Facet joints connect your vertebrae together. They provide a smooth slippery surface allowing you to bend and twist. And they limit your range of motion just enough to prevent accidental injury of your spinal cord.
When they hurt, it can seriously impact your ability to move normally. A painful cervical facet joint can immobilize your neck, cause an ache in your shoulder, and force you to turn your whole body just to look left or right. Pain from a lumbar facet joint may leave you unable to stand up straight, hunched over while you walk, and suffering a deep ache from your buttocks to the back of your thighs. Doctors call this common diagnosis facet joint syndrome.
Facet joints are a common source of back and neck pain. In fact, lumbar facet joints are implicated in nearly a third of chronic lower back pain cases and nearly half of all chronic neck pain cases when no herniated disc is present.1
But before you blame your facet joints for your back or neck pain, let’s first remember a syndrome is not the same thing as a cause. Even our family’s children’s dictionary accurately describes a syndrome as “a group of signs or symptoms that together indicate a particular disease or condition.”2
Doctors often use a facet joint block (an injection of anesthetic into the facet joint) to isolate the source of pain. Then they’ll turn around and use it to “treat” the pain too. Isn’t that a little like saying your flat tire has low air pressure, so just roll it around the corner and we’ll pump some more air into it? Excuse me, but let’s pull the nail out and patch the hole first guys!
Again, facet joint pain is a symptom of a problem. While we want to end the pain, the only way to keep it from returning is to find and correct the underlying cause. Since the root problem varies from one individual to the next there is no one single treatment that works for everyone. It will take some effort on your part to resolve the problem but isn’t a lifetime free of the cycle of pain, doctor visits and repeated facet joint injections worth it? If you’re ready to end the cycle of pain, here’s what I recommend:
Short-term pain relief (while you find and correct the root problem):
Heat therapy - while a heating pad may help, it won’t give you the deep penetrating heat that can really relieve the ache. I highly recommend a far infrared heating pad which can penetrate 2-3 inches deep for effective pain relief.
Celadrin-based pain relief cream - while many off-the shelf creams may help, Celadrin is the only pain relief cream ingredient I’ve ever seen with a 100% success rate in relieving joint pain.3
Natural anti-inflammatories - Inflammation is almost always related to painful facet joints. Use safer natural anti-inflammatories as a healthy alternative to dangerous NSAIDs.
Suggested therapies for finding and fixing the cause of your facet joint syndrome:
Muscle-Balance therapy - Restoring your body to a neutral, balanced and stable state is critical for your long-term pain relief. That’s what muscle balance therapy helps you accomplish.
Trigger-point therapy - Trigger points have been proven to be directly responsible for 75% of all pain. Eliminating your trigger points should be a priority for pain relief.
Inversion therapy -Inversion therapy helps your body reseat misaligned facet joints by relieving pressure and allowing the joints to simply “slip” back into the correct position.
Watch your diet - Avoid inflammatory foods – typically anything processed, high fat, high sugar, or including refined grains are inflammatory. Be sure to take a good multi-vitamin.
Emotional troubleshooting - When all else fails, evaluate your emotional life. Sometimes stress and emotions keep otherwise helpful treatments from working. This may just be the final step you need for relief from your facet joint syndrome related pain. Here’s a video you might find helpful.
Related references:
1 Manchikanti L, et al. An algorithmic approach for clinical management of chronic spinal pain. Pain Physician. 2009 Jul-Aug;12(4):E225-64.
2 “Syndrome.” The McGraw-Hill Children’s Dictionary. 2003.
3 Kraemer WJ, et al. Effect of a cetylated fatty acid topical cream on functional mobility and quality of life of patients with osteoarthritis. The Journal of rheumatology. 2004 Apr;31(4):767-74.
If you want to get someone suffering from pain angry in a hurry, just tell them their pain is all in their mind. “Baloney!” (or some stronger word) might be their response.
Saying pain is all in someone’s mind is tantamount to claiming their pain is imaginary. Clearly pain is real to any person suffering with it. However, the cause of pain very well may be from their mind.
Pain often has a musculoskeletal source. But one very common factor behind many types of pain does originate in your mind, namely stress. Even when stress isn’t the primary cause of pain, it can exacerbate existing pain from musculoskeletal causes leaving you feeling even worse.
Stress is directly related not only to pain but also numerous illnesses with no apparent biological cause. Fibromyalgia, chronic headaches, and insomnia are often tied to high levels of stress. Stress also causes our bodies to release adrenaline which is critical for responding to genuine “fight or flight” situations. Chronically high levels of adrenaline caused by repeated unresolved stress – even from situations as benign as sitting in traffic, missing a deadline, etc. – can lead to trigger pain from anxiety, muscle tension, digestive disorders, and even lead to long-term biological damage.
As a result, if you or someone you love suffers from pain, eliminating stress can play an important role in your search for lasting pain relief and better health. Here are several proven ways to reduce stress and stress-related pain:
Physical activity, especially rhythmic exercises like bicycling or swimming, helps burn off stress chemicals and has been proven more effective than Prozac for treating depression. Targeted exercise itself can even help relieve pain.
Real hypnosis (not the stage act kind!) can be very effective at eliminating stress, reducing anxiety, and improving your health.
Herbs such as ginseng, Rhodiola rosea, chamomile, Siberian ginseng, cordyceps, and ashwagandha are known for their ability to reduce stress and anxiety.
Heat therapy like a hot bath or sauna works wonders at helping your body relax. Localized heat treatments can help reduce specific areas of pain, stress and tension. Far infrared heat is a form proven safer and more effective than traditional heating pads.
Use mind/body approaches such as tai chi to take a multi-disciplinary approach to eliminating stress and pain.
Get actively involved in a community. Building a network of friends brings with it powerful allies in helping you cope with the day to day stressors of modern life.
Don’t look now but heavy metal is threatening your health. Not the head banging kind floating invisibly across the airwaves (though prolonged listening may lead to some serious neck cramps). Instead we’re talking about the more insidious kind of toxic heavy metals inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through your skin — or even purposely implanted in your body.
Once absorbed into the body, heavy metals become embedded in soft tissue or bones. What makes heavy metal poisoning particularly scary is it not only can cause severe disease but it can even lead to irreversible damage to your DNA.
While there are treatments to help remove heavy metals from the body, it can take several difficult months to recover completely. Clearly the best line of defense is to recognize the danger and prevent heavy metal poisoning in the first place. Here are a few of the most common heavy metals to watch out for.
Mercury
Topping the list of dangerous heavy metals is the neurotoxin mercury. It has been associated with autism and many neurological disorders. Mercury is so hazardous that a tiny drop the size of one grain of sand would contaminate an entire swimming pool.
While an excellent source of nutrition, sadly most fish — both wild and farm-raised — is heavily contaminated with mercury today. As a result, fish are now the most significant source of mercury toxicity. Larger and older fish typically have higher concentrations, so avoid eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tile fish, and white albacore tuna. Haddock, tilapia, cod, pollock, salmon, and sole are better alternatives though intake should still be limited.
Another very significant source of mercury in the body are dental amalgams, or “silver fillings.” Don’t believe the lie the American Dental Association continues to publish that they are safe. A full 50% of these fillings consist of mercury. The materials themselves are shipped as hazardous waste to your dentist and treated like hazardous waste after removal. Good move, but should you use your mouth as a hazardous waste storage facility? Insist on your dentist using only non-mercury based fillings.
One more top source of mercury gets injected directly into your bloodstream with many vaccines. Thimerosal, a mercury based vaccine preservative, is used in many vaccines including a number of the H1N1 swine flu vaccines. Mercury is considered by many to be a factor in the skyrocketing incidents of childhood autism and neurological disorders. This is just one of many reasons to avoid vaccinations, or at least carefully weigh the risks before accepting them. Some vaccinations have thimerosal-free forms which should always be preferred.
Aluminum
Associated with osteoporosis, memory loss, and forgetfulness, aluminum is also found in levels as much as 4x higher than average in the brains of patients who have died from Alzheimer’s.
Aluminum is absorbed through the skin. One of the biggest culprits are underarm antiperspirants and deodorants containing aluminum. Switch to a baking soda based deodorant instead.
Many people ingest much more aluminum than they realize. Aluminum cookware, aluminum foil, soda cans and even some processed foods contain aluminum. It may also be present in your tap water. Minimize exposure by avoiding products with aluminum and have your water tested or drink purified water.
Lead
Once absorbed, lead often settles in the bones interfering with red blood cell production. Exposure can result in severe health problems including anemia, severe learning disabilities, behavioral problems and kidney disease.
Although lead-based paint has been outlawed for use in residences for over 30 years, millions of homes across the United States built before 1978 still have lead paint. Chips or dust from this paint can be ingested or inhaled causing lead poisoning.
Tap water is another common source of lead poisoning, particularly when the water travels through older pipes which have begun to break down. Again, test your tap water for the presence of lead or drink only purified water.
Maintain your built-in detoxification system
Your body was marvelously designed to cleanse itself of impurities. Just like any other system, you need to maintain your detoxification system in good working order for it to work properly. Here are some steps you can take to help your body naturally eliminate heavy metals and fight their harmful effects:
Eat more protein which helps supply essential amino acids used by the liver to create glutathione, a key antioxidant and detoxifying molecule
Eat your veggies, particularly dark colored ones like broccoli, Brussel sprouts, and artichokes which also help build detoxifying molecules in the body; chlorella is a form of algae shown to have a very beneficial effect on removing toxins from the body, usually taken as a supplement
Drink plenty of pure water — preferably purified by a water filter or recently bottled from a pure source — and eat more fiber, together which will help ensure normal bowel movements which are particularly important for removing heavy metals such as mercury
Increase intake of antioxidants like Vitamin C and Vitamin E through diet or supplementation to counter some of the most harmful effects of heavy metal poisoning – the creation of numerous free radicals in your body which can damage your DNA and increase your chances of getting cancer
Use heat therapy to sweat out toxins — a sauna works great or you can try localized heat such as with a far infrared heating pad which increases blood circulation throughout the body
When people say back pain affects everyone, that really is the truth!
Not only did I struggle with middle back pain (and a bunch of other ailments like shoulder problems, knee pain, tendonitis) years ago before becoming an “expert” …
but my wife has also had several bouts of back pain over the years brought on initially due to a c-section birth. Well, a few days ago she had a flare up… no significant physical incident to bring it on like sneezing or picking up a heavy item, etc…
Instead, I feel that it was a combination of stress/worry about several current life situations that she/we are dealing with right now as well as some physical factors such as changes to her exercise program… she recently added running back into her program.
Anyway, not to bore you with her story, but I thought you might really benefit from the suggestions I gave her and the actions she has taken…
So, the first thing she did was rub in a few squirts of Rub on Relief … she has been applying it 2-3 times per day.
Then she jumped (not really, more like crawled) into our bed with both our large and medium size Far Infrared Heating Pads … and she has been lying on these just about every chance she gets (which isn’t much with 6 kids still at home, though I of course have stepped up to do as much as I can).
She has also been taking hot jacuzzi baths with sea salts (with magnesium) once a day… taking Heal-n-Soothe 1-2 times per day (3 capsules at a time though I’m trying to get her to up the dose – I take 6-8 at a time) to reduce the inflammation and pain.
In addition she is drinking a lot of water… increased her magnesium and vitamin D intakes (liquid supplements)… and also experimenting with various homeopathic and herbal muscle relaxants like kali carb, chamomile, valerian and others.
And last, since it seems that one of the biggest underlying causes is stress, worry, negative energy, etc, she is also spending as much time as possible relaxing… reading… laughing.
As you likely know, there are of course many other things that can be done, but this is where she’s starting and this is likely all she’ll need as she’s getting close to “back to normal”.
Anyway, I hope you found this informative and maybe it has given you a few things that you have not yet tried. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how she’s feeling
Ice and heat are both well known for their ability to treat pain by breaking the pain-spasm cycle. So are many rub on treatments which provide a cooling or warming sensation.
The problem with most heating remedies is they only provide superficial relief. The heat only penetrates a few millimeters at best meaning it doesn’t provide full benefit to deeper muscle aches and pains.
One increasingly popular option in recent years is the use of far infrared heating pads. Originally found primarily in alternative healthcare practitioner offices, the technology has now matured. Individuals can now purchase affordable far infrared heating pads for home use.
What is far infrared heat?
Think of walking outside on a sunny day. The air temperature is constant, but you immediately feel cooler when you walk into the shade This is because the sun’s infrared rays directly penetrates and heats your body.
Don’t confuse far infrared heat (FIR) with the skin damaging ultraviolet light also provided by the sun. FIR is completely safe. Many hospitals now use infrared heating systems to keep babies warm in their neonatal units.
What does far infrared heat do?
Exposure to FIR allows heat to penetrate as far as 3 inches deep. This deep penetrating heat gently causes an artificial “fever” without the unpleasant side effect of actually being sick. As a result, blood circulation is improved to the treated area bringing more healing oxygen to joints and extremities and speeding healing of injuries.
FIR stimulates the blood vessels to expand which allows the improved blood circulation without increasing blood pressure.
Another impact of far infrared heat is the breakdown of toxin filled large water molecules. The increased circulation and warmth then causes the body to rid itself of toxins and wastes through perspiration.
Here are some other known benefits of far infrared heat:
The Healthy Back Institute - 333 Main St. Suite #201 Gaithersburg, MD 20878
Phone: 800-216-4908 Fax: 866-843-4319
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Facet joints connect your vertebrae together. They provide a smooth slippery surface allowing you to bend and twist. And they limit your range of motion just enough to prevent accidental injury of your spinal cord.
If you want to get someone suffering from pain angry in a hurry, just tell them their pain is all in their mind. “Baloney!” (or some stronger word) might be their response.
Don’t look now but heavy metal is threatening your health. Not the head banging kind floating invisibly across the airwaves (though prolonged listening may lead to some serious neck cramps). Instead we’re talking about the more insidious kind of toxic heavy metals inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through your skin — or even purposely implanted in your body.
