Tag Archives: spinal stenosis
You Don’t Have to be Perfect to be Free of Back Pain
Would you have back pain if every part of your body were perfect? The answer has to be… No, it’s pretty safe to say you wouldn’t have any pain if your body were perfectly aligned, perfectly balanced and in a perfect state of being. But here’s the thing—you don’t have to be perfect to be pain-free. In fact, you can have serious conditions like Spinal Stenosis and even a Herniated disc and still have no pain—regardless of the type of job you have or how you reckon the condition developed or even the unique situation that you find yourself in today.Don’t believe it? The prestigious New England Journal of Medicine just reported it.They published a study in which researchers performed an MRI on 98 people who had no back pain. And the researchers found that nearly two thirds of them had some kind of abnormal disk condition. The researchers conclude: “Many people without back pain have disk bulges or protrusions… Given the high prevalence of these findings and of back pain, the discovery by MRI of bulges or protrusions in people with low back pain may frequently be coincidental.”That’s right. They called having a bulging or protruded disc and having back pain a coincidence. Proof positive that you can have a condition and not have pain. Indeed, there are millions of people with existing back problems right now who do not even know that they have the condition and surly don’t have any pain at all. How do you become one of those people? Living with the condition and living pain free.Let me say something that may be uncomfortable for you to hear. There is a excellent chance your condition will never go away. That may sound scary, but it is possible. Herniated disks don’t typically un-bulge themselves and then heal them self to the way they were when you were 15. Spinal Stenosis doesn’t come and go.And yet, you can still live without pain. In fact, you probably already have.If you have gone just one minute of one day since your last flare-up without pain, you’ve proved you can have your condition without pain. How can this be? If the condition didn’t go away, what changes? It all has to do with the alignment of your body, the position of your pelvis, the curvature of your spine and the stability of your body as a whole as you go through your day.Now, there are a couple of ways to try to relieve that irritation permanently. Sure, you could have surgery. That’s one option to treat your pain. But most surgeries fail within 3 to 5 years. Why? Because they don’t address the reason why the condition became symptomatic in the first place. In other words they don’t fix what’s really causing your condition to develop–they just remove the irritant that is causing the pain. So what does? I know you reckon you’ve tried everything—chiropractors, physical therapy, cortisone shots, acupuncture, massage, anti-Inflammatories and probably 20 others. But question yourself one question. Answer it truthfully.Has anyone ever looked at your body as a whole and told you specifically what your postural dysfunctions are and what specifically is causing your body to look like it does? Furthermore has anyone spelled out for you why your pelvis is the way it is? Did they tell you specifically which muscles are tight, which muscles are weak and then give you a very specific and very targeted corrective program to achieve postural balance and stability, which is the single more vital thing you can do to alleviate your pain and gain control of your life?Stability is Everything when looking for pain reliefThe only way to stop the irritation is to bring your body back to a more neutral, more balanced and more stable state. When you do that, everything works better—your back, your hips, your shoulders, your SI joint, everything. Once your body is balanced and stable you can do all the things you like to do and do them with the confidence that you are safe, strong and protected against further injury.As the NEJM proved, you don’t have to be perfect to eliminate pain. You just need to work toward making a more balanced and neutral state for your body. When you work toward pelvic stability, you help your spine maintain a neutral position. Then you can use your body as it was intended to be used. That’s how you can have the condition and not have pain. You most likely won’t need surgery. You won’t wake up every morning stiff. You can return to your life and do all you want to do. Why is Muscle Balance Therapy so different?First, you should know that there is no single set of exercises that can specifically help a Herniated disk or Spinal Stenosis or any condition for that matter. So I urge you not to search the Internet for back pain exercises and just do any ancient stretch or exercise without knowing the underlying reason you are doing it for.You must also know that the Corrective Exercise Program you will get form Muscle Balance Therapy is not based on your diagnosis but rather on corroborating evidence from both physical and visual assessments that are used to ensure you are doing the right and safest program possible for you and your current condition. Muscle Balance Therapy is based on the biomechanical principle—the more balanced and stable your body is the better your body will work and the less pain you will be in. So before we start we must first know which muscles are out of balance, meaning we need to know specifically which muscles are tight and which are weak. Once we know those, then we can make a very specific and targeted stretch and exercise program to restore balance. And again that only comes from doing the specific assessments…Let me just review this point one more time, there is no such thing as a single exercise for and medical diagnosed form of back pain like a herniated disc or Spinal Stenosis. So when you question me will, I just had and MRI and was just diagnosed with 4 Herniated Discs, Degenerative Disc Disease all levels, Spinal Stenosis and oh I was born with Scoliosis and 17 years ago I was in a major auto accident, will your system work for me the answer is will always be yes…In fact, I tell everyone it fantastic to know your specific diagnosis but now forget about it, you can not change the facts and you can not change the past. Rather, focus your energy on the things you know you can change and as you restore balance you will restore function.That brings us to the third unique aspect of Muscle Balances Therapy and that is that we have to perform what we call the Unbalanced Workout. This means that you will not benefit from just blindly strengthening or stretching all your core muscles. That is not the way to do it.The reason is that you could be stretching or strengthening muscle groups that do not need to be stretched or strengthened and you can make your condition worse. Here is the secret: The difference between having pain and not having pain is in millimeters of movement and the more specific the physical approach the quicker and safer the results will be.The fourth difference is not in our exercises, because there are no new exercises in the world. Rather, it’s the confidence you get knowing that the exercises that you are doing are working the muscles in the best way possible for you and your situation.The Secret Everyone understands that one approach can not be the answer to every possible circumstance, and we know that, so here is the secret, as you work with Muscle Balance Therapy and address root cause issues like physical balance and postural stability, please know that we encourage you to seek out those same modalities that failed you before, they all have value in the process of healing but not until you address the vital stuff first. You know the list of things that you have tried; I contend that this time Massage, Inversion, Supplements, Trigger Point Therapy, Heating Pads to name a few will all work to speed your healing and help you achieve optimal health for the rest of your life.Is Muscle Balance Therapy perfect? It’s close. Does everyone get 100% pain relief? Most do.I can say with all honesty that there is 100% chance you will improve from your current state. We have a list of 50 ways that your body and life will benefit and 100% pain relief is by all measures a bonus. So it boils down to this: Would you be pleased with 80%, 60%, even 50% reduction in pain yet able to do all the things you like to do? Would that improve your quality of life?I have dedicated the last 15 years of my life and endured both personal and professional sacrifice to make a safe, systematic approach to addressing all forms of back pain that can be used by young and ancient alike. And I have never been closer then I am right now with the concept of Muscle Balance Therapy to be able to say that you have just learned one of the best lessons anyone with back pain can hear. I’m not promising miracles, but I do promise a complete and thorough as well as safe approach to managing, treating and even eliminating your pain.I have seen incredible results again and again for those people that place in the effort and believe in them self knowing that they are doing the right thing. Let me leave you with this last thought and one that I believe holds the most power. The human body is intrinsically designed to heal its self, we as individuals just need to give our bodies what is needed and remove what is not needed, Muscle Balance Therapy puts that power to heal yourself back in your control. If I could barrow a line from my excellent friend Bob Proctor, the cure to ignorance is knowledge and the answer to dread, worry and doubt is study, understanding and faith. Faith builds enthusiasm and enthusiasm accelerates healing. How excellent it that!So if you don’t believe me that you can have your condition and not have pain let me teach you what is possible. If you worry and are filled with doubt I urge you to study what is already available to you and the more you know the better off you will become.That is right for all things and will be right till the end of time.Source1. Jensen, M.C., et. al. Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Lumbar Spine in People without Back Pain. N Engl J Med 1994; 331:69-732. Bob Proctor, The Winners Image, ©1995 -2008
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Common Causes Of Back Pain
Back pain is one of the most common ailments today; in fact, four out of five people in the US will experience it at least once in their life. That number may even increase in the future due to the aging of our population and the increasing amount of obesity. Back pain is one of the most common reasons people go to the doctor and is second only to the common cold as a cause for missing work.Common CausesThe cause often determines the type of pain experienced. Most acute back pain is caused by an injury or trauma such as a car accident, a sports injury, lifting or straining at work or around the house. Sprains and strains from sudden twisting movements, improper lifting or a fall can all result in back pain. Symptoms• Pain in the lumbar region (the lower back) is the most common and it may appear suddenly as a sharp, stabbing pain that causes extreme discomfort. • A dull, persistent, nagging back ache may appear after hours of working in the garden or shoveling snow.• Pain that radiates down the front, side or back of leg.• It may be accompanied by tingling, numbness, and weakness of the affected limb.• Back pain may worsen with activity but may also be aggravated by sitting for prolonged periods, such as on a long plane flight or car trip. • There may also be an inability to stand erect and walking may become hard.Some physicians say chronic back pain is discomfort that persists three months or more. It is often progressive and the cause can be hard to determine. Acute back pain is usually of shorter duration and often occurs after an injury or trauma.The back is an intricate structure made up of bones, muscles, ligaments, tendons, and discs, which are the tough cartilage pads that cushion the vertebrae, which make up the spine. Back pain results from problems with any of these component parts. Physical Conditions That May Cause Back Pain• Arthritis in the spine can cause pressure on the nerve roots or cause narrowing of the spinal canal and pressure on the spinal cord.• Spondylolisthesis occurs when one or more vertebra slip forward, out of place, causing pressure on nerves, making back pain. • Herniated or bulging disc is a intervertebral disc that is being compressed and pushed out of its position between the vertebrae. This makes pressure on the sciatic nerve or other nerve roots.• Scoliosis is an abnormal curvature of the spine to one side.• Spinal Stenosis is a narrowing of the foramen, the opening in each vertebrae thrugh which the spinal cord runs. Narrowing causes pressure on the cord, resulting in pain.• Degenerative Disc Disease occurs when the intervertebral discs become compressed, flatten and allow pressure on the roots of spinal nerves.• Osteoporosis results in brittle bones and compression breaks of the vertebrae.• Fibromyalgia is characterized by pain and tenderness over trigger points, one of which is in the lower back.• Pregnancy causes back discomfort and sciatica type pain.Less Common Conditions That Can Cause Back Pain• Endometriosis is a condition in which endometrium tissue grows outside the uterus on other organs, often causing low back pain.• Kidney stones or kidney infections often cause severe back pain.• Cauda Equina Syndrome is a serious neurological problem due to pressure from a disc on the lower part of the spinal cord and spinal nerve roots.• Cancer of the spine causes severe back pain.• Bone infection in the spine causes pain.• Stress has been blamed for some episodes of both acute and chronic back pain.Many episodes of back pain can be avoided by using proper body mechanics and, often, simple home treatment and time will see a back heal within a few weeks. Treatment is varied but based on common sense. Those whose pain is due to a more serious injury or physical condition will find there are many methods of treatment and steps that can be taken to avoid further episodes. Surgery is usually needed only in the most serious cases.
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Coccydynia And Low Back Pain
Back pain due to coccydynia can be quite miserable – just question anyone who has ever developed it after a fall on a slippery floor, a skid on the ice, or a bumpy landing while skiing or snowboarding.Coccydynia is pain in the coccyx, or tailbone, the boney area at the end of the spine between the buttocks. Sometimes referred to in layman’s terms as a ‘butt ache’, it is a nagging pain, which can become excruciating, and increase with pressure from sitting or moving to stand up. It has been described as a pain similar to sitting on a sharp knife or a marble that rolls around or a feeling of being impaled on a cane or broomstick. The pain and discomfort may persist for months to eventually become chronic.CausesFalls On The Buttocks.• This is the most common cause, often diagnosed as a broke coccyx.Unstable or Dislocating Coccyx• The most common cause of pain is due to a coccyx which dislocates or moves more than normal when you sit down. This may develope after a fall, from childbirth or injury in a car accident. The actual cause is often unknown but this disorder is responsible for 55% of cases of coccyx pain.Childbirth• If the joints around the pelvis become more flexible in preparation for childbirth, sometimes the coccyx can be pushed out of position easily.Repetitive Strain • This is common after a fantastic deal of rowing or bicycle ridingMisaligned Or Long Coccyx• In this condition, the coccyx bone points forward or is angled forward about 70°, which is greater than normal and causes pain.Boney Spur Or Spicule On Coccyx• This has been the cause of pain in 14% of patients. Muscle Spasms In The Gluteus Maximus Muscle Of The Buttocks• These muscles help lower the body from a standing to a sitting position. Muscle spasms cause pressure where the glutueus is attached to the coccyx.Piriformis Syndrome• The piriformis muscle runs horizontally from the lower spine to the top of each femur (hip bone). It crosses the sciatic nerve and spasms in the muscle cause pain in the hips and down the leg. Sitting may aggravate it.Pilonidal Cyst• This is a birth defect in which an abscess develops at the end of the tailbone, causing pressure, swelling, inflammation, and pain in the coccyx area. The cyst is usually removed surgically.Symptoms Of Coccydynia• Pain during or after sitting• Acute pain when moving to standing after sitting• Deep ache around coccyx• Shooting pains down both legs• Pain during bowel movements• Pain during intercourse• Pain during menstruationCoccydnia may clear up after a few months but in the case of persistent pain, it is wise to have a medical evaluation to determine the cause.
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