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There are three primary causes of pain in the body. Poor alignment, Disease, and Trauma. Poor alignment can be the result of trauma, break a leg and spend months in a cast, or be caused by stress. Stress, whether good stress, (preparing for your honeymoon), or bad stress (getting divorced or fired) causes us to unconsciously tense our muscles. This leads to posture misalignment issues which ultimately lead to pain; often, over time, intense pain. YOUR LUMBAGO IS NOT THE DISEASE, IT IS A SYMPTOM OF IMPROPER POSTURE. ONLY YOU CAN CORRECT IT!!!. It is my opinion that virtually all joint surgery could have been prevented by getting the body into proper alignment! Your doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist, personal trainer or massage therapist CAN NOT |
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FIX YOUR POSTURE! Doctors generally either do surgery or give medications which block the transmission of the pain signal. THEY DO NOT FIX THE PROBLEM!! Chiropractors adjust joints. If a nerve is being impinged by that joint, you will get instant, temporary relief. Muscles move bones, bones do not move muscles. Physical Therapists use electrical stimulation and joint movement to try to regain lost Range of Motion (ROM). If they don’t help you achieve proper posture, you will ultimately loose ROM and pain will return. Personal Trainers usually try to improve your strength and aerobic fitness. Knowledgeable trainers work on posture as part of their training. Most Licensed Massage Practitioners (LMP’s) try to get your muscle tissue to relax. No Question, relaxation means stress reduction and is absolutely therapeutic. THERE IS A GROWING BODY OF MASSAGE PRACTITIONERS WHO ADDRESS THE UNDERLYING CAUSE OF MUSCULO-TENDON PAIN. Most of the great ones have had training in “medical massage”, understand kinesiology (how the |
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body moves), and the principles of “reciprocal inhibition” and “twitch reflex”. Like chiropractors, they can help you achieve almost miraculous, nearly instantaneous pain relief. HOWEVER, YOU STILL HAVE TO DO THE WORK TO ACHIEVE CORRECT POSTURE!!!. The secret to posture is doing correct strengthening and stretching exercises. Massage can get you relief so you can tolerate the exercise, but ultimately, you have to take responsibility for your posture and exercise. It is approaching 100% certain that your sciatica, knee, hip, back, neck / shoulder or headache pain is caused by incorrect posture. Pain is always a signal that something is wrong. The curious thing is that pain often “presents” at a location far removed from its’ cause. A tense, chronic pain in your neck or shoulder may actually be a sign that your feet, legs, or hips are out of alignment. A recent paradigm shift in anatomy explains why. The body is actually a “tensegrity” structure. Tensegrity is a blend of two words: tension and integrity. It refers to structures based on a synergy between balanced tension and compression components. Leading anatomists now realize that the human body is actually a tensegrity structure. Connective tissue (including ligaments, tendons and fascia) are the “tension” components. Bones are the compression components. So, when your chiropractor “adjusts” a subluxation, it does not change the muscle tension that is causing the misalignment. The tense (locked short) muscle soon subluxes the joint again. A combination of chiropractic adjustment, massage therapy and exercise including stretching is the best and fastest way to correct the alignment problem and cure (instead of mask) most pain!!! The interesting (and intensely applicable) feature of a tensegrity structure is that if you stress (load) one part, movement is reflected in another, far-away part. If you walk with your feet turned out or turned in you probably have pain in your neck and shoulders. You probably also have sciatica like pain in your low back and down one or both legs!!! Pete Egoscue has written 3 or 4 excellent books on reducing or eliminating pain. I have read two of them, “The Egoscue Method of Health Through Motion” and “Pain Free”. I absolutely agree with virtually everything Pete says in these two books. Both are available on Amazon.com. Now for a little basic anatomy and kinesiology. (For more detailed information, read any basic anatomy textbook). Muscles are made of many (Millions?) of muscle cells. Each cell is wrapped in fascia. Groups of cells are bundled together. Bundles of bundles make a muscle. All of the fascia wrapping each cell and each bundle and each muscle becomes the tendon connecting the muscle to bone. The fascia, including tendon and ligament, is the tension component of your body tensegrity. The genius of nature built more than 600 tension adjusters into the network of hundreds (thousands or millions, depending on how you count) of tension cables (tendons) throughout the body. These tension adjusters are your muscles! Notice as you take a step, your arm swings, your torso rotates, and movement happens all through your “tensegrity structure. Each muscle cell is composed of functional units called sarcomeres. (Think of sarcomeres as a string of boxcars, each boxcar is able to accordion together (contract) then be stretched apart). Each bundle of muscle cells is controlled by a nerve. When one cell contracts, all of the sarcomeres in that muscle cell and all of the muscle cells in that bundle, also contract. Your body recruits groups of bundles, then gives them a rest and recruits a different group of bundles each time you move. Do one pushup and the first group gets recruited. Do another, and the next group gets recruited as the first group rests. If you do too many repetitions, bundles do not get enough recovery time and you reach muscle fatigue. Each prime mover or agonist (the contracting muscle) is paired with an opposing (antagonist) muscle. When the antagonist contracts it pulls the contracted sarcomeres of the agonist back apart. When you bring your fork to your mouth, the biceps is the agonist and the triceps is the antagonist. They reverse roles as you reach back to your plate. Your body has millions of “Star Trek” sensors scattered throughout. There are deep pressure, light pressure, muscle length, and muscle tension sensors included in the array. When these sensors are stimulated, depending on which and how many and in what order, your brain interprets the signal as light touch, deep touch, hot, cold, tickle or PAIN. Pain is always a signal that something is wrong! Here’s where we get into trouble. Those muscle length and tension sensors get used to being “set” or calibrated to a certain spot. There are three main ways to set the calibration: 1. trauma (sharp blow), 2. overstretch (strain or pull the accordion too far out) or 3. keep it locked short (spend hours hunched over a computer) or locked long (rounded back when shoulders are rotated forward). As a result, the nerve/muscle junction becomes ischemic (inadequate blood supply). The sarcomeres adjacent to the nerve junction shorten. This effectively shortens the muscle and causes a “TRIGGER POINT” knot that can be felt. What you feel is stress, tension and/or pain. Often in your neck and shoulders or down the legs as sciatica. I hope that you are now asking “so how do I cure the pain?” Simple, correct the poor posture that is causing the trigger point that is causing the pain! Many of you have a genetic condition called Morton’s Toe. The second metatarsal is longer than the first. (Go to www.triggerpointbook.com/mortons.htm for more information). Most “Morton Toe” people walk with their feet turned out (duck feet). A few have their feet turned in (pigeon toe). It is the body’s way of trying to provide better stability. This causes alignment problems all the way up the body from the ankles to the head. Many other posture habits or trauma can also cause posture problems. The head has a huge “moment arm”. Every inch of forward head posture adds approximately 12 pounds to the load carried by the neck and shoulder muscles. It sits on a long fulcrum (neck) suspended several feet in the air. When it constantly leans forward, the back muscles are stretched (locked long). This is exacerbated by lack of full range of movement throughout our bodies. Nearly everything we do is in a 3 X 5 foot box right in front of us. We wind up with our scapula (shoulders) rotated forward on our ribs. The Pec muscles (minor and often major) are locked short. Stand in front of a mirror with your arms relaxed at your sides. Many (most) of you will be looking at the backs of your hands. Your thumbs will point towards each other. The greater the scapula rotation the more of the back of your hands will be seen in the mirror! When you are in proper alignment, you will see the front of your thumbs in the mirror with your cupped fingers alongside your pants seam. The solution to your pain issue is almost certain to be a combination of Chiropractic adjustment, Medical Massage (trigger point, myofascial and ischemic tissue release) and exercises with stretches that retrain your body into proper alignment (posture). |
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Enchanted Touch PAIN REMEDIATION Medical, Trigger Point, Deep Tissue, Hot Stone, or Relaxation Massage @ Southcreek Wellness Center 22705 Meridian Ave. E. Graham, Washington Office: (253) 875-6400 Fax: (253) 875-6404 |