Natural Healing and Back Pain Relief

Edit: I recently released two free reports on the adrenal glands. The first one is an expansion on 30 Symptoms Of Adrenal Fatigue. There are now 50 symptoms in this free report. And, there is an article on what you can do to help your adrenal glands come to full health. This report is based on Traditional Chinese Medicine. You can get both these reports and more free information on the adrenal fatigue at the link.

Here is a quick home test for adrenal fatigue. It isn’t one hundred percent by any means, but it is an indicator.

One adrenal fatigue symptom is sensitivity to light. The reason for this is because the pupil doesn’t constrict correctly when the adrenals are really low.

You can do this test by yourself or with a friend. I like the self test because you get to see the results which are immediate. The idea is to watch to see how fast or slowly the pupils constrict.

All you’ll need is a mirror and a small flash light.

Start by dimming the lights so that your eyes get a chance to dilate. Allow at least ten minutes or longer to make sure the pupils get as dilated as possible.

While looking at your eye in the mirror, shine the light in from the side so that you can watch the pupil, and so the light isn’t to hard on the eye. Watch to see how the pupil reacts.

The constriction should be immediate. If there is any hesitation at all, then you most likely have adrenal fatigue.

As I mentioned earlier, this test isn’t 100 percent. A slow reaction could be a completely different issue. And, adrenal fatigue won’t always produce a slow reaction either.

Try correcting your diet and taking some of the herbs and supplements that are recommended in this article on nutrition for adrenal fatigue.

The drug companies, media and government are getting out of hand with the flu scares they are making lately. For example, I’m risking being shut down just writing those words. The supreme court is even getting involved, maybe that body can put a halt to some of the insanity.

Mostly, I want to direct you to a page that gives you real information about the swine flu and what a hoax the drug companies are perpetrating for the sake of money.

Basically, the information behind the scare is full of holes. The current swine flu wasn’t as severe as they thought in the southern hemisphere which just came out of their flu season, why should we expect worse?

It seems, when looked at completely and logically, that this flu is no more dangerous than any other seasonal flu. But, I’ll let Dr. Mercola give you the straight dope in their swine flu update.

Here is are a couple of things that I recommend that you can do to protect yourself from any flu. I do these things most of the time anyway.

First, be sure to take vitamin D. It has been shown to increase the ability of the immune system to prevent the flu. Vitamin D activates the part of the immune system that seeks out and kills pathogens like the flu virus. 400 units a day is plenty, but take more for a few weeks if you are low.

Secondly, go out for at least a short walk every day. Walking moves the lymph which clears out pathogens like the flu. It is really hard if not impossible to get the flu if your lymph system is flowing regularly. It only takes 10 to 15 minutes to clear out the sludge from the day. Alternately, you can do minimal movement exercise which is demonstrated in the video at the link.

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine, a little boy 8 years old, came down with the flu. We don’t know which one it was, but he had a fever of 104.5 at one point. Of course, his mother gave him something to bring that down, but if I had gotten there sooner he wouldn’t have needed it. What I did was open his lymph, and give him Congepelx from Standard Process. It only took a few hours until he wasn’t sleeping all the time, and he got hungry.

The dosage for Congeplex if you have symptoms is six an hour for up to seven hours, or until the symptoms abate. I’ve never seen it fail in about a hundred cases. Then take three twice a day for another couple weeks. For my 8 year old friend who weighs about half what I do, three an hour. The capsules were too big for him, so we put the contents in a little juice. He didn’t think it tasted bad at all.

I haven’t had a flu in years. The last couple of times were after a long flight, and I had Congeplex to knock it out quickly. That, plus a good nights sleep, and I was playing tourist just fine.

Another supplement from Standard Process is Immuplex. It is very similar to Congeplex, but better as a preventative, though Congeplex can be used to prevent illness too. I just bought three bottles of Congeplex to pass around and have available for my friends. You might want to do the same.

I hope you read Dr. Mercola, you won’t be nearly as afraid if you do. He gives a few more preventative suggestions too. All you have to do is be a little proactive and you will avoid the flu all together, or be able to finish with it quickly in most cases.

Back pain can have many different causes. A misalignment from an injury or some systemic inefficiency is the main cause in most cases. However, a tight muscle or muscle group can play a significant role. Often the tightness is caused by a misalignment, but adjusting a misalignment may be difficult because of the tight muscle.

Trigger point release is one of the best ways to help a tight muscle that may be causing back pain.
The right technique is needed in order to insure a good release of these tight muscle. The right trigger point or points must be found, the right pressure applied for the right amount of time. Otherwise the release won’t be as complete if achieved at all.
One important tip is that the best pressure point is rarely right where the pain or injury is. A proper understanding of where the muscle is, where it originates and inserts (begins and ends), and its path are needed in order to find the right place to apply pressure can be found.
Finding the trigger point itself is fairly easy only requiring a little sensitivity. They are hollow areas in the muscle that dip down or have less resistance when a little pressure is applied. It’s like the muscle opens up to the massage therapists hands as they work into the point.
The amount of time to apply pressure depends on many factors. A trigger point usually needs to be worked for a shorter time at first building up the time over a few sessions, but in some cases a longer time can be applied right away.
The closer you are to the point of pain or injury the more sensitive the point may be, so a shorter time might be better when working in those areas. Working right on the area that hurts often only aggravate the injury. However, at times the direct approach is best, but with great care.
Many therapists work a trigger point for too short of a time. The ideal time is until the muscle releases. A sensitive therapist can feel the release which often comes in stages. They can tell by feel when the muscle has released enough, and when any more time might cause undo irritation or soreness. The holding time can be up to three minutes, with a longer time usually being better as long as proper care is taken.
One great thing about trigger point release is that like Self Adjusting Technique, it can be self applied for fast back pain relief. It is best to have a skilled practitioner do the work for you, but working on yourself has the obvious advantages of immediacy and that it doesn’t cost anything. Massage tools can be employed to avoid causing your fingers to cramp with the long holding times required for a good release. One massage tool is a big “S” shape that allows you to work the back quite effectively.

Trigger point release can also relax muscles that affect misalignments so the adjustment will hold. A look at some anatomy charts can be very helpful in knowing what is needed. And, stay in communication with your therapist, let them know if you think the pressure or time is too much or not enough.
Self adjusting the area is much easier when the muscles cooperate. If you are using Self Adjusting Technique to adjust yourself, and the adjustment doesn’t seem to be working, you might try releasing the muscle with trigger point release technique first. Likewise, if the adjustments don’t seem to be holding, you might try getting the muscles to release with trigger point release technique.
Be sure to get your free copy of Back Pain Secrets here. It’s loaded with back pain relief information. The emails you get will only be from me, and they all have good information in them. No spam, I promise, and you can unsubscribe with a click should you ever want to.

This question came in on the comments for my 30 symptoms of adrenal fatigue article. I thought I’d answer here.

Q) My husband has polymyalgia rheumatica. He has been on Prednisone for almost two years, although the dosage is periodically reduced as his body will tolerate. I recently researched the effects of Prednisone and found that the Prednisone is now doing the work for his adrenal glands, (if I understood that correctly).

So many of the symptoms of adrenal fatigue seem to fit what he is experiencing (at least 20 of the 30 listed), so I’m wondering if he shouldn’t ask his Rheumatologist to do the saliva test.

We’ve talked about trying to eliminate sugar from our diet as I have many of the 30 symptoms also as well as arthritis in some areas. We’re both so abnormally tired and we know this is just not normal.

Here are my questions:

With support and restoration of the adrenal glands, might my husband be able to get off of Prednisone?

If so, how much should he be doing on his own to restore his adrenals?

If the Prednisone is doing the work the adrenals would normally do, is it doing it well enough or could he have af because Prednisone doesn’t do it well enough?

Thank you for the information supplied on your blog. It has been extremely informative and easy to comprehend.

A) This is a very common condition affecting almost everyone over 50, with no known prevention or treatment other than steroids like Prednisone. At least, that’s according to the medical model. I disagree and think it is very preventable and treatable. It is a form of arthritis (or arthritis is a possible cause of the condition according to some texts).

I’m not a doctor, so I don’t know a lot about Prednisone, but I do know a little. It is possible to get off it, but it takes time. The dosage has to be cut slowly or there will be severe reactions. I’d recommend working with your doctor to be sure you are safe.

Prednisone doesn’t actually take over what the adrenals do. This gets complicated, so I won’t go very deep, but the drug is just one of the many hormones that the adrenal glands produce, but not all of them by any means. This drug does take a heavy toll on the adrenal glands though, so the system ends up running on different hormones to compensate. This is very stressful for the body with many side effects, including pain in the hips and shoulders which is where his condition tends to locate.

Your husband’s condition is inflammatory in nature. There are two major factors involved here, the liver (which produces C-reactive protein, the substance that causes inflammation, and Prednisone is very hard on the liver), and the body’s store of anti-inflammatories which come only from fish oils. I’d recommend a large dose if he’s not taking them or eating fish very regularly. (12 grams a day for a month or two is a large doss, and I’ve seen larger dosages. Not more than three months though as this high of a dosage eventually has a negative affect on the gallbladder.)

Arthritis is very treatable. There are hundreds of different types, but they don’t all require the same treatment. Mostly though, it is caused by the modern diet of sugar and processed carbs, so changing the diet is very important. Most likely polymyalgia rheumatica is due to toxins (environmental and diet) that need to be cleared.  This is my oppenion from knowledge of such conditions.

There are also supplements and herbs that help restore the adrenal glands, but this can be a long process too since he’s in so deep and possibly elderly. It is my firm belief that the body wants to heal though, all it needs is a chance.

Your situation may not be as deep, but I suspect adrenal fatigue with you too. Here is an article with a brief list of treatments for adrenal exhaustion.

I wish you both the best in your quest for optimum health. It’s a long and often hard journey, but well worth it. You’re welcome to set up a phone time with me if you like. I don’t charge for short calls.

My friend, Carol Nevitt, wanted to give you some more suggestions for natural back pain treatment. The vitamin D issues only surprised me a little since so much is dependent on this supplement.

There are many available methods for back pain treatment. Some are better than others. Many conventional treatments for back pain can have devastating side effects. Natural back pain relief can be safer, more economical and more effective than “traditional” methods.

Here are some common methods for natural back pain relief:

1. Capsaicin cream (also known as capsicum cream) is available over-the-counter in most drug stores and health food stores. You may also purchase it online. The main ingredient is the active ingredient found in chili peppers (the stuff that makes your mouth burn when you eat them). This cream has been found to have an analgesic effect when applied to the skin because it depletes substance P (a neurochemical that transmits pain). The most common side effect is a stinging or burning sensation in the area, and care must be exercised not to touch your eyes when using this cream. Use gloves if at all possible.

2. A lack of vitamin D is a surprising cause of some back pain, and an easy back pain treatment method to try out. Chronic muscle pain can be a symptom of a deficiency in vitamin D. This vitamin is found in many foods, such as fish (with small bones), and vitamin D – enriched milk. Exposure to sunlight helps the body produce vitamin D naturally. Risk factors for a deficiency in this vitamin are darker pigmented skin (such as Hispanic, Asian and African American), because darker skin does not convert sunlight as well as lighter skin does; minimal sun exposure, and seasonal location (such as the Northern latitudes in winter).

3. Music therapy is another therapy that is low-cost and has been found to relieve other symptoms associated with back pain, such as depression, anxiety and disability. Music also has an effect on reducing pain, but the effect is not pronounced. To be most effective, music therapy needs to be combined with other methods of pain relief.

4. Vitamin B12 is another treatment for back pain. An Italian study, showed that people who received B12 had a significant reduction in pain and disability. They used less pain medication than the group that received a placebo. Risk factors for a vitamin B12 deficiency include pernicious anemia, infection, digestive diseases, and some medications.

5. Willow Bark is a treatment that involves the bark of the white willow tree. The bark has pain-relieving properties that are similar to aspirin. There have been a number of studies that have compared the effects of white willow bark to a placebo, and the effects of willow bark are significant compared to the placebo group. In one study, Willow Bark was found to reduce pain as effectively as a more traditional medication.

These are just a few of the natural back pain relief options available. Using natural options can be a much safer, more effective way of back pain treatment. Traditional methods can be much too invasive, painful or expensive for consideration. Some traditional methods have a questionable success rate, as well.

And, you can find more great suggestions in Kalidasa’s free book on back pain relief.

Today’s article is a guest post from a friend of mine, Carol Nevitt. I hope you find it helpful.

Lower back pain is a widespread ailment that affects millions of people worldwide. Just about everyone has some incident of lower back pain at some time in his or her life. According to the National Institutes of Health, the only thing more common than back pain is the headache.

There are many causes of lower back pain, but most are caused by muscle strain, ruptured (or herniated) disc, spinal stenosis (common in the aging population) arthritis (commonly found in the knees and fingers, but can be found in the spine, as well), and osteoporosis (where the pain is usually caused by compressive fractures).

Most periods of back pain will be resolved in a matter of days or weeks by following the first line of treatment: rest and heat. Rest allows the back to have time to heal itself and the heat soothes the pain and gives much-needed (if only temporary) relief. After a few days there should be significant improvement. After a few weeks, the episode is often completely gone.

There are some symptoms that should cause you to contact your physician right away. These include the following:

If the pain goes down your leg below the knee
If you feel numb in your leg, groin, foot, or rectal area
If you have a fever or nausea/vomiting
If you lose control of your bowels
If you lose bladder control
If you have weakness or sweating
If your pain was caused by an injury
If you are in so much pain you cannot move around
If your pain does not improve in 2 or 3 weeks

There are different types of treatment for back pain. The type of treatment will depend on the cause of the pain, the patient and the doctor. Some of the treatments used for back pain are as follows:

1. Rest and heat, as has been mentioned. These are the first things to try.

2. Balneotherapy is a very old therapy for pain relief. The word comes from the Latin for “bath,” and it is a form of hydrotherapy. It involves bathing in mineral water or warm water. Studies have shown that bathing in mineral water compared to tap water shows marked superiority in pain relief and increased mobility. (Note: People with heart conditions should check with their primary care physician before attempting balneotherapy.)

3. Physical therapy/exercise is used to help strengthen the back muscles and decrease pain. By increasing the flexibility and the strength of the back muscles, weight is more favorably distributed and less pressure is put on the spine.

4. Prescription drugs (such as narcotics and muscle relaxants) are often used for back pain relief. Extreme caution should be used when taking these types of drugs because the side effects can be considerable – even to the point of being able to function well. Addiction can also be a concern for some narcotics. Always ask about possible side effects that you should know about and what symptoms should indicate a call the prescribing doctor.

Lower back pain is a prevalent disorder that affects millions of people. Virtually everyone has lower back pain at some time in their lives. According to the National Institutes of Health, the only thing more common than back pain is the headache. The best approach to treat back pain is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Here are some back care tips to help you steer clear of back injury:

1. If you have a job where you are sitting all day, take regular breaks and either walk around or simply stand and stretch. Try to schedule any activities that require you to stand (such as trips to the fax machine or the filing room) throughout the day so you can interrupt extended periods of sitting at a desk.

2. Take a walk during your lunch break instead of simply sitting at a table. If it is not possible to take a walk, then find some appropriate indoor activity. Choose something that will allow you to stretch and get a little aerobic exercise.

3. If you are doing a recreational activity that requires you to crouch down or bend over for prolonged periods (such as gardening), take breaks and stretch out your back out every twenty or thirty minutes. This will prevent having constant stress in the back.

4. Following any physical pursuit, avoid having a slouched posture right after the activity as your body cools down. This is a very common cause of injury (more so than the original movement itself).

5. Be active. Engage in a physical fitness pursuit on a regular basis. When you are sedentary, physical exertion can cause injury simply because your body is not used to it. Unused muscles become weaker and are not as flexible. Regular physical activity can also help you drop excess weight. Excess weight about the belly can cause lower back pain by pulling on the spine disproportionately.

6. Use care when lifting heavy objects. Remember to move as close as you can to the object when lifting it. Bend your knees and work with your legs to pick up the object, not your back. You can do this by straightening your knees while holding the object to lift it, without bending over and straightening your back to lift the object. Do not be afraid or self-conscious to ask for assistance in lifting heavy objects, either – a moment spent to look for for help may possibly avert a lifetime injury.

7. If your work site has an ergonomist on site, be sure to confer with with him or her and heed his or her suggestions about your back care.

8. While sitting, utilize a lumbar roll to help guarantee a good posture. Slouching and slumping can cause both lower and upper back pain. Take regular breaks and do stretching exercises. Merely standing in place and stretching slowly forwards and backwards can reduce the tension off of the back.

A few steps of preventive back care can be worth a lifetime of being pain free. Take care and pay attention to the signs your back is giving you. And, if you are currently experiencing back pain, or know someone who is, you can download the free book filled with free back pain relief information, and natural treatment options. There is also plenty of free back care information here on this blog.

Self chiropractic is being taught these days. You can find books and videos teaching how to do chiropractic adjustments. But, are these forceful adjustments safe?

Some of the “cracking” techniques may be safe, but it takes training and experience to really be safe. However, even a “safe” adjustment, done by an experienced chiropractor can cause damage, it happens all the time.

When force is uesd to put a joint back into place you always risk damaging the surrounding tissue. In fact, there will be at least some soft tissue dammage. Many chiropractors ice their clients after an adjustment.

Now, before I make a lot of enemies out of some really good chiropractors, let me say that there are really good chiropractors available. My mentor is one of them. He taught me how to do chiropractic adjustments the right way, and there is a right way. To tell the truth, I’m not sure why some chiropractors give such poor adjustments. Maybe it’s a certain ability that some never really manage develop.

How do I know there are chiropractors hurting people? Because I’ve treated a few of them in my practice, and I’ve been hurt by a chiropractor. I’m not a chiropractor, and while I can do a decent chiropractic adjustment, I don’t. That’s a good way for me to land in jail for one thing. For another, I can adjust without force.

I have had many people come to me with an injury caused by a chiropractic adjustment. Somtime the orriginal issue has been dealt with, other times not. I treat them with supplements and other treatments that are very gentle. They are usually pretty scared too.

So, if there are trained chiropractors sending their clients searching for a cure for the cure, what do you think when someone with no training at all starts trying to force someone’s back into alignment? I hope you don’t try these techniques on your loved ones.

I do have to say though, that there are some back cracking techniques that are relatively safe. I used to crack people all the time when I was very young and didn’t know all the tricks I do now. But, a crack is not necessarily an adjustment. And, you don’t have to have a crack to have an adjustment happen. There are many ways to adjust a joint.

The pop you hear when a joint cracks is just an air bubble popping. It feels really good, and many people think of this good feeling as having adjusted something. What really happens though, is that a really powerful peptide, kind of a mini hormone, called an endorphine is released.

Endorphines act as a pain killer, and they are released when we exercise a lot, or if there’s an injury, and even in orgasm. Chemically it resembles opiates, so their pain killing effect can be quite strong. And, they are released when a joint is cracked. That is what makes you feel so good when your back cracks. And, it masks the injury that happens when your back is cracked.

In conclusion, I’d like to encourage you to find a different way to adjust yourself or a loved one. It is possible to adjust your self using Self Adjusting Technique, and there are chiropractors that use a tool called an activator that is usually safe. And, there are practitioners who have learned how to do gentle adjustments. Just, please be careful in your search for back pain relief.

Question:  I am a 60 yr old triathlete who ALWAYS has a problem with lower back/hips/shoulders, etc.  I am currently seeing a massage therapist, who seems to have gotten a hold on my pain issues.  Both the light/eye test and the blood pressure test were negative.  Should I still do the supplements and watch my sugar intake?

First of all, I highly recommend giving up sugar all together. I always do. It’s the major contributer to aging and all major health issues. And, it takes a worse toll the older we get. The thing that you have going for you though is that your exercise. 

When blood sugar is high, like after eating any sugar at all, insulin goes up to bring the high blood sugar down. High insulin this one of the main causes of many diseases. I could go on and on about what high insulin does to the body. One is that it pushes a lot of the sugar to the muscles. If you workout not too long after sugar or processed foods, then that sugar is burned off. But, muscles burning sugar (anaerobic – without oxygen) get a lot more sore than muscles burning fat (aerobic – with oxygen).

Since you are an athlete, and you passed the two adrenal test, then the adrenals are not likely to be your issue. My next suspect would be tight muscles, though there are other possibilities.

For people with good adrenal glands, lower back pain relief can still be found.

With the lower back it is likely the psoas muscle that is tight. It is the deepest muscle in the body running from the inside of the lower back diagonally to the hip and down to the inside of the upper thigh bone. When this muscle is tight, it will pull the lower back forward increasing the arch in the lower back. If rounding the back makes it feel considerably better, then I would do some pressure point release on the psoas and see if that gives you relief.

Here is a video on how to do this massage. It is demonstrated on someone, but it is possible to do it on yourself.

Psoas Massage/Release for Lower Back Pain Relief from Kalidasa Brown on Vimeo.

While this is the most likely the cause of your back pain, there are other possible causes. You can find 40 causes of back pain here, but even that list is incomplete. I hope you can find the issue and find real back pain relief soon. And, I wish I could see you in person, so far I have been able to eliminate back pain for every client I have ever had. Maybe I just haven’t gotten a tough case yet.

Yesterday I had a little mishap with my back. This doesn’t happen very often to me because I know how to deal with all kinds of back pain. Also, my diet is excellent, and diet is one of the main contributors to lower back pain. In the worst case, if I do experience back pain, I can usually alleviate it in a very quickly.

I normally don’t have a very stressful life, which is a good thing since my body has gone through a lot of stress in this life, and it just isn’t as capable of handling it like it used to. I fully expect things to return to normal though, it’ll just take a little time.

To continue, a few days ago I had a lot of things come up at once, things I needed to handle. Consequently, I was doing a lot more running around than usual for a few days. Also, I wasn’t getting enough sleep.

Yesterday was a little easier, everything got handled, and I was able to have a normal day. However, my lower back started to ache shortly after I got up in the morning. I did some adjusting, but that didn’t help. I knew that something was probably up with my adrenal glands, so I was sure to take my usual supplements which include adrenal support. But, my lower back pain seemed to get worse over the next couple of hours.

I tried a couple more things, including taking a walk which often loosens up a tight lower back like I was experiencing. But, it just wasn’t getting any better.

Worse, I had something to do to help out a friend which included some physical exertion. Normally this wouldn’t be anything for me to consider, but things were different that day.

Finally, I pulled out a couple of herbs that I had stashed away, and within 30 minutes my back was completely back to normal. All pain was gone, and it didn’t even need an adjustment.

I have known for a long time that my lower back responded well to adrenal support, but never this dramatically. Now, I am going to get more of these herbs and make sure I have them on hand for those stressful days that we all have.

How’s your back doing? I hope you aren’t having any trouble, but if you are you can find back pain relief here with a free book. There is a lot of information on the blog here, and on my youtube channel, kalidasab. Get a free book and learn how to end your back pain as fast as possible.

Back pain causes are varied with many different possible causes of back pain, some of which are very serious. This site has been mostly dedicated to the common back pain issues, the ones that most people experience. However, I often get asked about other causes of back pain.

How do you know what causes back pain for you? Of course, a visit to your doctor is a good idea. So, if you are unable to find back pain relief after simple adjustments, whether from the chiropractor or if you self adjust, then you may have a different issue.

Here’s the list:
First, there are injuries:

1) Compression fracture of the vertebral column.

2) Rupture of intervertebral discs.

3) Injuries to ligaments and muscles of back.

4) Lumbosacral strain.

5) Intervertebral joint injuries.

6) Fracture of processes of vertebra.

Then, there are backaches caused by some physical imbalance:

7) During pregnancy.

8  Pot belly.

9) Diseases of the hip joint.

10) Curvature in the spine due to congenital defect.

11) Short leg in one side.

While inflammation may develop with back pain, it can also be a direct cause:
12) Infection of the bone due to bacteria.

13) Tuberculosis of the spine.

14) Arthritis.

15) Brucellosis.

16) Lumbago or fibrositis.

17) Inflammation of the muscles.

18) Anchylosing spondylitis.

There can be degenerative causes as the body wears down. Note that age isn’t the only cause of the body wearing down:

19) Osteoarthritis.

20) Osteoporosis.

21) Degeneration of the intervertebral disc.

Another cause is a growth or tumor on or near the area:

22) Primary tumor of the bones in the spine.

23) Metastatic tumors from other sites like prostate,lungs,kidneys,intestine ect.

Women experience different types of back pain due to gynecological issues:

24) After childbirth.

25) After gynecological operations.

26) Prolapse of the uterus.

27) Pelvic inflammatory diseases.

28) Cancerous lesions of the pelvic organs.

29) Endometriosis.

Back pain can be caused by issues in other parts of the body as well:

30) Renal stones.

31) Ureteric stone.

32) Cancer of prostate.

33) Pancreatitis.

34) Biliary (Gall) stones.

35) Peptic ulcer.

36) Inflammations of pelvic organs.

37) Occlusion of aorta and iliac arteries.

Finally, there are causes that are not always acknowledged by medical science:
38) Misalignment which can have many causes
39) Emotions
40) Adrenal fatigue

There you have many different back pain causes. Let me know in the comments if you are experiencing one of these conditions that you’d like to know more about. And, I look forward to hearing from experts if I left out any causes.

I used to suffer from all kinds of back pain. I had almost every back condition there is, from bulging discs to neck pain. At one point I had low back pain so bad I couldn’t walk. However, I was able to turn this all around so that my back now is very strong and able to do anything I want it to. Here is the story of what caused the bulging disc in my neck which included nerve pain that ran down my arm, and how the problem was completely healed.

As I mentioned, I once had a major pain in my neck. It hurt near the bottom of the neck, in the upper back, and the right shoulder. I also had nerve pain that ran down the right arm. 
At this point in my life I had learned how to adjust my own back and neck with a gentle technique I now call Self Adjusting Technique. I could easily get relief from this problem by adjusting my neck at what I later found out was C5. 

The problem was that shortly after doing the adjustment it would go back out again. So, I was adjusting it every few minutes because it wouldn’t stay in, and it really was uncomfortable when it was out. 

This was shortly after I started studying natural healing by observing a master healer, Dr. G. He is a chiropractor and natural healer that has the ability to heal just about everything that he comes across. This was at the beginning of my apprenticeship that taught me the art of healing with natural techniques. But, that is another story for another time. 

I didn’t have much money at the time as this was shortly after I had major surgery for an intestinal blockage that had incapacitated me so that I couldn’t work. I had started back to work some, but basically I was pretty broke. 

But, I knew that Dr. G could help me because of what I had seen him doing with his clients. The results he would get with people were really amazing, and in a fairly short time. It really was a blessing that I could observe him, and I was learning about how to successfully heal various aspects of what I had going on, but the neck issue was beyond me. 

Finally I just had to get some direct advice for my issue, so I managed to save enough for a visit. 
About a week before the appointment I started indulging in all the things I liked, mostly sugar and bread kind of things. I knew he was going to tell me I had to stop eating like that or my neck wouldn’t heal, so I had my fling.

This, of course, caused the pain to get worse and worse. About three days before my appointment I was always in pain in the neck and shoulder along with a new arm pain. If I adjusted the neck I had to hold the vertebra in place or it would go right back out and I would instantly be in pain again. 

It was so bad that immediately after seeing him I was willing to quit sugar and processed foods, at least until my neck got better. The way he explained what was happening with my neck made complete sense to me. Knowledge really can be power, if you take the appropriate action. 

He gave me the advice to clean up my diet and some supplements that helped heal the adrenal glands as well as other related organs and glands. You can find out about some of the supplements that are needed for the adrenal glands here.

It really is possible to heal the body with natural techniques. The problems in the vertebrae of the back and neck are often symptoms of a larger breakdown that happens systemically.
It takes time and knowledge to heal the body, but it can be done: the body wants to heal, all you have to do is give it the opportunity.

You can learn more about what causes C5 to go out of alignment and how it can be treated with natural techniques by going to http://selfadjustingtechnique.com/back-pain-secrets and getting your free copy of Back Pain Secrets. It’s absolutely free, and you will never be spammed, so get your copy today.

If you have back pain you are in the majority — 80 to 90 percent of everyone will experience back pain at some point in their life, depending on which statistics you check. Furthermore, four out of five people will experience lower back pain. This much pain is not necessary, real back pain relief is available now. According to the NIH many people seem to know this as more people look towards complementary and alternative medicine for a back pain remedy than any other condition. And, they are finding the help they need.

For the most part, chiropractors and doctors don’t understand the root cause of back pain. Consequently, many patients have to keep going for more drugs or treatments costing themselves and taxpayers over $100 billion every year in medical costs and lost productivity. Fortunately though, there is a group of practitioners that can and do successfully treat back pain on a regular basis.

These practitioners include doctors, chiropractors, acupuncturists, natural healing practitioners or nutritionists and others who use natural healing therapies. Most doctors look only at the symptoms, or one part of the body. In contrast, holistic practitioners look into the whole being to find the root cause of distress and how to treat the whole rather than the parts. They look at the body’s chemistry for deficiency or toxicity, the structural aspects of the entire body are evaluated and corrected, and nervous system stressing emotions are cleared.

Diet can have a significant affect on back pain, especially lower back pain. For the most part, this is caused by the modern addition of processed foods. Another chemical factor that can lead to pain of all sorts is toxicity. Injury causes chemical reactions in the area that need to be cleared. Reactive connective tissue can lead to problems in the skeletal system. There are too many chemical causes of back pain to list them all here, but in most cases, knowing the cause usually points to the best treatment options for natural back pain relief.

An accident, a fall or just sleeping crooked can also affect joint alignment. One chiropractic school of thought is that spinal misalignment is the primary cause of illness and disease. While that isn’t necessarily always true, sometimes alignment can have a strong influence. Once the issue is determined to be strictly structural, then an adjustment is all that is needed.

Emotions can have a strong impact on alignment. Not many practitioners understand the emotional connection to physical issues. Stressful emotions can get stuck in the body as emotional components. Think about how most people’s shoulders are held up by stress tension being stored in the upper back. These emotional components have a neurological affect that causes muscles to tighten which can pull on the bones shifting them out of alignment. Emotions and the accompanying stress also blocks energy flow so that healing other issues is difficult to impossible. In fact, emotions are one of the main overlying factors of misalignments and illness.

Back pain isn’t necessary and can be eradicated from your life. There are holistic methods to back pain relief that don’t rely on drugs or multiple visits to be adjusted. While every back pain issue is individual, there are patters that are quite common. You can get a lot of this back pain information for free in the book, “Back Pain Secrets.”

A comment from Steve in 30 Symptoms of Adrenal Fatigue — paraphrased:

I read your article and thought I have alot of those symptoms. I am vegetarian (sometimes I eat cheese but rarely eat eggs, meat, or diary) because of IBS. Which really is annoying. Anyway 1/3 of my diet used to be potato chips and candies. I craved them all the time. I gained alot of weight over the last 2 years and decided that it was time to lose it. I was too heavy and didn’t like the way I felt so I went on this crash diet during the winter for 3 1/2 months. I cut back from eating 3 or more meals a day to 1 to 2 meals a day. I stayed up all night playing video games and would sleep most of the day. I rarely got out of the house and my nutrition was poor. I cut back on the chips and candy.

Come April I decided it was time to start exercising and completely alter my diet. (I was 30 pounds lighter now). I switched to a vegan diet eating whole vegetables, grains, lots of gardenburgers with some nuts.

He goes on to describe symptoms of hot flashes, irritable bowl syndrome (IBS), panic attack type symptoms and insomnia. The doctors put him on antidepressants because everything else was “normal.”

You can read the entire comment on 30 symptoms of adrenal fatigue.

My response:

Steve,

One possible explanation for what you have going on does have to do with adrenal fatigue and a failure of the liver to completely breakdown hormones.

When the body is functioning normally, hormones are created, used and discarded after they have done their job. This includes stress hormones and estrogens. Yes, male bodies have estrogens too.

Stress is caused by many different factors. Diet is the main one for most occupants of modern cultures where sugar and processed foods are easily attainable. Note: going hungry causes generally the same physiological effects that eating junk food does. Emotions are probably the second most common cause of stress. Exercise is another stressor that can contribute to the issue. Environmental toxins are probably the final contributor. Each of these issues are a conversation in themselves. I plan on covering factors other than diet, which I have covered fairly well, in the future.

Adrenal fatigue is a vicious cycle having to do with how stress causes the release of stress hormones which makes the body feel that it is under stress, so more stress hormones are released, etc. It is often more important to stop this cycle at the stress input level than to strengthen the adrenal glands themselves.

This adrenal cycle causes adrenal fatigue and the associated symptoms like your panic attacks and IBS.

Ideally, when under stress, the stress hormones are broken down by the liver. This is also where estrogens are broken down.

Estrogen dominance causes hot flashes.

So, when the liver has extra stress hormones to break down the estrogens don’t get broken down as they should leaving you with excess estrogens and the associated hot flashes.

As to your IBS, that is often caused by adrenal fatigue, but there are often complications. The fight or flight response is the main one.

Flight or flight causes all digestion to shut down, the immune system to quit, cellular repair to stop and the sexual functions to turn off. Nothing is more important than getting away from something that is immediately life threatening.

The problem is that we get stuck in this state. Our evolutionary ancestors hid in a cave or the top of a tree whimpering and crying until the issue was released and forgotten. In modern society we have to stand and face the threat while forcing down our instinctual reaction to run or lash out. Consequently, the emotions get stuck in the body causing us to be stuck in an internal fight flight reaction that has nowhere to go.

Outside intervention is needed to deal with this. There are emotional clearing techniques like emotional freedom technique, but you need to know which emotions to clear. I do this through muscle testing. I’ve been trying to think of how to help people find the emotions to clear for themselves, but there isn’t an easy way to do this short of teaching how to do muscle testing which requires some skill.

Another possiblility that I have been working on is using relaxing herbs to calm the part of the brain that continues to feel in stress so that fight flight can be released.

There are many issues that are caused by adrenal fatigue and by the factors that cause adrenal fatigue. Probably the best thing to do in this case is to take calming and relaxing herbs. Complexes made from the whole herb in powder form are generally the best.

And, animal protein is essential for most people’s health. I hope you can get to the point where there isn’t a problem eating it. Why eating animal protein is so important and why vegetarianism doesn’t work for most people is a whole other subject.

Back pain treatment is something that 80 percent of everybody will experience at some point in their life. It is a huge business because there is so much that can happen to a back to cause pain. Medical therapy is limited and is basically ineffective. However, natural methods that treat the primairy root cause of back pain offers people valid possibilities for treatment that works.

Medicine is limited to pain killers, muscle relaxants, painful cortisone shots and radical surgery that has a poor success rate. All to treat symptoms, mostly without concern for the root cause. In recent times, many doctors have started telling their patients to try to find natural method of back pain relief.

Natural back pain treatment depends on knowing the root source of the condition. Once the reason for the particular back pain is found, the treatment often reveals itself. For example, lower back pain, one of the most common complaints today, has the same root source in most cases. Sciatica can be included here as well, although there is a little more to that story.

Processed foods like sugar, bread — including “healthy” bread prepared from whole grains is still milled, which is processing. Pasta, dried fruit and even fruit juice create problems that can produce lower back pain. While doctors will understand the biochemistry behind this, their training often doesn’t incorporate the associations. An easy to understand version follows.

Processed foods instigate a spike in blood sugar levels. It is apparent how white sugar does this. By the way, sugar also comprises the majority of the natural sugars that many believe to be healthier for the body — they aren’t. Ground up grains, even whole grains as mentioned previously, are digested rapidly so that the stored sugar in the grain is released abruptly into the blood stream unlike whole, unbroken grain which release their carbohydrate slowly. It is the additional surface area that permits for quicker digestion of ground grains which abruptly increases blood sugar levels.

The body brings high blood sugar levels down with insulin. However, the speedy rise in blood sugar levels produces an over-response, a release of too much insulin. The result is that blood sugar levels end up being too low, something the body must also fix. The correction is that the adreanl glands release cortisol, also called cortisone, a stress hormone. One of the things that cortisol does is release stored sugar to bring blood sugar levels up.

So, here’s what could happen. You eat a big meal of pasta and garlic bread, yum-yum. Maybe you eat too much, it is delicious after all. Afterward, you feel sleepy and have to lie down or veg in front of the TV for awhile. Sooner or later, you feel more alert, and perhaps you feel like having a little dessert.

What happened is that the food of processed grains brought the blood sugar way up, you might have even been having a good time laughing and chatting with your friends, keyed up from all that blood sugar. Next, once insulin does its job and brings the blood sugar down, but too low, so you are in the mood for a nap. All because the brain is deprived of its main food, sugar. Later on, cortisol brings blood sugar up again, so you wake up again. Furthermore, you want dessert because stored sugar has been used up, and the body wants it replaced. But, that’s just another round about to take place, just like before.

In time, the adrenal glands become worn out. They didn’t evolve to contend with processed foods at all, nowadays they are called upon to do this effort over and over again. The link with the lower back is that the exhausted adrenals obtain the nutrients they need from available sources together with stealing them away from the ligaments and tendons, they use many of the same nutrients. Since the lower back supports the weight of the upper body, that is where you are most likely to experience a weakness from depleted ligaments first. Without ligament strength, the joints in the lower back and hips go out of alignment causing lower back pain that is so common today.

In this case, lower back pain treatment is obvious. A change of eating practices is chief, and furnishing nutrients that the adrenals and ligaments must have seems like a good therapy as well.

Back pain treatment possibilities for the many other back pain conditions is often just as evident when the root cause is recognized. You can learn more by getting the free book, Back Pain Secrets. Click on the link to sign up now. There are also follow up emails that offer even more free insight concerning back pain treatment and what you can do to help your particular back pain issue.

You can learn a great deal more about adrenal fatigue and natural back pain relief here at the blog. There are videos available and a podcast. Sometimes a question will inspire a post that can help others, so ask away. I currently have some time, but that won’t always be the case.