Back pain

You use your knees every time you walk, run, or move your lower body at all. Knee pain, therefore, dramatically affects the daily life of sufferers, who must use their knees throughout the day. Knee pain is the second only to back pain among American adult pain sufferers. Knee trouble is most often caused by osteoarthritis, a degenerative joint condition in which the cartilage that surrounds the two bones that comprise the knee joint wears away, sometimes causing painful joint-on-joint contact.

There are many treatment options for knee pain. Under the care of a doctor, sufferers can select the most appropriate course of treatment to provide optimum knee pain relief. Over-the-counter and prescription medications including acetaminophen (Tylenol) and aspirin reduce pain, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) including ibuprofen, can reduce inflammation as well as knee joint pain. At-home remedies like ice packs and capsaicin, found in cayenne pepper, often have a similar effect.

Natural supplements like chondroitin and glucosamine have become popular alternatives to traditional medicines in recent years because they present fewer risks of side effects. Both are naturally occurring substances in the body. The former aids in building joint cartilage, while the latter fights against degeneration of cartilage. Studies have proven their effectiveness in alleviating osteoarthritic joint pain, but have yet to demonstrate that these supplements actually reverse the effects of cartilage degeneration that have already taken place.

Modifying knee activity with physical aids such as padding, crutches, and splints, and even simple rest take the pressure off of the knee and provide temporary knee pain relief while the joint recovers from injury. Conversely, specific exercises, stretching, and low-impact aerobic activities such as biking, walking and swimming increase joint strength and flexibility, promoting healing and reducing the risk of further injury.

For severe knee injuries that have not responded to the aforementioned treatments, surgery remains an option. There are several common knee surgeries, which range from exploratory arthroscopic surgery, which orthopedic physicians use to diagnose the exact source of knee pain so that they can determine which behaviors and activities need to be modified, all the way to a total knee replacement. Whichever course of treatment a patient decides upon, it is important to work alongside a physician to ensure proper care.

Tags: pain relief, arthritis, back pain, joint pain

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Back pain is a problem many people the world over often come to endure to some degree. For some it is a source of constant pain and agony, while for others it is a problem which comes and goes without too much suffering.

One of the biggest problems is trying to convince your doctor just how much pain you are in, and if you have a prolapsed disc impinging on your sciatic nerve it could take weeks or months before it is correctly diagnosed. All this of course could depend on where you live, how sympathetic your doctor is, or how much you can afford to spend on health care.

The saddest fact of all is, for the many back pain sufferers, there is much that can be done to help ease the pain and get back some form of mobility. Even knowing the right questions to ask your doctor can often help.

Perhaps the most important way all back pain sufferers can help their self is by doing gentle stretching and exercise. This could well be the last thing many sufferers would wish to contemplate when sometimes it is even painful just to move. The best way to start off is to do some gentle stretches before you get out of bed. Ask your heath care provider what ones are suitable for you.

Always seek medical help. Do some background research on the web and make a list of what questions to ask when you seek medical help. It is also important, if your back problem persists, to make arrangements to have a MRI scan. This is usually definitive in identifying the problem area.

Once you know what is wrong you can focus all your energy on rehabilitation. Usually there are many avenues to explore including surgery, passive manipulation, Chiropractor, Osteopath, Physical Therapy, Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates, Alexander Technique, Chi Kung, Magnetic therapy, TENs machines, and so the list goes on. What works well for some may not work at all for others so it is important to explore as many avenues as possible and try to keep positive.

Tags: sciatica, back pain, tens machine

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The first thing to consider is, “What is the origin of the sharp or sudden pain of a back injury?” To some, it feels like a sharp, stabbing pain; to others, a seizing grip that interferes with breathing. Perhaps it is just that: the seizing grip of muscles going into spasm, causing stabbing back pain and interfering with breathing, nothing more.

Back Pain Treatment and Physical Therapy

Medical practitioners, including physical therapists, face a peculiar quandary with regard to back pain and muscle spasms in general: so often, the pain they encounter in their patients comes from muscular spasticity, so much of their effort goes into ending muscular spasms, and yet so many of their patients return with the same muscle spasms and back pain for which they have been treated in the past. According to one physical therapist, the likelihood of a patient who has had back pain returning again with the same problem is about 80%.

Let’s take another look at back pain, in particular.

Overview Of Back Pain And Muscle Spasms

Unless you have had a violent accident, your back pain, whether sudden or chronic, has been coming for a very long time. Muscular tension builds up for a long time before crossing the point of no return and becoming a back spasm. Then, like the straw that broke the camel’s back, a small movement is sufficient to trigger a crisis.

We return to the quandary of back spasms. What causes the build-up of tension? What controls muscular tension?

The answer may be obvious to you: your brain controls your muscular tension; your brain causes your muscles to go into spasm.

Why?

Muscle Spasms — Usually a Brain-Conditioning Problem

Here, the answer may not seem so obvious — but obvious it is when you think about it: brain conditioning. Your brain, the master control organ of your muscles, is an organ of conditioning (learning). People acquire their tensions through conditioning: repeated overuse, repeated overstrain, repeated stress. Repetition leads to habit formation and habit formation leads to involuntary habits of tension. Back pain is a nervous tension habit conditioned into you through the repetitive strains of life. At that point, your nervous tension is no longer a reflection of a momentary emotional state, but set in the habituation operation of your brain and muscular system.

So the problem is simpler than you might expect. You probably do not have a medical problem; you probably have a conditioning problem. With tingling or numbness, the muscles of your back are so tight that they are pulling your vertebrae (the small bones of your spine) so close that they are pinching nerves. By relaxing those muscles, you can take the pinch off the nerves.

Fortunately for those using the right methods, a muscular conditioning problem can often be cleared up fairly quickly — past experience notwithstanding.

Perspective on Therapeutic Methods to End Back Pain

The problem with most methods used to relax muscles — mental methods, manipulative methods, therapeutic methods in general –is that they may not adequately teach muscular control. Muscular control has two parts: the ability to create muscular tension and the ability to relax muscular tension. Both abilities are needed; otherwise, you are either musclebound (and prone to cramping) or weak. Such methods also often neglect an important part of control: sensory awareness. Too often, people are given therapeutic exercises but no instructions in how to do them; they’re told, “These are strengthening exercises,” so people go for strength instead of control; they go for effort instead of sensory awareness. If you can’t feel how to regulate your muscular tension, you can’t feel how to relax your muscular tension. You feel pain with no connection to the sense of contracting those muscles to the point of fatigue. Progress comes slowly, at best, from working too fast and too mechanically.

So you need to improve both muscular control and the ability to feel your muscles.

Then, you develop freedom of movement, and then, you can relax more completely than you ordinarily do and stay more relaxed without thinking about it. “Freedom of movement” means it’s your natural state.

To, show you how do-able this is, I’ll present some coordinated movements that can often restore your comfort. Before I do, read and understand the following instructions:

(NOTE: If your problem is severe, (numbness or tingling in your extremities) see your doctor to rule out a medical emergency. That done, find a Hanna Somatic Educator (for fastest results) or use the procedure shown below or other self-help resources found below.)

Simple Somatic Coordination Exercises to Help End Back Pain

• Do these movements as a way of creating sensations of movement.
  
• Move slowly and smoothly.
  
• Be gentle, working within the range of sensations you’re willing to experience. Done gently, they are safe to do even with disk problems. If in doubt, consult your physical therapist before proceeding.
  
• Always separate repetitions of a movement with complete relaxation.

If you do these movements mechanically (for example, by counting repetitions instead of feeling movement), if you do them too quickly or too hard, you deprive yourself of the sensations needed to discover your own control over yourself. You may make yourself tighter, instead of looser. You will get better results by doing too little than by doing too much. You will have an easier time if you have somebody read these instructions to you. The movements should feel comfortable to do; if they create pain, do a smaller amount of movement. Move more slowly, more gently.

A: STARTING POSITION:

• on your belly
  
• face turned to the right
  
• right hand under your left cheek (like a pillow, palm down)
  
• left arm loosely by your side
  

1. Slowly lift just your left leg.

   Feel the first sensations of muscular effort. Go slowly.

2. Slowly lower your left leg.

   Feel the last sensation of relaxation, as it happens. Take a deep breath and let everything go.

   REPEAT THIS LEG LIFT FOUR (4) TIMES AT DECREASING LEVELS OF EFFORT.

3. Simultaneously lift your left leg, head, and right arm.

   
   

4. Slowly lower yourself down, take a deep breath and relax all the way.

   REPEAT 4 TIMES AT DECREASING LEVELS OF EFFORT, THEN SWITCH SIDES.

B: STARTING POSITION:

• On your back
  
• knees up
  
• feet near your buttocks
  
• Fingers interlaced behind your head.
  
• Elbows out flat on the floor

1. Arch:
   
   
   • Inhale.
     
   • Gently, gradually turn your tailbone down into the
     surface (arch your low back).
     
   • Gently press your elbows down.
     
   • Tug your heels toward your buttocks and hold.

2. Curl:
   
   
   • Begin to exhale.

   • When you can feel your back tighten, relax your back and gradually press your back onto the surface.
     
   • Bring your elbows together. (pause)
     
   • Press down on your feet.

   • Continue to exhale.

     Use equal strength to curl as you did to arch.

   • Point your elbows at your knees.
   • Curl forward and look at your knees.
     
   • Exhale completely.

   REPEAT THIS “ARCH AND CURL” MOVEMENT FOUR TIMES
   MORE AT DECREASING LEVELS OF EFFORT.

Do these movements for ten minutes daily for a week or two. Many people get just the results they need.

Tags: back pain, back pain relief, Nexxium, musclebound, muscle spasms, back muscle spasms

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