If you’ve ever suffered from intense pain in the neck, shoulder or upper back
you know that it can make getting through the day extremely difficult because
there are so many things we do that require our arms and head.

I know exactly what it’s like as I’ve had my fair share of injuries, including
shoulder problems brought on by weight lifting as well as a month long stiff
neck caused by a nasty mountain bike accident.

So I know a thing or two about how to deal with and eliminate these aches
and pains. Plus, over the past 5 years, here at the Healthy Back Institute
we’ve helped thousands of people overcome neck, shoulder and upper
back pain.

Here’s what we’ve found to work the best:

1. If brought on by an accident, as quickly as possible take Arnica.

Arnica is a homeopathic remedy that works very well when taken right after
injury and they even make small viles of pellets you can keep on you. I now
keep some in my car and also in my mountain biking pack.

2. Reduce the inflammation as quickly as possible.

There are many things you can do to reduce the inflammation. You can use
ice for the first 24-48 hours. Elevate the limb or injured part of the body.

You can also use a natural anti-inflammatory like Lifezyme Plus.
Provided there’s no open wound you can also use a topical pain relieving cream
like Rub on Relief.

3. Eliminate muscle spasms and relieve tight, stiff muscles

Muscles in spasms can wreak havoc on your body and what many people
don’t realize is your muscles can be a in a state of “semi” spasms.. meaning
the spasm isn’t intense enough for you to notice but while mild it can still pull
your body out alignment and cause other problems.

One way to address this is trigger point therapy which can be administered
by a trained therapist and much of it you can even do yourself.

4. Ensure your mindset is programmed for recovery

Believe it or not, your mind… how you think, what you feel, etc all plays a
MAJOR role in your ability to heal and recover. And if you don’t believe it,
I challenge you to do some research and see what you discover. Start by
reading this special report on the subject.

But in the meantime, just remember that you must tell yourself that you
WILL overcome this and you must believe it.

5. Identify and address your muscle imbalances

Whether your pain was caused by an accident or not, you have imbalances…
we all do and the worse they are the more likely they are to create conditions
and cause pain.

If you haven’t already identified your imbalances using our best-selling
Lose The Back Pain system you really need to. You can’ expect to get lasting
relief if you don’t uncover and address the underlying cause.

And before you try to say “my condition was caused by ______” let me remind
you that regardless of what you may have been diagnosed with and what you
have been told, or what you believe caused it, I can promise you that muscle
imbalances ARE a factor…

In fact, I’m willing to bet that they are a BIGGER factor than you may think and
that once you start to address them you WILL start to see improvements…

And often times people see improvements in so many other areas in addition
to the “condition or pain” that got them started in the first place.

Well, I wish you the best and hope that you will take action and continue to
learn and experiment.

If you ever have questions please post them in our discussion forum.

Talk to you again soon…

Jesse

P.S. Who do you know who could benefit from these emails and all of the other
free resources on our website? Please forward this email to anyone you know
who might benefit.

It’s a question I get dozens, if not hundreds of times each and every day:

I’ve tried everything but am still in extreme pain, what can I do?

Well, I’ve got good and bad news for you…

First, let’s start with the GOOD news.

The good news is I’ve not met or talked to a person yet who has tried every treatment known to man… so while you may have tried lots of different things, I’m willing to bet there are treatments (and treatment combinations) that you have NOT yet tried.

But even more important is the fact that the more things you’ve tried the closer you likely are to finding the one thing (or more likely, combination of things) that will work for you and finally give you your life back.

People view failure as a bad thing when instead you need to look at it as an experiment… and know that the faster you try things the sooner you achieve success.

But now for the BAD news…

The bad news (or more appropriately, sad news) is, most people don’t view themselves as powerful and successful beings and they give up. So let me ask you this extremely important question…

Are you going to win the war against your pain or is it going to beat the life out of you?

Seems like a silly question I know… but far too many people lose this battle and end up living the rest of their life miserable and in pain…

And what really drives me nuts is it does NOT have to be like this!  There are so many things you can do that WILL improve things for you yet every day I get emails from people who have already given up. I can usually tell after reading just the first sentence or two.

Well, I want to share a story with you that I know you will find truly inspiring… read this:

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Vira B
Date: Apr 20, 2008 12:08 AM
Subject: Re: did you get my email?
To: Jesse <jesse@losethebackpain.com>

Dear Jesse:

There appears to be some confusion at your end. I bought the program and admit that it was the best $110.00 bucks I had spent in my life.  My pain was so incredible that I found myself lying on the floor curled up in a ball wishing I could die and get it over with.

Years of physio. (all wrong) chiro, massage, cranio, and the list goes on with thousands of dollors flying out of my pocket, with  no end in sight I really had given up on life.   Yes, yes, I even had surgery.  But God just didn’t want me yet as I was directed to your website.

I bought your program, tried it and in just one day, (yes, one day)  my pain stopped.   I told my physiotherapists, they should learn something and buy your program.

I told my Doctor about it and suggested that she send her patients to your websight.  She agreed to check it out for herself.  I tell everyone about you two and what a common sense program you have that works.

I have to thank for your business smarts and for taking the time and energy to put your fabulous program together.  It’s because of you that I have a chance at life again.  Many many thanks.

Best regards

Vira  B
Calgary, AB
———————

Thanks so much Vira for sharing your story. And it’s YOU who won this battle, not me… all I did was supply you with information that you needed but didn’t have and I’m happy just to be a small part of your success.

While not everyone gets such incredible and immediate results, I’m glad you did. And I want to point out that the main reason you are feeling better now is because you never gave up…

You kept searching and trying things until you found the solution and that’s THE key to success in all aspects of life whether it’s overcoming chronic pain, losing weight or having a successful relationship.

Another thing I want to say is, while I’m glad you told your therapists don’t be surprised if they poo-poo the system and try to dismiss your success as a “coincidence”… it happens all the time and it’s because most people, especially doctors and the like, tend to think they know it all… and accepting the results that you and tens of thousands of others have using our system would mean they’d have to admit that they don’t know it all.

It doesn’t matter how dramatic the results were… it doesn’t matter that you had surgery and tried physical therapy, massage, chiropractic and all the other treatments but none of it worked. Some people just can’t seem to admit that they don’t know it all.

I learned a long time ago that I don’t know it all… far, far from it. In fact, every day I am amazed by how much I’m learning all the time. I hope that you to keep an open mind and are always attentive and learning.

I urge you to devour all of the information on our website… there’s literally hundreds of pages of information on conditions, treatments, products and more.

Also, over the years one of the things we’ve discovered here at the Healthy Back Institute is that the mind plays a very BIG role in back pain and all sorts of diseases and conditions. I’ll be sending you some articles and information on this in the future as it is THE missing link for a lot of people.

Well, that’s all for today. Talk to you again soon…

Jesse

P.S. Have you listened to the “Back Pain Treatments Reviewed” teleseminar recording yet? If not, you can listen to it now here . On it we review many treatments in detail and talk about the pros, cons and why certain treatments will work for one person but not the next… even when they may have the same condition.

How To Work Some Magic on Your Metabolism

So many people are talking about how slow their metabolism is and why they need to start taking the latest diet supplement yet they don’t even understand how the human metabolism, their own body works.

So before I even go into how to speed yours up, I want to first go over some of the basics.

What is metabolism?

There are many scientific ways for me to put to you and I could make it seem really confusing like most of the so-called experts do, but I won’t. I’m going to give you my extremely simple and easy to understand definition… metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories to sustain life.

I should also note that your body, yes yours, burns calories 24 hours a day, everyday - regardless of whether or not you workout or not.

Remember that, your body needs energy all the time, even while you’re a sleep and that is why skipping meals is the absolute worst thing you can do if your goal is to lose weight (body fat).

Before we go any further let’s talk about what affects metabolism…

What affects metabolism?

What do you think has the biggest impact on your metabolism? Activity levels? Your Thyroid? Age?

WRONG! WRONG! and WRONG!

Activity levels, Thyroid function, and age do affect metabolism but not nearly as much as…any idea?

It’s muscle tissue! The more muscle you have the more calories you burn regardless of how active you are, how old you are, etc. It’s live tissue and it’s there working for you and burning calories 24 hours a day – each and every day!

Here’s a list of some of the factors affecting metabolism:

Why does it slow down?

How many times have you heard someone say, “as soon as you hit 30 your metabolism slows down”?

Maybe you’ve said it. I know I hear it all the time and I got tired of hearing it so I did a little research and found that the metabolism does NOT slow down significantly due to aging but DOES due to a lack of muscle. And, you don’t lose muscle quickly due to aging either but due to a decrease or lack of physical stress.

So, the major cause of a slowing metabolism is three fold…

1. you lose muscle due to the lack of physical stress

2. your body cannibalizes muscle when it needs energy but you won’t supply any because you are “dieting” and skipping meals

3. your activity levels tend to decrease as you get older.

So now we know the problem… what’s the solution?

Address those 3 issues! I’ve found with years of experience in helping hundreds of people, that increasing your metabolism and getting rid of that excess body fat can often times be quite easy!

Yet you’ll hear of all these experts telling you how hard it is and why you need to buy their new diet program, supplement, or fitness contraption.

It’s not that hard, it doesn’t have to be confusing, and you don’t need any of that crap! All you need is an understanding of how your body works and the willingness to make some small changes.

Here’s my basic formula for jump starting your metabolism:

Step 1 - Stop the storage of new fat

It doesn’t make any sense to start an exercise program if you just end up adding new fat later that day. This is a problem that is very common among people who start an exercise in an attempt to lose weight.

See the problem is this…We don’t get fat due to a lack of exercise – we get fat because we supply the body with more calories than it needs at a given time.

So the solution has nothing to do with exercise – it’s all about your eating! And I’m not saying you have to eat low-fat, super clean and healthy diet consisting of salad and tofu only. You can still eat the foods you like IF you can give the body just the amount it needs.

The key is to give the body the energy it needs, but just that amount not a bunch extra because extra is extra is extra, it doesn’t matter what it’s from. Salad can be stored as fat, celery can be stored as fat – if it results in extra it can be stored as fat. I should also note that not all extra energy is stored in the fat cells and I will touch on that later.

So forget about trying to burn off any fat unless you can first stop storing new fat! Again, you do that by matching your eating to your activity level. This means small, balanced meals or snacks every 2-3 hours and the amount of calories in each feeding should depend on how active you are at that time of day.

Step 2 – Attack the existing fat

This requires a combination approach consisting of stable blood sugar/energy levels, and progressive cardiovascular/aerobic exercise and strength training.

We already talked about how important stable blood sugar and energy levels are and how to match you eating to your activity level so now I’d like to cover the exercise part of the equation.

In order for the exercise to even be worth your time you must be sure it’s progressive. Just because you run on the treadmill for 30 minutes three times a week, that doesn’t mean your body has to burn off that unwanted body fat!

You have to force the body makes changes and improvements and the ONLY way to do that is to consistently provide a stimulus or stress that is greater than what the body is used to.

Here are some general guidelines on how you can make your exercise progressive and productive:

Strength training

Cardiovascular training

Best wishes,
Jesse

Ever wondered if inversion therapy really works?

Well, watch this short, 2-minute video we created for you. In this video, we
demonstrate how inversion therapy works and also show you several things
you can do to make it even better.

So if you suffer from any type of back pain, neck pain or sciatica and have not
tried inversion therapy, you really should watch this short video and read the
special report that is also available on the webpage.

And if you’ve already tried inversion, you still should watch it because you may
find several of the special “tricks” we share to be helpful.

I also wanted to share with you an email that I received a long time ago but just
found while going through my “collection” of thousands of emails.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: kate.b@myemail.net
Date: Jul 27, 2007 5:30 PM
Subject: Re: 54 Year Old Nurse Shares Her Secrets For Sciatica Relief
To: jesse@gethealthyandfit.com

Hi Jesse,
Over the past year I have become a fan of you and what you’re doing on your
website. I was 33 yrs old when my son was born. When he was 3 months old I
got out of a rocking chair and “tweaked” the wrong way and ended up spending
2 weeks flat on the floor unable to move icing nonstop (luckily I have family
around). I was in soo much pain, I’d wake up in tears..not that I slept with a new
born in the house.

Completely exhausted, I had an MRI that reported I had herniated my L5-S1
disc area. That started my journey into researching how to take care of my back
and how to get those core muscles some strength after pregnancy.

3 unsuccessful cortizone injections later, hours of physical therapy, meds etc.
nothing worked. I used to be a marathon runner and lead a very active lifestyle.
I was determined to get back to enjoying my family and life!

Then one night in my quest I came across your website and the inversion table.
I ordered your books, dvd’s and an inversion table. It changed my life! I’m hooked
and have been pain free for over 10 months now. I’m doing pilates, run in the
water, “hang like a bat” on the table as my husband calls it, and chase my toddler
around all day without any pain.

Gratefully,
Kate Berman, 34 & fit mama of an active 22 month old.

———- end Kate’s email ————

That’s awesome!

I’ve said it so many times before, but it deserves repeating here again now…

Most people get the best results when they COMBINE multiple treatments and
remedies together.

Here’s the combination that we have found to work the best for the largest
number of people:

1. Identify and address muscle imbalances, which are almost always the
underlying cause, by using the Lose The Back Pain system

2. Reduce pain and inflammation with safe and natural ingredients like the
ones found in Lifezyme Plus

3. Decompress the spine with some form of traction or inversion therapy

4. Address trigger points - with help from a trigger point specialist or can be
done at home using our trigger point self treatment system

5. Improve your mental / emotional state and wipe out negative stress and
there are many ways to accomplish this. A few products we recommend
are the Stress Less video and Mind Body Pain Relief

Well, I hope you find the video about inversion therapy informative and keep
your eyes peeled as I have several more videos I’ll be sending you over the
next few weeks.

In fact, I have one about sciatica where I’ll show you one of THE most effective
stretches for sciatica… plus an other video showing you many little things you
can do to reduce or better manage pain while at work.

So, that’s all for now… talk to you again soon.

Jesse

Enjoy and come back to our forum if you have any questions…

http://www.losethebackpain.com/media/blue-sciatica.mp3

Get your questions answered about Back Pain, Neck Pain or Sciatica on our Back Pain Forum