» BACK PAIN

It has emerged that one of the commonest ailments across the world is the lower back pain. The numbers of people that are affected are extremely large that it is said to be the reason for more sick leaves than any other physical problem .

Back pain can either be acute or chronic. Acute back pain is the one that hits you in a flash and is highly painful but does not last for very long.

In other words, it hits hard but stays for a short while. Chronic back pain is hard and persists for a much longer duration. Both the kinds are equally capable of throwing away your life routine out of gear.

The acute lower back pain is normally a result of some kind of injury. For instance you might injure your back in the process of lifting a heavy object carelessly. A fall may also be injurious and so can be an accident. So, acute lower back pain occurs for a reason and the reason is very much visible. However, the same is not the case with chronic lower back pain.

Chronic lower back pain can occur for a number of reasons and the causes are not so visible. The causes can be many, ranging from chronic inflammation of the joints and symptoms that resemble rheumatism, arthritis to disc impairment and disc hernia ion. These conditions can be diagnosed only after a series of tests and scans.

As the treatment is concerned, it depends very much on the cause of it. Nearly all kinds of lower back pain, whatever their may be, are treated without resorting to surgery in most of the cases.

The treatment is very much available but lower back pain can be dealt with much before it actually occurs. It takes disciplined living. Just keep your posture right and start exercising regularly. Back stretching exercises are particularly helpful in preventing lower back pain. The exercises to strengthen core abdomen muscles help a great deal in making your back strong enough to bear minor jerks and sprains with ease. Exercising regularly, increase the flexibility of muscles, which makes them less prone to injury.

Therefore, if you are suffering from lower back pain, pay attention to your posture and make exercise a part of your routine. Back pain would soon be a part of forgettable history.

To see the cause click here .

The Cause of Lower Back Pain

In many cases of back pain, the cause is really difficult to determine. As your lower back bears most of the weight and stress of your body, the pain generally comes from the straine muscles and ligaments caused due to heavy lifting or an awkward body movement.

In many cases of back pain, the cause is really difficult to determine.

As your lower back bears most of the weight and stress of your body, the pain generally comes from the strained muscles and ligaments caused due to heavy lifting or an awkward body movement. The obvious cause behind the back pain remains hidden in most of the cases. However several factors are responsible for generating new back problems or exacerbating the existing ones. These are clustered in to five categories.

RELIEVE FROM BACK PAIN

Gravity is the culprit of most kinds of back pain; due to its compressive force the discs in the back lose moisture, like squeezing out a sponge the discs dehydrate and allow the vertebra to move closer to each other. Hence this increases the chance of pinching nerves, decreases flexibility, allows for misalignment and restricts the disc’s ability to absorb nutrients. You don’t just feel this compression, it actually can be seen, in fact; the force of gravity is so powerful that you lose two-inches of height loss by the time you reach seventy.

What can be done to fight back against the long terms affects of gravity? One option is inversion therapy. Hanging upside down at as little as twenty degrees or as much as ninety for just a few minutes allows the spine and weight bearing joints to decompress. The user is held onto the table via a comfortable ankle clamp system, which allows the user to relax and stretch, and since the traction applied is the users own body weight they are receiving a stretch that is customised for their body.

Inversion helps in the relief of back pain in four ways.

ü Pressure is taken off of nerve roots: The height of the discs relates to the size of the passageway for the nerve root exit from the spinal column, so a plump hydrated disc creates maximum clearance, helping to alleviate any pressure or pinching of the nerve root.

ü Discs hydrate: Clinical studies show that when inverted the separation between the vertebrae increases, this allows for moisture to be absorbed into the soft tissue of the discs, increasing the nutrient content as well as plumping the discs for better shock absorption and flexibility. Pressure is taken off of nerve roots: The height of the discs relates to the size of the passageway for the nerve roots to exit from the spinal column, so a plump hydrated disc creates maximum clearance, helping to alleviate any pressure or pinching of the nerve root.

ü Pressure is taken off of nerve roots: The height of the discs relates to the size of the passageway for the nerve roots to exit from the spinal column, so a plump hydrated disc creates maximum clearance, helping to alleviate any pressure or pinching of the nerve root. The spine is encouraged to realign: The traction applied also decompresses the spine to create an environment where misalignments can naturally fall back into place.

ü Muscles are gently stretched as circulation is increased, helping to reduce tension.

MUSCLE RELAXER

Stress and tension can cause pain and muscle spasms in the back, neck and shoulders, as well as headaches and other problems. Tense muscles can be attributed to misalignments of the spine, over stimulation of nerves, or poor removal of toxins by the lymphatic system and a lack of oxygen rich circulation.

A study conducted by physiotherapist L.J. Nosse² found that EMG activity, declined over 35% within 10-seconds of inversion, the effect was found to start at the very shallow angle of 25°. It is suggested that the stretch to the muscles while inverted allowed the circulation to enter the sore muscle, bringing oxygen rich blood; inversion also stimulated the lymph system to clear the muscle of the toxin build-up. The user therefore would feel a decrease in pain and the stiffness in the muscle would subside. As noted in previous sections, inversion also encourages re-alignment of the spine and decreases pressure on nerve-roots.

In a recent article, Dr. Howard Loomis³ discusses the importance of improving lymphatic drainage and explains the methods by which lymph moves. Not only does the stimulation of the lymphatic system occur by rhythmic muscle contraction, but it can also be assisted by venous pressure, respiration and gravity. Among his instructions for maintaining proper function of the lymph system, Dr. Loomis indicates elevating peripheral limbs as an additional method of stimulating lymphatic flow.

According to the book Better Back, Better Body⁴ by Joanne Broatch. Much of the back pain is caused by muscles that are cramped, tense and in spasm. Inversion can help relieve this kind of pain [by relaxing muscles and clearing muscle congestion].

Dr. John E. Sarno, of the New York Institute for Rehabilitation Medicine claims that in more than 90% of the patients that he sees for back pain either there is no structural abnormality or the ‘abnormal’ x-ray does not really explain the nature or location of the pain. He calls the disorder the ‘tension myositis syndrome‘ and describes how the tension causes muscle pain in this way: The muscle tenses and this reduces blood flow in the muscles of the neck, shoulders, back, or the buttocks. This produces pain by allowing the accumulation of waste chemicals, much the same process that causes leg muscle fatigue after a long run because of lactic acid build up.

When the muscles go into spasm in the lower back, it often leads you to believe (mistakenly) you have a disc problem.

Inversion [stimulates] the flow of lymphatic fluid which flushes out the wastes and carries them to the blood stream. And the lymphatic system needs all the help it can get. Unlike the cardio-vascular system, the lymphatic system has no pump. Only the alternate relaxing and contracting of the muscles moves the lymphatic fluid through the capillaries and the one-way valves pointing towards the major lymphatic ducts in the upper chest. Even in healthy relaxed muscles, the lymphatic fluid moves very slowly. Where muscles are in spasm, the fluid does not move, the carbon dioxide and lactic acid remain in the muscles and you experience pain. Inverting, or tipping the body so that gravity works with, not against one way valves, helps the relaxed, expanding and contracting muscles to push the fluid up to the chest where it is then dumped into veins of the cardio-vascular system to be cleansed.

Roger Jahnke, OMD writes about the lymph system from a holistic perspective in his article The Lymph⁵, describing gravity as one method of lymph propulsion:

Because gravity exerts such a substantial force and because lymph has so far to climb to get to the thoracic duct’s entry into the sub-clavian vein, any inversion of the limbs or even the prone body position allows for a free flow of lymph unencumbered by the effects of gravity. Elevation of the lower limbs is often prescribed for health problems characterised by a pooling of interstitial fluids.

Also, for centuries yoga practitioners have recognised the concept of turning the body upside down to find relaxation. The head stand position is a form of “postural exchange” (reversing the direction of gravity). Not everyone wants to do headstands, so inversion on Teeter Hang Ups equipment creates an easier alternative with the added benefit of joint decompression.

CORRECT POSTURE

Good posture is that body position which best resists gravity. If a plumb line is hung from the earlobe to the ankles, it should align with the midline of the body’s main support points : the cervical spine, lumbar spine, hip joint, knee joint, and ankle joint. When weight is upported by correctly aligned bones, the body can best resist gravity. When the body gets out of alignment for any reason, even with rounded shoulders, slouched sitting, or one-sided activities like golf the forces are transferred from the bones to the soft tissue, which is not equipped for shock absorption.

Misalignments are not always felt on the inside but left alone, they can cause visual changes to your posture, and those changes can be degenerative. If you want to test this as home, take an empty aluminium can and place pressure on the top. The can will be able to maintain. Its shape even with great force applied because the sides are in alignment, but add a small dent to the can and it will crumble under half the amount of pressure.

When a vertebra is bumped out of alignment the ligaments and muscles that support the spine can hold it in misalignment through the compression that they generate. Since these ligaments and muscles are engaged even when lying down, creating pressure as much as 25% compared to 100% standing, it can be difficult for the spine to naturally come back into alignment. When inverted to 60° the pressure in the spine drops to zero, as shown in the Nachemson medical study¹, with the pressure off of the vertebrae and with some gentle stretching the vertebra has the opportunity to move back into alignment.

Inverted decompression reverses the body’s position with respect to gravity. Joints that were compressed by gravity in the upright position are now being decompressed, becoming more open and drawing in additional oxygen and nutrition. With gentle stretching, the joints can naturally realign into what we call perfect posture. Combined with the reduction of stress and muscle tension, people find that they naturally stand taller and straighter after inverting.

In the article “Children of Clay,”² Dr. Ed Thomas discusses Dr. Robert Martin’s theory on human postures: “Martin suggested that there are six basic human postural categories. Three of them are common. Most people spend their lives, twenty-four hours a day, in them. The other three postures are uncommon. The common postures produce compression and shortening of stature while the uncommon postures are compensatory. They mitigate the wear and tear caused by constantly assuming the dominant common postures.
The three uncommon postures include extension, brachiation (hanging by the hands) and inversion.”

¹Nachemson, A and Elfstrom, G: Intravital Dynamic Pressure Measurements in Lumbar Discs. Scandinavian Journal of Rehab Medicine, supplement, 1970.
²Thomas, E. Children of Clay.