The Back Pain Blog

The 7 Day Back Pain Cure

Jesse Cannone from the Healthy Back Institute has just released the first thousand copies of his much anticipated book

The 7-Day Back Pain Cure

No, it’s not a 7 day plan to have you out of pain (wouldn’t that be nice!) but what you will learn from inside this book is -

• Several Highly Effective Treatments that you most likely have not heard about – and you will never hear about from your doctor.
• Which treatment combination is right for your specific condition.
• His unique system for identifying all the factors that are currently causing your back pain so that you can treat more than just the symptoms.
• “7-Day Action Plans” which tell you exactly what you need to do, in step-by-step order based on the condition you are dealing with.
• And much more…..

And here is the best part… Jesse has decided to GIVE AWAY the first one thousand copies and donate $2 for each book given away to one of two charities – ‘Habitat For Humanity’ or ‘St Jude’s Childrens Hospital’, you get to decide.

This is an actual print book, not some re-hashed e-book so there is a small shipping fee but there are also several FREE goodies that come with the book. I’ll let you check them out for yourself but I think you will be surprised. As I said this offer is limited to the first One Thousand Copies of the book and I know they won’t last long so…..

VISIT THIS PAGE TO SECURE YOUR FREE COPY NOW!

In Part One of 8 Ways To Help Control Chronic Pain I explained that these suggestions are a culmination of almost four years of seeking treatment for my back pain and although there is nothing out of the ordinary here, I thought a reminder of the ‘basics’ of how to deal with pain might be useful. Anyway, on with the show…..

Number Five.

Set Realistic Goals – I could write about this subject all night, it is such an important part of keeping your head together (figuratively speaking!) when in pain.

Recently I had a huge ‘a-ha’ moment in which I finally realized why I have been feeling like I am constantly banging my head against a wall and not getting anywhere with both my back pain and my life in general. I was waiting for the day that the ‘magic button’ came along because that is what I need to achieve my goal of getting my life back to what it was before the back injury. WRONG!

There is a good chance that I won’t be able to live the life I did before so instead of sitting around waiting for the ‘magic button’ to arrive I have been taught to live day to day, setting small, achievable goals every day. Being up to help Belinda with the kids of a morning, mowing one half of the yard one day and doing the rest the next day, even getting the rubbish to the bins has been one of my goals recently!

By completely changing my focus to smaller day to day type goals I am at last feeling a sense of achievement every single day, rather than being depressed about being no closer to that big and probably unachievable goal that I had before because the ‘magic button’ failed to arrive yet again!

This is not to say that you forget about your ‘life’ goals or the ‘big things’ that are important to you, they will come in time once we conquer the obstacles that are in front of us at the moment. I guess it is more of a case of shifting your focus to things that give you a sense of achievement or enjoyment every day rather than looking at the big picture as it is at the moment. Try it, I’m sure you will be a happier person for it!

Number Six

Recognize Your Emotions – How we feel emotionally can greatly influence how we feel physically.

This one is a bit of a no-brainer but have you ever noticed your pain level increase when you are feeling stressed out or sad? And what about your pain level when you are doing something you really enjoy and are feeling happy and content?

I can remember our pain class instructor talking about trying to recognize the onset of the emotions that cause us pain and doing what we can to stop them affecting our physical well being. Of course human emotions are very powerful and a lot of the time there is little that we can actually do to avoid feeling a certain way, but just being aware that it is the stress or whatever we are feeling at the time that is causing the increase in pain can help us deal with it the best way we know how.

As far as I am aware there is no ‘hard and fast’ way of dealing with emotion-based pain and I’m sure everyone deals with it in their own way but I’m sure if we can recognize these emotions we will be better equipped to deal with them.

Number Seven

Understand Your Pain – On the notes that I have here it says, “Learn all you can about your particular condition”.  Now I might be alone here, but I don’t think I am, I don’t know exactly what I am dealing with because nobody can tell me!!

I can understand how knowing all you can about what is going on with your body would at least help in understanding why you feel pain and what it is that you need to do or should be doing to improve the situation but I can’t even get a straight answer on mine.

When I initially had the trouble we went to a Spinal Specialist that gave me a series of epidurals with Cortisone and a local anesthetic which were aimed at treating a bulging disc and at the time I had several fractured vertebrae. The treatment worked quite well initially and I thought I was home and hosed. Twelve months into this nightmare we go and see a Orthopedic surgeon, he takes one look at the MRI films, both current and from twelve months ago and says ” that small bulge is not the cause of your pain!”.

So we quiz him on what could possibly be wrong and he says he doesn’t know and suggests I go along to another Pain Management Class! I believe that a lot of my problems are muscle related but I still find such a difference of opinion between two professionals in closely related fields to be very confusing.

To sum up, I think Number Seven is lost on me, but if you do have a clear diagnosis of the cause of your pain it may well pay to educate yourself as much as possible about it so that you can better deal with it, or at the least have an idea of what is likely to help and what isn’t as far as treatments go.

Number Eight

Make Sure You Get Enough Sleep – Once again a bit of a no-brainer but certainly a big issue for chronic pain sufferers. Although often hard to achieve when you are in pain, a good amount of sleep allows your body to carry out the natural healing process as much as possible and obviously when we feel rested and not tired we are better prepared to deal with our pain. Here is a list of things that help promote good sleeping habits;

• Try to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day to get your body clock in a natural rythme.
• Regular exercise can also help with sleep.
• Try to spend some time outside in the sun everyday. Sunlight produces Melatonin which is a natural chemical in your body that promotes sleep.
• Take any medicines as directed.
• Try to keep your bedroom as dark and as quiet as possible.
• Make sure you are as comfortable as possible and have a good pillow and mattress.
• Warm hands and feet are important for getting off to sleep.
• Don’t have a caffeine fix before bed and avoid using alcohol to get to sleep.
• Avoid exercise just before bed.
• Avoid relying on sleeping tablets to get to sleep.

So there you have it, the most talked about 8 ways to help control chronic pain according to me! I hope that you have found at least some of the ideas useful and if you have any suggestions of your own feel free to leave a comment and share them with us.

Take Care,

Craig

As reported in the U.S.News and published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, a study has been carried out using a group of 638 back pain sufferers and four different treatments;

• The first group received individualized acupuncture treatment from a practitioner,
• The second group received a ’standardized’ acupuncture regimen,
• The third group received a sham acupuncture treatment where toothpicks housed in needle guide tubes were used (so the participants could not visually recognize the difference),
• And the fourth group received only drugs typically taken for back pain.

The volunteers in the study received 10 treatments over a seven week period. None of the volunteers had previously received acupuncture for back pain and all were allowed to continue taking their regular medication which consisted mainly of anti-inflammatory drugs and pain relievers.

The Results.

Interestingly, a week after the last treatment about three-fifths of those receiving the acupuncture, both the ’sham’ treatment and ‘real’ treatment, reported significant improvement in disabilities brought on by their back pain, compared with only two-fifths of those not receiving any real or simulated acupuncture.

This tells us that acupuncture succeeds in reducing pain levels for a good percentage of people, but what about those receiving the ’sham’ treatment? Unlike the acupuncture needles, the toothpicks did not penetrate the skin which raises the question of  “the acupuncture’s purported mechanism of action”.

The study co-author Daniel Cherkin hypothesizes that if acupuncture has a physiological effect, the stimulation of certain points on the skin may result in the same nerve-related benefits or it could be the placebo effect in which a patient’s belief in the treatment induces improvements. Pain relief may even result from a combination of the two, he says.

My Thoughts.

If you have read any of my previous posts you would know that I am a great believer in acupuncture as a pain reliever, although I have not found it to have any great lasting effects beyond a day or two of pain-free bliss. When I had my first session of acupuncture I had no preconceived notions of what it could do for me, all I knew was it involved a lot of small needles and probably some pain! I have to say that after that first visit I was impressed, the pain relief was immediate and made life all that much more bearable.

So how do we explain a number of the volunteer’s receiving the ’sham’ treatment noticing ’significant improvement in disabilities brought on by back pain’? As stated above, I think there is only two possible causes – the subject’s knew enough about the desired outcome for the brain to take control of their pain levels or surface stimulation of the skin was enough in a number of people to provoke a nerve response resulting in a pain decrease (something similar to the feelings we can get from a light massage). Either way there is no ‘hard evidence’ here that says the traditional acupuncture methods don’t work.

To my way of thinking this study proves nothing other than if your acupuncturist is out of town you may be able to get some form of relief from the humble toothpick! I mean we could go on forever doubting the technique used by acupuncturist’s but could hundreds of years of Chinese generations have got it that wrong? I don’t think so and while it keeps on providing me with pain relief when things are really bad I’ll keep going back for more. Perhaps their time would have been better spent working on a cure for cancer or A.I.D.S., you know something actually useful.

Readers Thoughts.

I think this comment posted on U.S.News sums up the ‘misguided-ness’ ( a new word for the dictionary!) of the study;

The Facts

This study is not new. I have been reading these for years. As far as RCT’s are concerned this is actually a very good one given that it included a standard treatment branch as opposed to simply control and treatment. It is nice to see researchers getting out of their box. In the end however it is not possible to study such a dynamic animal as chronic pain and a holistic treatment approach that understands that the body and the mind are intimately connected.

Anyone who reads or posts to this article should have an understanding of how incredibly complex chronic pain is. We are not just speaking about pain. We are speaking about living with pain, losing work, changing the dynamics of the household when someone cannot fully contribute, possibly loss of income, loss of sleep and stress; which all have a psychological component that triggers very real chemical responses in the body that prevent healing. Being one of my specialties I could go on but the real controversy seems to center on the placebo effect and sham acupuncture.

The answer is quite simple. The sham acupuncture was not sham at all. The toothpicks touched the skin. The skin contains 3 afferent sensory nerves that signal the CNS as well as modulate the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system specifically the vagus nerve.

The toothpicks stimulated the cutaneous nerves to send a signal to the spinal cord activating the spinal neurons that secrete enkephalin and dynorphin that inhibit pain messages. Then the signal continues up to the midbrain and pituitary that activates the raphe descending pain-inhibitions system which secretes monoamines, serotonin and norepinephrine that further inhibits pain through a couple different mechanisms that gets quite complicated. If you are interested see Biomedical Acupuncture for Pain Management.

Additionally, once the sensations from the toothpicks reached the spinal cord several nerve pathways are excited that reaches the cerebral cortex which releases numerous neurochemicals that not only inhibit pain but also promotes homeostasis. Homeostasis is incredibly important because as I said before we are not just talking about pain. This is a human being whose thoughts and emotions influence their body and whose body in distress can influence their mind.

There are too many valid articles and scientific research to speak any further on this. Any one who does not believe in acupuncture can look up studies done with fMRI in which sham and placebos do not exist.

Lastly the term acupuncturist is a misnomer. Acupuncturists practice traditional Chinese medicine which incorporates other modalities such as herbal formulas, massage, tui-na, diet, exercise, lifestyle counseling, tai-chi, qi-gong etc. It is a complete system of medicine that with proper communication with other alternative practitioners and open minded Md’s strives to help people find health and balance in their lives.

Christopher Salah, DAOM., L.Ac.

In closing, have you tried acupuncture for pain relief? Did you find it gave you relief or where you disapointed in the results? Please share with us any thoughts you have on this subject (yes, toothpicks included!) .

Take Care,

Craig