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Archive for the ‘Sciatic Pain’ Category
Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Have you suffered with chronic lower back pain, sciatica, or some other form of pain for months… or even years?
Maybe it seems like you’ve already tried everything and are just about ready to give up on ever finding permanent pain relief.
Well I have good news for you: you’re not beyond help. Over the past decade we’ve helped tens of thousands of people, many in agonizing daily pain, find pain relief. People who thought there was no hope left. And today, thousands upon thousands of them remain pain free.
On the other hand, there are many others who came to us who did not find lasting relief. They continue to struggle with the same old pain year after year. Often it grows even worse.
Amazingly, in almost every case, the difference between those who found pain relief and those who did not boiled down to a willingness to follow a few simple “ground rules” for dealing with their pain. Follow these three simple rules and you will greatly improve your odds of joining those who found relief.
Rule #1: Take responsibility for ending your pain
Relief from pain is first and foremost a personal responsibility. After all, no one cares about your pain more than you do. Maybe you’re seeing a doctor, chiropractor, or any number of natural health practitioners. That’s great, but ask yourself these questions:
- Has my health care provider conducted a completed head-to-toe assessment on me or only focused on the area of pain? (Pain is often referred from other areas of the body.)
- If a diagnosis has been made, has it been completely explained to my understanding?
- Has my health care provider identified the root cause of my pain? (Not a condition, like a herniated disc, but what actually caused the condition, like a specific muscle imbalance.)
- Have I been given a step-by-step care plan that addresses both the pain symptoms and the underlying root cause of the identified condition?
If you haven’t received a satisfactory answer to all of these questions, ask! Don’t accept a brush off. It’s your body and you need to get the right responses to properly address your pain.
Rule #2: Don’t put all your eggs in one basket
I can’t tell you how many times someone has purchased one of our products, tried it, and when their pain wasn’t 100% gone in the first day or week they decided to return the product for a refund. Look, we don’t want anyone paying for a product that doesn’t help them. And we gladly process refunds all the time. But let’s be honest here. Chances are the condition causing your pain didn’t happen overnight. Oftentimes it took years to get to the point where your back “suddenly” gave out or sciatica became noticeable.
We have a lot of testimonials on our website from people who have experienced amazing results in just days. But when you’re talking about correcting conditions that took months or years to get as bad as they are, you have to realize some people may take a little longer to work through the healing process.
So what am I saying? I’m saying that if you want to get back to a pain-free life, you might have to invest a little effort. And it
might be that one treatment only gets you part of the way there. So you have to be willing to try different approaches. For example, you
may only find some pain relief by using muscle balance therapy
to address muscle imbalances, but need to also work out trigger points to finally get the full pain relief you’re looking for.
Most importantly, don’t give up. Too many people never get pain relief simply because they give up on a treatment approach too soon. Give your body time to heal and don’t quit until you get the relief you’re looking for.
Rule #3: Stop doing what doesn’t work
Ok, now you’ve made the commitment to follow through to make progress in your fight against pain. You’re not going to quit on yourself. But here’s the other side of the coin: don’t blindly keep doing what doesn’t work.
Let’s say you’re going to a chiropractor. If you’ve been going for over three months and haven’t made any progress yet, it’s likely time to seek another approach. That’s my rule of thumb… if you’re not getting some measure of increased pain relief in three months, try something else.
If you have made progress but are still in pain, try combining multiple approaches. You might find inversion therapy gives you significant pain relief from a herniated disc, but trigger point therapy is needed to completely end referred pain while muscle balance therapy addresses what caused your disc to herniated in the first place. It’s all a process of finding what works for your body.
I hope this makes sense to you. We want to help as many people as we can live a pain free life, but ultimately, it’s up to you to make the necessary changes to improve your health.
Posted in Back Pain, Herniated Disc, Inversion Table, Inversion Therapy, Pain Relief, Sciatic Pain, Uncategorized, back pain at work | 3 Comments »
Monday, March 8th, 2010
Do you have a sharp pain that frequently radiates through your buttocks, down the outside of your leg, right into your foot? If so, you might ask me as so many others have: Is sciatica causing my leg pain?
That’s an easy one. No.
How can you say that without ever meeting me you ask? Let me explain.
The term sciatica can describe the symptoms you are feeling. But it doesn’t describe what causes those symptoms.
Mere semantics? Not really. Because ending your sciatic pain doesn’t require finding out what your pain feels like (the symptoms, called sciatica). It requires finding out what is causing it (the underlying condition).
So, what causes sciatica?
Glad you asked. But let’s first clear up what sciatica actually is with a more formal definition to make sure we’re on the same page.
Sciatica is the symptom of radiating pain felt in the lower back, buttocks, hamstring, back of the knee, outside of the calf, and / or the foot. It may also be associated with muscular weakness, numbness, or even an electrical tingly feeling. Yep, tingly is a technical term.
The underlying cause of sciatica is generally the compression or irritation of either the actual sciatic nerve or one of the major lumbar nerves (L4 or L5) or sacral nerves (S1, S2, or S3).
Outside of trauma or the very rare spinal tumor, most cases of sciatica are caused by one of these four underlying conditions: a herniated disc, spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis, or piriformis syndrome.
Sometimes women experience sciatica during pregnancy as the enlarged uterus presses against the sciatic nerve and postural dysfunctions associated with carrying the extra weight pulls their spine out of proper alignment.
When it comes to sciatica, the right question isn’t “Is sciatica causing my leg pain?” Instead ask, “Is my leg pain sciatica?” This short video will help you visualize what may be causing your sciatica so you can quickly treat it properly and end your sciatic pain.
Posted in Back Pain, Sciatic Pain, Sciatica, Sciatica Exercises, Sciatica Relief, Uncategorized | 3 Comments »
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Upwards of 70% of your body is composed of good old H2O. Some claim as little as a 2% drop in fluids can leave you itchy, groggy, constipated, and feeling generally rotten all around.
It certainly makes sense to stay hydrated. Drinking enough water helps ensure our bladder and kidneys flush toxins out of our bodies. It helps our bodies digest food. And it can even prevent headaches, joint aches and muscle pain.
So what does this have to do with your spine? Quite a bit it turns out. Not only is over 70% of your body made up of water, but a similar ratio exists in the discs that cushion the vertebrae in your spine. It turns out dehydration is a little talked about but significant factor contributing herniated and bulging discs.
A decrease in disc water content is associated with spinal disc degeneration. As the discs break down, cracks form in the fibrous outer ring of the disc leading to fluid loss. The inner core becomes weaker as it shrinks and comes under more stress until conditions become ripe for the disc to bulge or herniated.
Exactly how much water is enough can be a matter of significant debate. The most commonly given “rule” is to drink at least eight 8-ounce glasses of water a day. It’s really more of a “rule of thumb” though as the amount your body really needs largely depends on your gender (males tend to require more water), weight (larger mass requires more water), activity level, and environment among other factors.
Allow me to make drinking water simple for you. If you’re thirsty, drink a glass of water. Seriously. If you’re not thirsty but are experiencing some of the symptoms of mild dehydration, try drinking a glass of water anyways. Normally if you’re drinking enough water your urine will be clear or pale yellow. Be aware that it’ll typically be darker first thing in the morning, after a meal, or when taking water soluble vitamins like riboflavin.
When your body is properly hydrated, your spinal discs are able to reabsorb fluids at night while you sleep. Many individuals with back pain have gotten fast relief by using inversion therapy tables which release pressure on the discs through gentle gravity-based traction. This allows fluid to soak back into the spongy interior of the disc so that it can heal and properly support your vertebrae.
So yes, water is the stuff of life. And the stuff that’ll help your spine stay healthy too.
Related references:
H2O: Hydration; Marketing Health Promotion, Wellness, and Risk Information for Spinal Cord Injury Survivors in the Community. Craig Hospital. Englewood, CO.
Wognum S, Huyghe JM, Baaijens FP. Influence of osmotic pressure changes on the opening of existing cracks in 2 intervertebral disc models. Spine. 2006;31:1783–8.
Zhao F, et al. Discogenic origins of spinal instability. Spine. 2005 Dec 1;30(23):2621-30.
Nosse, L.: Inverted Spinal Traction. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 59: 367-370, Aug 78.
Posted in Back Pain, Herniated Disc, Inversion Table, Inversion Therapy, Lower Back Pain, Sciatic Pain, Teeter Inversion Table, Uncategorized | 8 Comments »
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Most people say they want to get rid of their pain, but they really don’t.
For some reason, they just really aren’t ready… otherwise they would have done it already or at least be actively working on it… relentless in their determination to get their life back.
Many of these people claim that if they only knew “how to” solve the problem they would. Yet there is more than enough of the how to… it’s everywhere…in books, videos, audios, doctors, etc… our entire website is full of some of the best how to there is when it comes to back pain… yet most people still don’t get relief… but not because the how to didn’t work, they don’t get relief because they are lacking the “want to”… a real desire to do what it takes to eliminate the problem.
I urge you to listen to this audio from Steve Chandler about the difference between the “How to” and the “Want to”… it’s this that can keep you stuck in pain or can set you free.
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Click here to download
If you listen, please share your thoughts by commenting below.
If you don’t listen, it’s obvious that you don’t really want to get rid of the pain.
Posted in Back Pain, Lower Back Pain, Neck Pain, Sciatic Pain, Uncategorized, back pain at work, pain and Inflammation | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
One of the questions we get most here at the Healthy Back Institute is: “what’s the best mattress for back pain?”.
A good mattress can make all the difference in the world for getting a good night’s sleep. When sciatica or back pain makes sleeping difficult, picking the right mattress takes on even greater importance.
Conventional wisdom says if you have back pain you should sleep on a firm mattress. This happens to be one convention that isn’t always so wise. In a study of over 300 adults with chronic lower back pain, those who slept on medium-firm mattresses consistently reported less pain both at night and upon arising as well as improvement in back pain related disability than those who slept on firm mattresses.
Before you rush out and purchase a medium-firm mattress, first consider the source of your back pain and your own sleeping preferences.
Mattresses for sciatica
Those with sciatica often find any amount of flexion will aggravate their condition. Selecting a firmer mattress is often helpful.
Mattresses for spinal stenosis
Those with spinal stenosis often find the opposite is true, with a flexed position providing back pain relief. A somewhat softer mattress will often make sleep more comfortable in this case.
Mattresses for lower back pain
While the study referenced earlier found a medium-firm mattress provided the best results for those with lower back pain, some individuals may find either a firmer or a softer mattress provides a better sleeping experience.
Try it before you buy it
One of the most effective ways many have found to select the right mattress is to try them out at different places first. If you achieve a noticeably more restful sleep when staying at particular hotel or sleeping over at a friend’s house and then wake up with less back pain, you have a good clue. At the very least, lie down on the bed at the store before you buy it – that’s why they have those plastic covers on the end. Many higher quality brands also offer a try at home guarantee. Since you’ll likely sleep on the mattress for the next 5 to 10 years, it’s worth making the best investment you can afford.
Here’s another article that you might find helpful: Back Pain While Sleeping?
Posted in Back Pain, Back Support Cushion, Sciatic Pain, Sciatica, Sciatica Relief, Uncategorized | 23 Comments »
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