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Natural Health and Wellness

pain relief

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Types of Back Pain and Symptoms

sciatic-nerve-painBack pain is one of the most common conditions among the human race. And, it can also be one of the most debilitating because the back is so important for mobility.

This is the reason that many personal fitness trainers advocate doing regular back strengthening exercises and to work the core, because it is integral to overall health and body strength, especially as we age.

Back pain can be indicative of a variety of conditions that can range from being benign to very serious. Most people who experience back pain take medication to relieve the pain and go about their business, but they do not realize that stopping the pain is not stopping the problem. Due to the uncertainty of this type of pain it is important to explore all the potential causes for it.

Many conditions present themselves with other symptoms alongside back pain, making it a little easier to decipher between them.

If you have been struggling with constant back pain, it is important to understand the different types of back pain and the symptoms they bring so that you and your doctor can move forward with effective treatment plans.

Types of Back Pain and Symptoms

The back is one of the largest areas of the body because it takes up a lot of surface area. Due to the size of this body part, there is a lot of potential for pain, discomfort and other problems to arise. The back is also a sensitive area because of the nerve endings and vertebrae located in the spine. These highly sensitive parts and organs are prone to damage and strain, making them the prime area for pain to manifest when there is a problem. Also due to the size of the back, there can be pain all over—from the upper shoulders and neck, to the center, to the lower back, you can experience back pain virtually anywhere.

While not all back pain is the same, the more in touch with your body you are, the more likely you are to identify one hurt from another. For example, back pain from the menstrual cycle is extremely different from the pain one feels from a sprain. This is because the various muscles and nerves respond differently to different cause of pain. The most common types of back pain are the following:

• Upper Back Pain
• Lower Back Pain
• Middle Back Pin
• Upper, Middle, and Lower Back Strain
• Lower Back, Leg, and Hip Pain
• Nighttime Pain
• Stiffness
• Soreness
• Sprain or Strain Pain

Many people experience these forms of back pain on a daily basis. While they are common, that does not mean they are not cause for alarm. There are certain accompanying symptoms that may indicate the need to visit your doctor. The following complications may require medical attention and include back pain as part of their common symptoms:

• Sciatica: This condition occurs when pressure is placed on the sciatic nerve located in the leg or upper thigh. The sciatic nerve can cause both back and leg pain if it is subjected to too much pressure. This can happen when a person is overweight or even underweight because the nerve will be exposed to either a lot of extra pressure or friction respectively.

• Cuada Equina Syndrome: This syndrome can negatively affect the bowels and bladder and may even lead to paralysis. When out of hand, this condition could also require emergency surgery as to avoid any lasting damage to the abdominal area.

• Hernia/Herniated Disk: A hernia occurs when the abdominal tissue “falls” out of place, usually due to heavy lifting or excess strain. While this mostly affects men, it has the potential to affect women as well, especially if the condition is hereditary. When a hernia occurs it could cause serious lower back pain that will almost definitely require immediate medical attention.

Play It Safe

If you have persistent back pain it is best to put the painkillers away and pick up the phone. Your doctor can perform a thorough examination and assess your unique back pain. Do not wait until your pain has gotten out of hand. Play it safe and contact your medical care provider as soon as possible.

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Is Obesity A Risk Factor For Pain Conditions?

help_scaleBeing obese is not a cosmetic problem. In a world where the media and society hold beauty and fitness to very high standards, an overweight or obese person can easily feel left out, depressed, suffer low esteem.

Televisions and fashion magazines are full of pictures of thin models, actresses and athletes with lean abs, glorifying some almost impossible ideals to a point that makes a normal person feel inadequate. You can imagine how an obese person must feel to be exposed to this kind of environment.

Apart from the emotional factors, obesity comes with a lot of health factors. Obese people are usually in pain more often when compared to normal people, even if they are healthy. Obesity and pain go hand in hand. The heaviest people report the highest rates of pain.

Obesity leads to pain because of the excess mechanical stresses and its pro-inflammatory condition. Pain results in obesity because of low physical activity and eating for analgesic effects.

Researchers have discovered an indirect relationship between individuals who are obese and pain. A lot of chronic conditions that are known to cause pain are commonly diagnosed in people who are overweight and obese.

These conditions are:

• Depression
• Back pain
• Arthritis
• Type 2 diabetes
• Fibromyalgia

The assumption is that obesity increases one’s risk for these conditions and these conditions are marked by pain.
A recent research study that was done in the United States showed that obesity and pain were persistent even after the researchers tried to explain the influence of other health problems that could cause pain.

In a research carried out by the Gallup organization (2008-2010) through information collected by telephone surveys, many of the participants were white and had a minimum of a high school diploma.

Each individual who participated in the survey was requested to give their accurate weight and height. In relation to that information, 36.8% of the individuals in the study had a normal BMI (Body Mass Index) while 38.3% were overweight at 24.9%, which, is obese.

The participants were asked if they had felt any pain the day before the survey was conducted. They were also asked if they had back, knee, neck or leg conditions that had caused them any pain in the last 12 months or if they had any other condition that caused them continuous pain.

They were also asked about the existence of other types of medical conditions including asthma, depression, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and depression.

The Results

The researchers realized that the more a person weighed, the higher the chances of experiencing pain.
• When compared to normal people in the survey, individuals who had a BMI of 25 and 29 had 20% more pain.
• Individuals with BMIs of 30-34 had 68% more pain.
• Those who had BMIs of 35-39 had 136% more pain
• Those with BMIs over 40 had 254% more pain.

The Reasoning

The researchers surmise that a person who is obese has excess fat that prompts physiological processes that lead to inflammation, which is closely associated with pain.

It is also a fact that those who are overweight are more likely to suffer from arthritis because of long time excess strain on the joints from the extra weight.

A different idea could be due to depression, which has been proven to be associated with pain. Depression, obesity and chronic conditions also have some genetic effects, indicating genetics could be partly to blame.

Researchers agree that the relationship between chronic health problems, pain and obesity are complicated.

In some instances, it could be that a person who has arthritis is not able to move around often which makes them gain weight much faster. In other individuals, it could be that being overweight may strain the joints which may cause joint problems that result to pain.

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Alternative Natural Medicine for Arthritis

old handsWhen you visit the doctor for your arthritis pain, you may be prescribed medications to help with the symptoms and any other discomforts. The downside to most drugs for arthritis is that they can be harsh on your system, causing other physical discomforts in spite of your arthritis pain.

For those who wish to avoid upset stomachs, dry mouth, and other unpleasant side effects, there are natural medicines to try that can help with your arthritis while being gentle on your system.

Alternative medicines are often those that try to treat the whole body rather than just the condition, and they can be used in conjunction with other modern medications. Learn more about these natural medicine options so you and your doctor can create a new treatment plan that will help you feel better and manage your symptoms successfully.

What Is Arthritis?

If you’re unsure whether or not you have arthritis, it is important to understand exactly what this condition entails. Arthritis is defined as an inflammatory disease that targets the joints, or where two bones meet.

While this definition of arthritis is accurate, the type of arthritis you have may vary. There are more than100 different forms of arthritis that can plague the body.

Many people think of arthritis as only affecting the joints in the hands and making writing driving, and many other activities difficult. In actuality, however, arthritis is also common in the knees, shoulders, elbows, ankles, and other major joint areas.

Natural Medicines and Remedies

In addition to natural medicines, there are many natural remedies and practices you can do to help alleviate the pain associated with arthritis. These include the following:

Lose Weight: For many Americans, their arthritis pain can become exacerbated when they’re carrying a lot of weight. Women often carry their weight around their midsection and thighs while men tend to carry theirs in their torso and midsection. Due to the distribution of weight, they may be adding strain to certain joints and causing pain and prolonged arthritis symptoms. By exercising for at least 20 minutes a few times a week, you can combat the pain naturally and help yourself get into shape.

Hot and Cold Therapy: The pain of arthritis can be alleviated with temperature. Similar to relaxing sore muscles with a warm bath, taking a warm or cold shower can help ease the pain in your joints using nothing but temperature. Warm showers and baths can ease stiffness in the morning while cold treatments are exceptional for relieving stubborn joint pain.

Acupuncture: This ancient Chinese treatment includes gently pressing thin needles into certain points on the body. Usually situated around pressure points, acupuncture is designed to help re-direct energy in your body to restore balance.

Meditation: This medicine takes the idea of “mind over matter” and puts it to work. By meditating you are practicing mindfulness, which helps you to redirect your focus from the pain to something more relaxing. While this is helpful for some patients, it might not be for everyone. This medicine is best practiced alongside other modern medications.

Massage Therapy: Massaging arthritic joints regularly can help to reduce the pain and stiffness associated with arthritis. Massage therapy can also help you to improve your flexibility and range of motion. Investing in a massage therapist can work wonders on your body and alleviate your pain so you can get through your day and your week without being weighed down by your symptoms.

Herbal Treatments: Stiffness, pain, soreness and other symptoms of arthritis can be combated with certain herbal supplements. Some people may be deficient of some herbs, vitamins, and minerals, so adding these back into your diet can help stop the pain and discomfort of arthritis. Visit your doctor to get more information of what herbs you may need to naturally aid your symptoms.

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Acupuncture For All Those Simple Aches And Pains

Acupuncture2If, like me, you have quite a fear of needles and injections, then acupuncture, that practice of sticking needles onto different parts of your body to cure sicknesses might seem scary at first.

However, if you’ve been long been suffering from some problems like headaches or chronic pains and your regular visits to the doctor don’t seem to be helping you, then why not consider a trip to an acupuncture specialist? After all, who hasn’t heard of somebody’s aunt somewhere suffering from arthritis and trying out everything that the doctors recommended all to no avail, only to finally be cured by a really good acupuncturist?

Perhaps you were wondering if it could actually work for you. You might feel a bit skeptical since traditional Chinese medicine doesn’t immediately coincide with theories in modern Western medicine. In fact, the use of needles to cure people was discovered thousands of years ago in China long before microscopes or x-ray machines were invented or before bacteria and germs were discovered.

When you think about it, that might be something that the practice has going for it. If it has existed already for thousands of years and is still being practiced by millions up to now, then it must have worked already for quite a number of people.

What typically happens when you go to an acupuncturist?

When you go to an acupuncturist, you would typically first be asked about your medical history, how you’re feeling and any symptoms of sicknesses you might have. The specialist would observe features of your face, including your tongue. According to specialists, your tongue is a good indicator of the health of your internal organs. The acupuncturist would listen to sounds that your body makes like the sounds coming from your lungs. How your body smells could also be an indicator of your overall health for the acupuncturist’s diagnosis.

Based on what the acupuncturist finds out about your sickness, he or she would then formulate the treatment that your body needs. With traditional Chinese medicine, sicknesses are seen as a kind of imbalance and loss of harmony between your bodies’ organs. You can consider the use of needles on your body as just a way to push your body and its organs back into balance.

The specialist would begin inserting very thin needles into the right places in your body. To many people, inserting these needles doesn’t really hurt. After all, an acupuncturist’s needles are usually much thinner than the needles that are used for injections. Many have claimed that inserting these needles actually calms them down and relaxes them.

How does the use of these needles help you?

A lot of problems have been claimed to have been alleviated through this practice. These include headaches, the common cold, arthritis, back pains, asthma and even infertility.

Even though acupuncture isn’t part of Western medicine, Western medicine experts have studied it extensively. Some theories as to why it works involve acupuncture perhaps stimulating the brain’s release of the body’s natural painkillers. Acupuncture could also stimulate proper circulation in the human body.

Western medicine is still studying acupuncture and trying to find out how to best integrate it with practices in Western medicine. That is why, along with Western medicine and trips to the doctor, one could certainly try acupuncture.

It couldn’t hurt and it might actually be the one to finally relieve you of a lot of your body’s aches and pains and even make you healthier.

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Healing Massage to Improve Your Health and Relieve Arthritis Pain

massage-hot-stoneThe improvements in medical treatments have grown immensely in the last few years, and we now have many pills available to treat a myriad of diseases. We have pills to help up sleep, stay awake, get rid of headache, correct a chemical imbalance, and so many others that we could not possibly list them here. While in many ways these pills are great, they nearly all have the possibility of side effects. While some side effect may be mild or minor, others can be quite severe and may even lead to death!

These side effects have left many people seeking other alternatives to treating their ailments. One alternative method that people choose to try is Chinese Medicine. The Chinese have been using holistic treatments for hundreds of years and many of them are quite effective for treating many diseases, including Arthritis. One of these methods they use is called a ‘healing massage’. A healing massage can not help you to get better by clearing up blocks that may be making you sick, but you also get the benefit of relaxing in the process.

This Chinese traditional healing massage technique was developed over 2500 years ago in the orient. The healing massage treatment is based on an understanding of how the human touch, used in conjunction with specific pressure points, could help to get rid of ailments. You see each one of these touches would stimulate the specific areas of the body that were not in sync with the natural flow of energy. By doing this it allows the individual to begin his or her own healing process.

The Chinese found that by performing these massages the person begins to develop various reactions to touch, but they also start to develop into focus points for healing. For instance, many of the traditional massages for healing will focus on the stomach area in an effort to help balance out internal organs. In addition other parts of the massage will focus on the tissues and muscles that may not be getting the proper nutrients or flow of energy.

The healing techniques of Chinese medicine is one that can take you beyond the prescription pills and into a method of complete relaxation. The healing massage technique has been found to be helpful in relieving arthritis pain and many are choosing this as an alternative method to begin healing in a more natural way. You’ll find other natural arthritis pain relief methods in our “Natural Arthritis Pain Remedies’ report.