though just about everyone knows by now that exercise helps to reduce your body's overall fat content, not everyone yet realizes the extent to which high body fat has been shown in various studies to increase inflammation, i.e., again leading to pain.
So if you always thought you'd get fit just as soon as you got rid of the pain, you may need to re-think that strategy.
Here at Back-Pain-Therapy.com, we are particularly impressed with the quality of Nautilus and Bowflex equipment. Standard free weights are far more dangerous, take up more space, are a lot slower and more difficult to set up between exercises, and are much, much harder to manage in virtually every context. Further, most other home gyms and trainers we've tested don't even begin to compare to Nautilus and Bowflex.
But the qualify and durability of this equipment is not the reason we recommend aerobic and progressive resistance exercise as a resource.
So long as you okay it with your primary physician, and no matter what equipment you prefer to use, quite simply, and because it works . . .
. . . Back-Pain-Therapy.com recommends exercise as a back pain therapy resource.
Not so many years ago, yoga was not very well understood in the West.
Fortunately, today many in our culture have come to understand its many benefits.
Many practitioners say that a good yoga workout leaves them feeling more in harmony with life.
If you've never practiced or looked into yoga before, as a back pain sufferer you should keep in mind that there are several different kinds of yoga. Some practices may be inappropriate, or even dangerous, for those with certain conditions. We hope to be posting more extensively on these differences sometime soon, but meanwhile, we highly recommend viniyoga and strongly encourage you to learn as much as you can about the differences between the different practices before beginning any routine. You should also get the okay from your primary physician first, and even then, take it very easy on yourself, especially in the beginning.
Back-Pain-Therapy.com recommends yoga as a back pain therapy resource.
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