IS YOUR BACK PAIN CHANGING YOUR BRAIN???

BBC NEWS | Health | Back pain linked to brain changes

"Chronic back pain is linked to physical changes in the brain, according to researchers in Germany.

A team found patients with the condition also had microstructural changes in the pain-processing areas of their brains."

Unfortunately, the quote from Dr Jurgen Lutz is very much the reality for a signifigant number of 'chronic pain sufferers',

"A major problem for patients with chronic pain is making their condition believable to doctors, relatives and insurance carriers"

...which poses the question 'why'? Why is it that so many people have difficulty in believing the extent of anothers suffering?

Could it be a lack of understanding of the actual cause? After all, time and time again we hear of cases where the medical community have been stumped as to the causes of pain. In some cases the suggestion is made that it is psychosomatic.

And while I'm in danger of banging on about posure again, just think for a moment, what if it really is that simple? What if our societal obsession with technology and fine detail has meant that we (and the medics) can't see the provebial wood from the trees? (More about this later...)

What is very cool about a study like this is, while it does nothing to tell us how to eliminate the cause of the pain, it very much indicates that the body does indeed work as a unit (thank you Mr Egoscue!).

I for one eagerly await further studies to confirm what Pete Egoscue has been saying for 30 years or so...

Thanks for Graham Wilson for sending me the link for this article. Graham was a student on the recent Egoscue PAS Level I Seminar in London last week (taught by Matt and I). I'm looking forward to hearing about great success from him in the near future.

Talk soon,

Donal

Tummy Time!

Nine (Baby) Steps On How To Give Your Child The Absolute Best Start In Life - Baby Step #2

In the first of the “Nine (Baby) Steps On How To Give Your Child The Absolute Best Start In Life”, we talked about building functions by keeping her horizontal until she’s ready to go vertical.

A really important aspect to building those functions is by allowing your child time on her tummy as much as possible.

From about the age of two months is when a baby is usually ready to roll over on her own. If it hasn’t happened by then, don’t force it… She’ll do it when she’s ready – the important thing to remember here is that a child’s rate of development is as individual as the child itself.

There is no ‘right’ time to be crawling, or ‘right’ time to start walking or any other ‘right’ time… Everything will happen in the child’s own good time.

When your child does initially go on to her tummy, as she tries to pull herself forward, she’s unlikely to get very far and will probably become a little frustrated. It’s at this point that well-meaning parents often feel sorry for their little one and turn her onto her back again…

That frustration is very good for her and will cause her to ‘dig her heels in’, which is going to build strong and healthy muscles. We’ll talk more about the importance of this in tomorrow’s post.

Play gyms and other such devices, while great for keeping the little one occupied while Mum and Dad tend to other necessities, aren’t very conducive to ‘Tummy Time’. By their very nature, they tend to require babies to be on their back, which is great some of the time… Just so long as there’s enough tummy time to balance things out.

One important aspect of tummy time is that it helps to create a healthy spine with curves in all the right places. Given what many people’s spines look like nowadays, you could be forgiven for thinking that they are designed to be shaped like a ‘C’ or an inverted ‘J’…

However, your spine, my spine and everybody’s spines are designed to be a beautiful elongated ‘S’. They are designed so that there is an arch in the lower back, an outward curve for the upper back and a sweeping curve in for the neck.

Remember, strong and healthy muscles built today mean a far greater chance of a life without back, hip and other joint pain tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, that’s when we’ll be back with the next instalment. We’ll be talking about the importance of building strong and healthy muscles.

Talk to you then.

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There's More To Your Posture Than Your Back

Posture Myth #6 "'Posture' refers only to the alignment of the spine"

For most of us, as kids we became used to every day chides like 'sit up straight' or 'stand up tall' from our parents and school teachers. And while they may never have actually said it, the assumption was that they were primarily refering to the alignment of your spine.

This notion has penetrated our psyche to the extent that the vast majority of people, tend to believe that posture is only a reference to the position of the spine. Yet, in actual fact, posture refers to the alignment of the whole body - from the foot position, to the tilt of your pelvis and the sideways lean of your head.

Your posture is a snapshot of your muscles ability to function correctly - form follows function! So, the position of your feet in your standing posture can reveal a great deal of information about how the muscles of your pelvis are able to do 'their job' and why you have that back pain.
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Don't Do Anything Else About Your Pain Until You've Listened To This...

If you've not yet heard Pete Egoscue hosting his Pain Free Radio Show, you'll want to have a listen. Every week, he chats with people about their pain and then, the best bit, he gives them an exercise to do that immediately impacts their symptom!

Last week's show had folks phoning in with symptoms related to:

• Back Pain
• Neck Pain
• Arm Pain
• Knee Pain
• Foot Pain
• Hip Pain
• Shoulder Pain

And it's not just the usual pains that Pete helps with... There were also calls related to:

• Vertigo
• Bunions
• Bladder Problems
• Shingles

Download the Pain Free Radio Podcast right now!

Look out for a new show every week!