10 Simple Exercises to Prevent Back Pain.

As we all know, prevention is generally better than cure, and although most of the readers of this bulletin are suffering with pain to some degree or other, these exercises are beneficial to everyone with back pain. As with all exercise, do what you can and don’t do anything that hurts too much. We all probably know our own threshold. But if in doubt see your doctor first.

The Star Advertiser.com site asked longtime Denver fitness trainer Donna Miller to put together a few basic lower-back exercises that can be used by beginners and advanced athletes alike. And kindly posted them for everyone to benefit from.

There are 10 illustrated exercises here, using a minimum of equipment, and recommended to be done four times a week.

You can have a look here. Just click on the photo of each exercise to see how it's done.

Get Rid of Stress to Get Rid of Back Pain.

On the same site as my previous blog I found this story about the link between stress and pain.

This link has long been established, although medical researchers do still not yet fully understand it. The point is that it is recognised, and stress will often manifest  itself as shoulder, neck, or back pain, singly or in combination.

Carmen Green, MD, associate professor of anesthesiology and director of pain medicine research at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, says patients should try to manage their stress to be in the best possible state in order to benefit from other treatments.

I can personally attest to stress being connected to pain. Last year for a while I was in a particularly stressful situation for a short while. I won’t go into the details, but I developed really excruciating neck pain.

My situation became resolved, and within 24 hours my neck pain had gone. Dr. Green gives several stress relief tips which you can see at the full article here.

Try These Natural Pain Relief Therapies.

I'm a great believer in natural pain relief remedies wherever possible. Of course there are going to be situations where we should be grateful for modern medical techniques and practises, but perhaps some of us could be a little more open minded about the natural route.

I found this article on the everyday health.com website by Juhie Bhatia. In which a few natural pain relief therapies are described, together with benefits and drawbacks.

These therapies are described, and often endorsed, by respected qualified medical practitioners, whose names and qualifications are included. Another indication that alternative therapies are gaining more general acceptance.

Well worth a read, you never know, you might find something useful. Whilst they are general pain relief techniques some could be applied to back pain, neck pain, and shoulder pain which I tend to concentrate on here.

You can find more about these therapies and how to apply them at this link. 

Back Pain Worse for Slouchers and "Weekend Warriors"

OK, this isn't exactly ground breaking stuff, but does confirm pretty much what we all know deep down and it never hurts to sometimes re-visit the obvious.

In an article by Mahmood Saberi, senior reporter for Gulf News.com he quotes Dr Humeira Badsha, consultant rheumatologist, who says "About 80 per cent of people suffer from back pain some time in their life and it is often due to poor posture, prolonged sitting at your desk and lack of exercise."

Consultant surgeon Dr Mousa Kazim said people who were sedentary but became active over the weekend would "beat up their knees" and their back. "The ‘weekend warriors' generally have good intentions, but it's asking too much of your back."

The article goes on to describe how best to reduce the incidence of this type of pain. Read the full story here, and as my dear old Dad used to say “don’t slouch.”

Ladies, Lose The Back Pain by Losing The Bra.

After a fifteen year study of 330 womens breasts (he got paid for this?) Professor Jean-Denis Rouillon of Besançon CHU has concluded that there is absolutely no benefit to wearing a bra.

He says his results in fact show that the benefits of going bra-less far outweigh any perceived benefit from wearing them.

The relevance of this as far as we are concerned in this blog, is that some of the women who were part of this study, and we are not told how many, actually reported that stopping using a bra had eased their back pain.

You can read into this what you will, but on a cautionary note, before all you ladies with a bad back rush off to burn the offending article  Prof Rouillon says that women who had been wearing a bra for a long while would gain no benefit from stopping now.

Maximum benefit is gained by not starting to wear one at all. Read the full story here.

Shockwave Therapy for Shoulder Pain.

I make no apologies for including a post on shoulder pain. Although this blog primarily concerns itself with back pain, as you know, having suffered from them all I have this theory (unproved of course) that back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain and knee pain are related to some degree.

Anyway,I found this story on the Daily Mail website and thought it worth a mention.

We are all familiar with the ultrasound shockwave technique that has been used for years now to treat kidney stones. It is now being prescribed to patients whose chronic shoulder pain has not responded to painkillers or physiotherapy, with excellent results.

Shock waves are high-energy sound waves, traditionally used to break up kidney stones. However, they are also thought to accelerate the healing process by stimulating the circulation - it's thought this can help damaged tissue regenerate and, therefore, heal more quickly.

The treatment has been used for a number of other pain conditions, including knee osteoarthritis. After just two or three sessions, more than 80 per cent of patients with shoulder pain reported a significant reduction in pain.

Although the story is based on an Italian trial the treatment is already generally available, I found results for clinics in the UK.

You can find it on this page. It's the second item.
 

Stretching Exercises Reduce Anterior Knee Pain.

A study carried out by scientists in the United Kingdom has reported that people and military personnel facing trouble with anterior knee pain can help their condition by practicing stretching and strengthening exercises. It needs to be noted that around 25% physically active people in the country suffer from the condition.

So starts an article about the problem of anterior knee pain on New Zealand website topnews.

Apparently this condition accounts for for the highest number of knee problems being faced by Britons and is a significant reason for soldiers to drop out of the Armed Forces.

In researching the problem it was found that soldiers who did exercises with a key focus on leg muscles by strengthening and flexing them suffered significantly less pain than those doing conventional military exercises.

You can read the article here. You can also find an excellent set of exercises specifically designed to help anterior knee pain at this link.

Chronic Back Pain caused by Tension Myositis Syndrome?

Now here's an interesting story. I was contacted recently by one of my readers who wanted to know why I had not mentioned Dr. Sarno and TMS. The short answer was that I had not heard of him or TMS.

I have briefly researched the subject and it appears that Dr. John Sarno, who is Professor of Clinical Rehabilitation Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, is the originator of the diagnosis of the controversial psychosomatic condition, tension myositis syndrome (TMS), which has not received serious study from mainstream medicine.

According to Sarno, TMS is a psychosomatic illness causing chronic back, neck, and limb pain which is not relieved by standard medical treatments.

You can look him up and it is quite interesting, as you all know by now I am a great believer in the power of the human mind so he could well have something worth pursuing.

He has written, amongst others, a book called “Healing Back Pain” which is available on Amazon. If anyone has read it or gets a copy please let me know what you think.

Heat Probe to Get Rid of Back Pain.

According to a story on the abc local.com website, pain specialist Dr. David Maine of Los Angeles is having great success with a new procedure called radio frequency ablation (RFA) on patients suffering with severe lower back pain

It involves heating a surgical probe to 176 degrees celcius which is then inserted through a small incision. It disrupts sensory nerves going into the joint. The idea is "no nerves, no pain."
   
Studies have shown one month after the procedure, 79 percent of patients had pain relief. Only 66 percent of people found relief with pain-killing injections.

Sounds promising and it is available in UK. To read the full story, including a case study go here.

When Should I See a Doctor About my Knee Pain?

Most of us will suffer from some form of knee pain at some stage in our lives. The knee is a complex joint and gets a lot of use (and abuse)  which can lead to several painful conditions.

There are at least half a dozen common knee conditions. Some more serious than others, and there are times when it’s not good to soldier on and you should seek medical advice.

Trust me, I speak from experience. Had I gone to my doctor earlier than I did I could have saved myself a lot of serious pain.

This article on the nlm.nih.gov website details some of the more common knee problems, and when you should go and see your Doctor.

You can check it out here.

Yoga Pose to Ease Lower Back Pain.

Over Christmas I was rather lax with my exercises, as I guess many of us were, and started to get that old familiar nagging lower back ache.

So I tried this Yoga pose (APANASANA) that I found a few weeks ago on the yoga place.com and it worked a treat. It also has the benefit of being simple and not taking very long at all.

I tried it within a few hours of developing the pain and I’m guessing that this exercise works best if you catch it early on, but if you have lower back pain give it a go. Apparently it's also very good if you have trapped wind. Probably best do it in private if that's the case!

You can find it at this link.

Injection Option Treatment for Back Pain.

Epidural steriod injections as a treatment for some types of back pain have been around since the early 1950’s, and have had a varied press, putting many people off what could be a viable treatment for their problem.

The thing is that it is not really suitable for all types of back pain and patients vary in their response. Some getting a good result after just one injection and others requiring several.

I found some excellent information on this treatment on the spine health.com website which details various pros and cons, and which types of back problem are best suited to it.

If you are considering this treatment I’m sure you will find this information very useful.