The explanations and statements made here are not meant to take the place of traditional medical care. The purpose of this information is to give you a better, more complete understanding of the nature of your problem and the actual role that you play in the onset of pain as well as your role in learning how to manage these conditions. Management of each condition is the key to being able to live a better life with less pain. These conditions do not go away and will become progressively worse without your help and continued management. This is the reality of the human body. The whole objective is to maintain yourself properly so you don’t succumb to any of these “improper usage” problems.
Condition - Back Pain The factors or causes of back pain are different for every person. For those who are unfortunate enough to have had some type of trauma in their life such as a fall or car accident, medical intervention is the first line of treatment to address the physical damage. The good news is, the majority of back pain sufferers can learn how to stop their pain and avoid a continual decline of function. Most back pain is usually located in the lower back but because the spine is one complete unit, there are repercussions to the mid-spine (thoracic) as well as the upper spine (cervical) and head. As a result of the improper spine position, the function of the shoulders and hip and literally the entire body, are affected in a negative manner. This is a major reason why medicine has such a difficult time dealing with back pain sufferers. Treatment: A complete evaluation is needed to unravel the events that led up to the onset of pain. The usual medical protocol is bedrest and medication to address the pain and inflammation. This protocol is a necessary evil, even though it helps with muscle relaxation and pain, the detrimental affect of muscle weakness causes the incidence of more severe reoccurrence of back pain to be high. The following seven steps must be completed to address this total body problem.
Take the time to learn how to become a better body manager as we did with our own backs out of necessity. You don’t have to hurt and you do have a choice in what happens to your body. What you need is knowledge and thats why you are here. Condition - Shoulder Pain Shoulder pain literally affects everything that you attempt to do with your hands and is one of the most frequent causes for doctor visits. Shoulder pain is difficult to diagnose because of the complexity of the shoulder and the lack of understanding by medical personnel of the role of the entire body to the proper function of this highly mobile joint. Shoulder pain is most commonly diagnosed as the following:
Treatment: For most people, shoulder problems become a continuing litany of complaints until surgery is finally opted for in a desperate attempt at correcting the problem. The fallacy in this line of thinking is the surgical site is usually only the result of a much bigger problem that is never really unraveled which leads to more surgery. Surgery is the absolute last resort you should consider, because once you have surgery the proper function of that joint is lost forever. For proper treatment, you need a professional that thoroughly analyzes all the components of this complex equation.
Take the time to learn how to become a better body manager. You don’t have to hurt and you can improve your condition if you don’t ignore what your body is trying to tell you. What you are missing is knowledge and that is why you are here. You can choose whether you want to hurt or not. It is up to you. Condition - Arm/Hand Pain Pain is the body's way of telling you to "stop, listen and look at me, you need to reassess how this activity is being performed. Whether performing activities for work or play your arms and hands are involved, hence they are notorious sites for overuse injuries as the names of the most common ailments indicate:
Treatment: All of these common complaints are correctable when they are addressed on a regular basis. Ignoring the pain, working through the pain or taking OTC pain reliever’s so you can continue to abuse your arms eventually leads to chronic conditions that will stop you in your tracks and will definitely get worse without proper attention. Look for a competent practitioner that addresses these key items when determining your path to properly address and improve any of these conditions of the arm and hand.
Condition - Hip/Groin Pain The hip joint is the largest, most powerful joint in the human body or rather, it is supposed to be. Unfortunately in most people, they have not been able to use their hips correctly since they were in their teens. I know this sounds ridiculous but the fact that you are standing on two feet does not mean you are using your hips. Hip replacements are being performed on more people at younger ages than ever before. Hips don’t wear out from use, they wear out from abuse. The sad fact is most of the abuse is self-inflicted. Hip pain can be around the hip joint itself, down the outside or inside of the leg, in the upper glute area or in the groin or inner thigh area. The pain is not necessarily a result of tight muscles as most professionals think. Muscles that are too short or too tight can cause pain and muscles that are over-stretched or over-lengthened can cause pain too. Treatment: Pain in the hip and groin are very common for people that sit for extended periods of time. The length of time in the sitting position and the way you sit create an enormous tightening effect upon the hip joint. Such simple things like always crossing your legs when you sit only adds to the extreme tightening caused by the act of sitting. To effectively understand and unravel the accumulated tightness that surrounds this massive joint, you need a professional who correctly evaluates these areas.
If you have hip/groin pain, sitting is usually a position of relief. The hip/groin pain occurs when you attempt to stand and the only way you can get up is with the assistance of the arms of the chairs followed by a slow, jerky ascent. These symptoms occur because certain muscles will not lengthen when attempting to stand and compensation starts, symptoms get worse and debilitation begins. You do have to sit but you don’t have to hurt because of it. To ignore this puts you on the road to needing a hip replacement because of your lack of maintenance. The choice is yours. Condition - Foot/Ankle/Calf Pain Foot pain is a common complaint afflicting all ages. Because the foot must bear the weight of entire body, deal with all types of terrain while assisting you to maintain stability, even with poor footwear choices, you can understand how easily the foot is abused. There are two major factors that directly affect how the foot can work and both are under the control of the body owner. The first one, proper foot function, is directly related to proper hip function. Most people lack proper hip function, the result is an over-compensation of the foot/ankles via rolling in (supination), rolling out ( pronation), or weight on the ball of the foot (caude equina). The second factor is what people wear on their feet. High heels, improperly fitted shoes, crocs, flip-flops and other types of non-supportive footwear are directly responsible for the problems people will encounter with their feet. The most common complaints of foot/ankle/calf pain are the easiest conditions to manage yourself, they include:
There are many quick fix schemes available today that claim to eliminate your foot pain, don’t be fooled. Over the counter foot orthotics and unqualified personnel making recommendations about shoes, make pain in the feet a real pain in the pocketbook. To properly evaluate all of the issues involved that result in foot pain, you need to have a qualified professional that looks at the following items in detail.
Foot pain is one of the most common and also one of the easiest maladies to address by every person. The missing component is knowledge about the body people live in and the responsibilities for managing it every day. Proper management also means making good choices about the shoes you wear and managing the daily tightening that takes place on every person’s foot. Better management and better choices creates a completely different outcome for your feet. Your feet don’t have to hurt and the reason they hurt is most likely your fault and correctable by you. The missing component is knowledge and understanding of what you should be doing. That is why you are here. The most beneficial use of your money would be to find a licensed orthotist who can properly evaluate your feet and make the proper orthotics to help correct your problem. A licensed orthotist is a trained professional who does nothing else. The cost is well worth the comfort your feet will finally experience. Condition - Knee Pain Knee replacements are being performed on people at ages that were unheard of fifteen years ago. Knee pain is common place in most adults. Traditional medical treatment looks at what is causing the knee pain such as debris floating around in the knee, torn ligaments or ligament strains, cartilage issues or arthritis. What traditional medicine fails to look at is what is the real cause for the knee pain. The items just mentioned are all possible results of improper knee function. They are not the cause, they are the results. If the real cause of the knee pain is allowed to continue, the result will be the destruction of the knee joint and its eventual replacement. The problem with this mis-directed approach is that the circumstances that led to the knee problems in the first place are still in place and have not been addressed. Once the knee is replaced, these factors will eventually cause major problems for the new joint. Treatment: To properly evaluate your knee problems and the total picture leading up to the existing knee pain, you should have a medical professional properly evaluate all of these areas for complete understanding as well as addressing all of the mitigating factors, so the problem will not resurface again and again.
If you already have severe pain and are diagnosed with debris in the joint, torn meniscus or torn ligaments, you may need to have surgery to repair the damage. When you have surgery the damage is repaired but the cause of the damage is not repaired. Even though surgery has been performed you must fix the cause so there is no further breakdown of the joint and no more surgery required. The diagnoses of arthritis is a common answer given to explain knee pain but this is not the cause, it is the response of the body to the abuse that the knee has been subjected to. Your knees do not wear out from use as some medical professionals would want you to think. Your knees wear out from the accumulated abuse caused by a lack of proper hip and foot usage with the knee stuck in the middle unable to compensate. All of these conditions are preventable in most people. The choice is yours. Other contributing factors such as weight gain, bad posture and the myriad of compensations that body is capable of all lead themselves to the knee pain that most think is a normal part of aging. It is not and you deserve so much more. |