Natural Healing and Back Pain Relief » Healing Techniques

Trigger Point Therapy

Kalidasa — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 14:00:13 +0000

Massage

Trigger point therapy is one of the best methods of reducing or eliminating body aches and pains that I know of. In fact, I can get just about anyone out of pain with a combination of trigger point therapy and my gentle adjusting methods. Let’s explore what trigger points are and how to eliminate them.

What Are Trigger Points?
Trigger points are very small tension areas in a muscle. They are usually between the size of a pin head and a pea though they can get much larger in the bigger muscles.

Cause of Trigger Points
They can be caused by many different factors like strenuous work, stress and emotions. They can also be caused by other trigger points, those caused by other trigger points are called satellite trigger points.

Trigger Points Effect Remote Areas
The area around a trigger point is not where the pain is usually felt. They have a connection with the connective tissue, the fascia, within the muscles. Fascia connections reach far, as a result they can transmit their pain to other muscles through the fascia. This is called myofascial pain syndrome.

How Trigger Points Form
It’s amazing that a small little area can cause so much pain. It’s how they are made that allows them to cause so much pain.

The tension they create is in a very small area, but it is such that segments of individual muscle fibers, which are very short, are pulled to their fullest length and held taught. The tension in just a few hundred individual muscle fibers can cause a lot of pain.

The Pain That Massage Couldn’t Help
Have you ever experienced a pain that just would not go away? Maybe you got a massage, or had friends work on it, or you worked the area yourself, but no mater how much the muscle was worked the pain just wouldn’t go away. The reason is that the pain is referred from a trigger point located far from the area that you had your friends rub so hard.

The good news is that there is consistency in where trigger points send their pain. And, they are easy to release. With a little knowledge a lot of pain can be eliminated with ease.

Finding Trigger Points
Finding them on yourself is incredibly easy. They are usually in the middle of the muscle though this is not always the case. What is always true is that they are incredibly sensitive to pressure. Once you know the general area to look all you need to do is press around until you find it by how sensitive and painful the area is. Also, it may cause a worsening of the pain, or a twitch in the referred area. It will feel like a tight little pea in the muscle when you rub over it.

How To Release Trigger Points
Once you find the right point work you press into it until it hurts a fair amount. About a 7 out of 10 on a pain scale where 10 is unbearable. All you need to do is rub across it 12 to 15 times with that level of pain. Doing this several times throughout the day will eventually eliminate the pressure point. Be careful though, it can quickly come back if you haven’t eliminated the root cause.

Take a little time and feel around on your body to see if you can find any trigger points. I can pretty much guarantee you have a few. You may be surprised to notice the remote area that reacts when you press into a particularly tender point.

Is This Of Interest To You?
Let me know if you’d like more information about trigger point therapy and I’ll see what I can do to bring you more information.

How To Find What Ails You

Kalidasa — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 14:04:45 +0000

Quite a few questions come in from people who have some intense issue with varying symptoms. There is one thing that I can recommend to almost everyone as a way of finding their way back to health: find out what food you are sensitive to. Here’s how you figure that out.

Find The Problem
The technique is for anyone with symptoms that are causing them a loss of ability to function in life. It is particularly useful for any gastrointestinal issues. Other issues can be very diverse because allergies can cause many different symptoms.

How It Works
This is the elimination diet. The idea is that some specific food is causing the problem. In many cases it is something that the person consumes often. It is even often something they consider would never be the problem.

The Method
The elimination diet is eliminating all major allergens for three weeks. After which, they are added back gradually to see which causes a reaction.

What To Avoid
The primary foods that cause intense reactions are grains, dairy, sugar, alcohol, caffeine and trans fats. Within the three weeks your symptoms will likely disappear. Keep going for the whole three weeks though, it takes that long to find out what is causing the problem.

Wheat Allergy?

Add Them Back Over Time
After three weeks the body will have adjusted to not having to deal with the problem food, and it goes back to a nice homeostatic state — your symptoms are gone or greatly reduced. Adding the substance back will usually cause a major reaction that will be undeniable. Usually very quickly, but it can come back slowly.

To take care of that you add each item back for three days before adding another. Give it plenty of time to cause a reaction.

For Example
You might start by having some rice every day for three days. If there is no reaction then it is very likely that rice isn’t the problem. On the fourth day you might add in dairy products — you also might want to add dairy back one item at a time; milk, butter, yogurt, etc. You could also have rice since that will have already been eliminated. After three days of dairy add the next food. Keep going until you find the truth.

Speed Up The Process
You can speed things up by adding back the things you really like first. It’s usually something you are drawn to all the time, you might even think that you can’t get along without it, or would not want to get along without it.

The Usual Suspects
The main culprit is usually a grain, often dairy and sugar is almost always involved. Alcohol is often the problem if there is high usage. Trans fats should be avoided at all costs anyway, and they can cause a big reaction.

The most common grain allergens are: wheat, corn and oats. Any other grain can show up as well, but those three are the main ones I have seen. Wheat is by far the most common.

Detox While Your At It
Here’s a suggestion, Standard Process has a very good intestinal cleans program that takes three weeks. This would be the perfect opportunity to do something really good to promote your health. The kit contains all the supplements you will need and the protein shake mix that will replace a good portion of your food. It actually works out to a savings because so much of your food is supplied in the shakes. The only other thing you need are vegetables and a little fruit.

Use the contact tab to let me know if you want to save 20 percent off that kit.

I Know It’s Hard
Doing the elimination diet was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But, it was also one of the best things I ever did for myself. I did it with the cleanse, so I was doubly motivated. The really weird thing is that I pretty much eat this diet all the time now except for dairy. It just felt that good to eat that way. It took time, but the potential for serious disease conditions are almost completely eliminated with a diet free from grains and sugars. Add in a little exercise and you are probably going to live a very long time.

Also, there are things you can do to help out if you really feel too hungry. One thing about Standard Process, they’re practical.

Fast Broken Bone Healing Protocol

Kalidasa — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 19:10:20 +0000

Broken Hand Bone

With a little help broken bones can heal much faster than doctors say. I once told this to my boss over 30 years ago, long before I knew much about health at all. I did know something as I had the interest even then. I had read several health related books, mostly Adel Davis. Turns out my mentor was reading her at the same time. A lot has changed since then, but still my boss healed in half the time.

Actually, his doctor was flabbergasted. It was a clean break, but he has said that it would take ten weeks or so. Five weeks later Dave asked for an X-ray, but the doc said that would be impractical as they would have to take the cast off and there’s no way it was healed yet.

Dave went fishing a couple of days later and the cast got destroyed. On Monday he had to insist on an X-ray before being casted up again. The doc said that the only way he could find the bone fracture was because he knew where it was!

My arm had a multiple fracture that was supposed to take 16 weeks to heal, and 3 months before I could start exercising it more than just a little. It took 8 weeks, and two months after the break I was working with 20 pounds, a good amount for me in general.

I got started on the supplements a little late. Ideally one would take them before the break, but that’s pretty hard to plan. The earlier you can get started on them the better because a lot happens right after any serious injury.

The Right Form Of Calcium
One of the most important things is to have a good supply of bio-available calcium which means its been ionized. That happens in the presence of strong hydrochloric acid (HCl) in the stomach. Most people don’t produce enough HCl to do this, so you’ll need to take supplements. There’s a problem though.

Eliminating H. Pylori
One thing HCl does is sterilize the contents of the stomach — nature’s way of protecting us from pathogens. Without that a very common bacteria that causes ulcers takes hold. It is now very easy to eliminate H. Pylori by drinking two cups of Brassica Tea a day for 10 days. It’s really good for you, so get a little extra if you can.

Most people can work on getting rid of the bacteria and take the HCl at the same time, as long as there’s no history of an ulcer. But, it’s pretty uncomfortable for those who can’t though, so it might be worth drinking the tea first. If you do take the HCL and it burns the stomach then take some baking soda to neutralize and drink the tea for 10 days before trying again.

Eliminating H. Pylori was researched at Johns Hopkins University, they discovered the way to eliminate it with an antioxidant found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Here’s where you can get the Brassica Tea that has that is rich in that antioxidant.

You can get the betaine HCl at most health food stores, or get the one from Standard Process.

Herbs For Pain And Healing
My experience with the recommended herbs is that they really helped with the pain. And, they aid in the healing process as well.

Most of the supplements are from Standard Process, some of the best supplements in the world. They distribute the MediHerb products too. There are links to the products on Amazon for your convenience. They give me a small percentage too, just to be on the up and up with you.

BONE HEALING PROTOCOL
Take supplements with food and herbs on an empty stomach — two hours after eating to an hour before eating. Both with food is much easier to remember and fine to do, but separate the herbs if you can.

Betaine HCl: 1 capsule when you eat (except very small snacks which are best skipped anyway.)
Biost: three twice a day
Calcifood: six Calcifood wafers or one tablespoon Calcifood power twice a day for two weeks then three wafers or one half tablespoon power twice a day.
CalMa Plus: three twice a day
Whole Dessicated Spleen: three twice a day
Standard Process Vitamin D: two tablets twice a day. Or, 5000 units a day Vitamin D3 — make sure there is some fat in the meal you take vitamin D with.

The above are the main supplements. I thought I’d break if for those who may be on a budget. Get these if you can.

Cataplex F: two am, one pm. This is especially important if you don’t eat fish or take fish oils regularly.

Herbs
Echinacea Premium Tablets: two tabs am and one tab pm, or Liquid Echinacea Premium or 4mL am and 2mL pm
Ginko: two tabs or 2mL am, one tab or 1mL pm

I prefer the liquid herbs because they are more cost effective and because tasting the herbs increases the efficacy. If you get the tabs because you don’t like the taste, try to suck on them long enough to just taste before swallowing. Even a little can help a lot.

There’s the basics of how to heal a broken bone quickly. I hope you recover well with no after effects from your injury.

Soft Tissue Injury

Kalidasa — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:56:19 +0000

Soft tissue injury is a major cause of physical debilitation for a lot of people. One of the main reasons for this is re-injury, injuring the same area before it has fully healed. Knowing how to heal injuries completely, can help you avoid a long healing process. Back pain issues apply to this category, but there are many other areas where this can also be an issue.

Re-injury

Over the years I’ve treated many different types of soft tissue injuries. The main things are sports injuries and trauma from accidents. But, the biggest problem, the worst type of injury is a secondary injuries, an injury to an area that is currently injured itself.

Even a simple sprain can turn into something that can take from months to a year or more to heal when if area is injured again. This is very simple to avoid, perhaps this warning will be enough to help someone avoid a long term, and expensive, healing process.

It’s tough for some people that are really into sports, but the first thing is to stop what you were doing that caused the injury in the first place. A healthy human body loves physical activity, so stopping is not always easy to do, but it is necessary.

Treatment

There are specific common treatments, but they can sometimes be confusing. For example, most people know that applying hot and/or cold to soft tissue injuries is something that will help, but when do you use hot and when cold? A simple guideline is to use cold when the pain is sharp, like right after it happens. An ice pack works wonders in helping to prevent swelling, and relieve pain. After a few days, when the pain is dull heat can be applied.

Another to work with hot and cold is to alternate them. Ice the area until it is good and cold, then apply heat. When practical, immersion in hot water works the best, but a heating pad or hot water bottle can be used. This expands and contracts the blood vesicles which help the stagnant blood and lymph move through.

Another treatment that has been used for centuries is arnica. Arnica is an herb that has long been used as a treatment for strains, sprains and bruises. It comes in different forms, an arnica cream is one of the most affective ones for soft tissue injuries.

In years past it was thought that immobilizing an injured limb was the best thing for certain types of soft tissue injuries. However, movement is now widely practiced. There is one stretching technique that can heal a spain in just a few days. Movement keeps blood moving through an injured area which keeps the flow nutrients and healing factors coming in.

Conclusion

With a little care, many soft tissue injury can be completely healed in a few days to a few weeks. Be careful though, just because an injury feels better doesn’t mean that it is fully healed, so give it an extra week or two. You can use that time to slowly build up strength in the area to help prevent future injuries which could take a lot longer to heal.

Chiropractic Method Question

Kalidasa — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:41:15 +0000

Today I got an email asking about a particular point of view that is held by some schools of chiropractic thought. Let me have the writer pose the question.

“Hey Kalidasa,

Thank you for the fast response. You seem like a very knowledgeable person. I was curious to see what you thought about what my chiropractor told me yesterday. I already knew that the nerves from your spine control everything in your body and that is why it is vital for them to never be interfered with. He said that this is the reason why there is disease in the body; if there were no subluxations (misalignments), there wouldn’t be any disease. I was suspicious about that comment because it is basically saying that chiropractic is a cure all and there really is no need for medicine. I think that while having a healthy spine is very important, there is still a possibility that you will have an ailment from time to time, and there are things such as poor vison, acne, and hair loss that will happen even if your nervous system is operating to it’s fullest. I was wondering what you think about this?”

Here’s my response.

“That is one point of view that a group of chiropractors take, I don’t adhere to it. I have seen miraculous changes with a simple adjustment, but that is rare. On a practical level, all disease is caused by a lack of some nutrient, a toxicity or a combination of the two. On another level, all disease is caused by emotions. I almost always find an emotional component to whatever I’m treating in someone. And on a final level, it’s all karma sometimes referred to as fate. Take your pick.”

When I treat someone I first ask whether the issue is physical, chemical or emotional, in that order. Unless it is something really simple like a fall knocking a joint out of alignment, emotions almost always show up first.

If it is a misalignment then physical often shows up next. This is an easy case, clear the emotion then realign the joint. The problem rarely recurs.

However, there are a lot of chemical issues that show up. This is where the real investigation comes in, the detective work. If there’s anything my friend and mentor Dr. G taught me, it’s the investigative nature of healing with natural techniques.