Posts Tagged ‘Misalignment’
5 Tips for Reducing Back Pain
It is estimated that 80% of Americans will have some type of back pain at some point in their lives. Many of the remedies we apply with regard to this problem actually work against the natural healing abilities of the human body. This list will help reduce the severity of most cases of back pain and help speed the healing process. In addition, it’s always beneficial to consult a professional to rule out more severe health conditions.
1. Don’t use heat. The majority of people have been told to use heat when having back problems. This is the absolute worst thing you can do. Back pain usually has little to do with muscles and everything to do with nerves. Nerve irritation from misaligned spinal bones causes muscles to brace against the misalignment to protect you from further injuring yourself. This is a good thing. So muscle spasms should not be massaged away or forced to relax. Muscles only do what nerves tell them to do and they will relax only when the nerve irritation is removed.
Back pain is most often caused by nerve irritation resulting from injury to spinal joints and ligaments. The actual injury that caused the pressure may have happened years prior. Because of the joint dysfunction, the slightest incorrect move or strain can cause the disc and surrounding tissues to swell, just like when you sprain an ankle. The swelling causes pressure on spinal nerves, which causes that shooting pain you feel when you move in certain directions.
The solution in this case is ice. Ice will reduce the swelling which will, in turn, reduce the nerve pressure. Heat, on the other hand, will cause surrounding tissues to swell, which will ultimately increase the nerve pressure. Heat will certainly make some people feel better, but will cause more problems in the long run.
Tip: never, never, never use heat on the spine.
2. Walk. Walking is the very best exercise for your spine. It’s even better if you add a couple of inches to your stride, causing you to reach a bit with each step. Walking causes your ab and hip muscles to work together and support each other. It also can cause stuck spinal bones to move a little more freely which can reduce swelling and pain. The movement will also help keep your hip joints moving through a complete range of motion, which will lessen the chances of them getting fixed to one another.
Tip: one word of caution, though. If walking makes your pain worse, stop.
3. Be careful with pain relievers. While pain pills may the first thing you reach for when your back hurts, you might be causing yourself more problems. Besides the risk of side effects that all pain relievers pose, blocking the pain signal your nerves are sending could make the injury linger.
The pain signal acts as an alarm clock. It alerts you that something is wrong. It also lets you know your limits. If you bend forward and feel a sudden rush of horrible pain, that movement obviously isn’t good for you. Your body is telling you not to do that. Now if you cover that pain signal with drugs, you stop your body from being able to communicate that important message to you. This can make you able to do things your body doesn’t want you to do, making your problem worse.
Tip: if you’re going to take medications for pain, take them before you go to bed or when you aren’t going to do anything else that day.
4. No Crunches. People with back pain have been told for years to strengthen their abdominal muscles by doing crunches. While strong abs are important for spinal stability, crunches will eventually destroy your back.
The natural curves of the spine are its most important feature. They act as shock absorbers, much like the ones on your car, and keep your body from falling apart from the physical activity you engage in every day. When you do a crunch, you force your lower back into the floor which removes the lower back curve. Then the strain from the exercise is absorbed by the surrounding spinal joints, muscles, and ligaments, which they were not designed to do. Over time this will cause problems.
Also, when the curves of the spine are healthy, a naturally occurring locking mechanism exists that holds all spinal bones in their proper places. When you straighten the spine while doing a crunch, this locking mechanism is removed and the spine becomes vulnerable to greater injury.
Tip: find some other exercises to strengthen your abs. Bodyweight calisthenics do this wonderfully. Any exercise where you use your entire body in the movement will produce more powerful abs. Swimming, push-ups, and sprints are great, as well as abdominal isometrics. They won’t give you a six-pack, but they will certainly stabilize and strengthen your spine without causing harm.
5. Get adjusted. Misaligned spinal bones don’t just move back into place by themselves. It does happen, but rarely. Since some type of force probably caused the misalignment in the first place, a controlled force in the right direction at the right time is needed to correct it.
What you should also know is that spinal nerve irritation is not gone when your pain disappears. It lingers like a cavity until it’s fixed. The pain reappears when you physically do too much and irritate the problem, but it is always present once it’s created. That’s why people tend to hurt themselves in the same spot time after time. It’s not a new injury every time it happens, but rather an old injury resurfacing.
Tip: if you had a cavity, you’d get it fixed, so find a good chiropractor and make spinal adjustments part of your health regimen.
Richard Bond
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/5-tips-for-reducing-back-pain-149870.html
Chiropractors – Saviors or Quacks?
Chiropractic medicine is believed to have been around since 1895. Chiropractors believe that joint mobility and anatomical alignment of the spine can exert inconceivable effects on your nervous system. Since the spinal column is so much a part of the nervous system, chiropractors think that manual adjustments can promote and improve the overall health of a person. Such treatment can reduce whatever is exerting pressure on the spinal cord, the chief neurological tissue.
When misalignment or fracture is found on any of the vertebrae, this is normally attributed to either an accident, a fall or even body tension. Whatever the cause may be, when your spinal nerve root is irritated, you will experience the reflexes of pinched nerves, usually resulting in severe back pain. That’s one reason for you to visit a chiropractor.
When examining a patient most chiropractors use the same approach as that of medical doctors. First is the consultation. Next is the discussion of your case history. Then this should lead to a physical examination. Further tests may then be needed such as laboratory analysis and x-ray studies.
Chiropractic care engages a drug-free and non-surgical methodology in treating the patients. It involves manually manipulating your body joints and adjusting your spinal column to bring a sense of balance back to your body. Thus restoring your health. This process is even believed to have disease prevention effects. When all is done, your joints should be able to have normal motion back again. Not only that, your body will have diminished nerve interferences, resulting in removal of stressful attacks, rejuvenating your whole body back into its healthful state.
The following will give a brief idea of how spinal joint mobility can actually be restored by chiropractic practice. Through using a highly trained manual sequence called chiropractic spinal manipulation, pressure is applied or forced to the joints that have been limited by muscle strain, inflammation and/or pain. This form of manipulation will relieve tightness and pain of muscles, and also promote general health. It also is found to be especially helpful in reducing back pain and in treating sciatica with disc protrusions.
As stated above, these types of manual adjustments can be very helpful in treating sciatica. They can help ease the irritations in the root nerves that are causing all the sharp pains, inflammation and muscle spasms usually associated with sciatica. Alignment adjustments and mobility manipulations are both safe and should be pain free. If there are discomforts during or after treatments, make sure to let your chiropractor know immediately.
The sounds you hear when a chiropractor makes adjustments to your joints are not the sounds of bones cracking. These are sounds of gases being released from your joints, incredible as this may sound. But they are actually the release of oxygen, nitrogen and carbon dioxide which have built up in your joints, causing them pressure. You should begin to feel wonderfully good after the chiropractor is done with this. There should be no discomfort unless your muscles are in spasm or you get overly tensed about the whole procedure. It’s quite important that you are able to relax in an adjustment session. Tensing up your body works against you and defeats what the chiropractor is trying to do for you.
Chiropractic care can be an incredible aid for maintaining a healthier pregnancy. From controlling nausea all the way to having a full term delivery. It could even help in shortening the time of labor and delivery! Most of the professionals have been trained to work with pregnant patients and so it is very safe for both the mother and the baby.
When modern medicine cannot offer any genuine relief for those with chronic back pain, it’s time for you to definitely check out chiropractic care. Instead of taking more pain-killers, and facing the possibility of surgery, you have a truly viable alternative here.
Many people who began visiting a chiropractor found out it made them feel much better than they had in years. When you keep your body in alignment, it returns back the favor by keeping you in better overall health. Taking constant medications does no good to your health in the long run. And nobody likes going for surgery either. So it should only be the last resort, after you’ve exhausted all other means.
Chiropractic care is now a century old practice and its popularity shows no signs of slowing down. Real world results are confirming that these manual adjustments are bringing surprisingly good health benefits to patients. There are other issues of health where positive results are even surfacing because of this treatment. In areas such as allergies, headaches, adult and child ADHD, they can be either relieved or diminished by going to the chiropractor. As time progresses, it looks promising that many more areas of common health issues will likely be uncovered, which could responsively benefit from the chiropractic care approach.
Pete Wyatt
http://www.articlesbase.com/non-fiction-articles/chiropractors-saviors-or-quacks-55070.html
