Copyright 2006 Rick RakauskasIn the last article, one of the key points was: When
muscles along our spine are injured, the nerve paths to
those muscles in many cases are NOT restored without undue
delay. (We at the Better Back system believe this happens
because most of us most of the time DON?T use our backs as
Nature intended.)
So when our muscles are out of balance ? pulling strongly
on one side of the spine ? when there is little or no
resistance on the other side ? because the muscles have
been switched off by the brain ? and have not yet been
switched back on again (sometimes years later) ? is it any
wonder we experience constant or regularly recurring back
pain? Now to answer this question:
Why do doctors, chiropractors or other health professionals
in most cases provide temporary relief at best? Scenario
Picture yourself looking at your own spine from behind.
Take yourself out of your body and imagine standing behind
yourself.You may have injured an area of your lower back
because you picked up a heavy object awkwardly.Or you bent
over to tie up your shoelace and twisted your back and the
pain still nags occasionally. So your brain has switched
off the injured muscle(s) along your vertebra, just like
it?s supposed to do. But the muscles on the other side of
your spine weren?t injured, so they are still active.
And you like to watch a lot of TV, lounging in your comfy
chair. Or you work at a computer screen all day long
sitting in an awkward chair with your shoulders tight and
stressed most of the day. Or you do both! So because you
aren?t using your back as Nature intended ? or worse, you
are actively misusing your back ? your brain has not
switched these injured muscles back on.
They are still inactive. Muscle Imbalance The result of
the above scenario is that we finish up with strong, active
muscles on one side of our vertebrae, while on the other
side the muscles are switched-off and inactive. This
resulting muscle imbalance will pull vertebrae out of
position. Sometimes, only by a small amount, but often,
when a group of muscles alongside each other are switched
off, the vertebrae will be displaced quite considerably.
In extreme cases, scoliosis can result. That?s when the
serious trouble can start, and long-term pain can set in.
Medical Treatments The better physicians at least have a
go at checking for other conditions which may be causing
the pain. These can include kidney and liver problems,
spinal stenosis where the canal which carries the spinal
cord gradually shrinks in diameter, infections, even
cancer. Of course, you must make sure that these causes
are eliminated from your diagnosis before you consider the
Better Back system.
Sadly, most doctors when faced with back pain reach for the
good old prescription pad and write out a script for a
painkiller ? usually a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug
(NSAID). What?s wrong with that? The pain disappears,
doesn?t it? And you can move freely again and get on with
your daily activities. And all you have to do is pop a
painkiller two or three time a day. Well, there?s plenty
wrong with that. Some of you may not have heard about the
withdrawal of several of the best-known NSAID painkillers,
including Vioxx. The drugs had been found to be implicated
in the deaths of many thousands of people. NSAIDS
certainly can have many very serious side effects. Here?s
what the website
http://www.medicinenet.com/rofecoxib/article.htm has to say
about Vioxx (I recommend you read the entire article if you
are taking painkillers): ?The most common side effects of
rofecoxib (Vioxx) are headache, abdominal pain, dyspepsia,
diarrhea, nausea, heartburn and water retention.
Other side effects (!! My emphasis) include insomnia,
urinary retention (inability to urinate), heart failure,
aggravation of hypertension, chest pain, ringing in the
ears, stomach and intestinal ulcers, bleeding, blurred
vision, anxiety, weight gain, flu-like symptoms, drowsiness
and weakness.? Evidence for cardiovascular side effects
was strongest for Vioxx and Bextra, intermediate for
Celebrex, and weak for Naproxen. The best advice I can
offer is to use painkillers very, very cautiously, and for
short periods only, and to ease your way off them by
following the suggestions I have in the manual which is
part of the Better Back system. Manual Adjustments
Physical therapists and manipulators have a lot of
expertise in pushing vertebrae back into place. Some do it
by gentle manipulation; others may use a lot of
accelerative force. Some warm up the area beforehand,
others just go straight for it. In most cases, the
vertebrae are restored into alignment, and that awful back
pain stops.
Temporarily. Can you now guess why most adjustments will
not last? Yep, because the underlying cause has not been
fixed.
The muscle imbalance is still there. So after a short time,
the strong, active muscles overpower the weak
non-functioning muscles and the spine is pulled out of
shape once again.
Long-term Weakness Sets In As this cycle of manipulation
is repeated week after week, month after month, a long-term
weakness can set in. In particular, ligaments are
stretched each time the strong muscles overpower the
non-functioning muscles, and again when adjustment takes
place. So What?s the Solution? Well, I think you may have
guessed by now that a necessary long-term solution is to
re-activate (or switch back on) the muscles so they can be
balanced on both sides of the spine. And that just happens
to be one of the key results from the Better Back systemm?s
unique five-step, five-minute exercise routine. Note, this
is a shameless plug for something that actually works:
You know, the word ?unique? is thrown around a lot
nowadays. It?s meant to mean ?Radically distinctive and
without equal? or ?The single one of its kind?. In other
words, there should be nothing else in the world that is
the same. To the very best of my knowledge, there is
NOTHING else in the world like this combination of
exercises which are described and demonstrated vividly on
the 40 minute DVD (or video ? your choice) which comes with
the Better Back system. For example, one of the effects of
this five-step process is to provide regular ? in fact,
daily ? self-adjustment of the vertebra in your spine. This
means your spine has a chance to always be in tip-top
condition. Another effect is to strengthen muscles in the
spinal areas. And of course, the granddaddy of them all ?
the special movements apparently have the effect of
restoring nerve signals to switched-off muscles. That?s why
I believe I can honestly claim these exercises to be unique.
In the next article we explore how to restore healthy
joints and cut inflammation.
Live life free of back pain! Rick Rakauskas
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Rick Rakauskas is a marketer who is passionate about
natural health treatments.
You can get more details on how to conquer back pain here
http://www.fixbackpainnow.com
