Sciatica & Back Pain Cure Center

Arthritis is the most common form of disability in America and is a significant factor in sciatica and back pain. Natural joint pain remedies like glucosamine, chondroitin can significantly contribute to your well-being. even better they do so without any serious side effects.

Glucosamine sulfate was first used by vets to help dogs with the pain and stiffness from arthritis, because most dogs eventually suffer from arthritis. Later it was tried on people with excellent results and now the use of Glucosamine is supported by the medical establishment.

I personally use glucosamine, initially because of painful knees from playing soccer for too many years. For me the results were excellent and virtually immediate - my knees improved noticeably in about 2 weeks. Has it helped my back - harder to tell.

Certainly my back is holding together pretty well most of the time, so I’m happy to keep on taking one tablet a day that costs almost nothing - probably about 20 cents. I buy a large bottle of regular glucosamine 1000mg or 1500 mg tablets from the supermarket.

Glucosamine is naturally synthesized by the human body and is a basic building block of the connective tissues common in all joints, like the cartilages in your back and knees for example. As part of the aging process we lose glucosamine and thus cartilage through wear and tear, which frequently progresses to the common condition known as osteoarthritis.

Glucosamine sulfate can help slow this process of cartilage loss and when glucosamine is used with its partner chondroitin sulfate it can be even more effective. There have been many studies that have shown that glucosamine and/or chondroitin help to repair damage to the joints caused by osteoarthritis.

For example, in two independent 3-year randomized, placebo-controlled studies, glucosamine sulfate was shown to slow progression of osteoarthritis symptoms. After three years, participants given the glucosamine sulfate showed no joint space narrowing whatsoever. In addition, the glucosamine sulfate group showed a significant improvement in their pain levels, while there was a trend for worsening of pain in the placebo group.

Glucosamine can’t bring cartilage back, but it can prevent further loss plus reduce the symptoms of pain, swelling, and stiffness or noise in the joints and especially back pain relief.

Chondroitin sulfate is another building block of connective tissue. It actually stimulates the cartilage cells (called chondrocytes), and therefore works beautifully when paired with glucosamine to speed the regeneration and recovery of bone tissues. Well-absorbed and associated with only minor side effects, chondroitin sulfate can also decrease pain and slow the rate of cartilage loss in people with osteoarthritis.

You often see glucosamine with chondroitin and it’s worth trying this blend if glucosamine by itself doesn’t help you.

Popularity: 59% [?]

In the Feb. 13 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, it mentioned that medical expenditure for back and neck problems grew 65% over eight years. (The spending increases for spine care are about the same as those faced by the medical system as a whole).

The total annual expenditure for the US is now almost $86 billion nationally. Of this prescription drugs are the fastest-growing component, according to the study quoted.

But the expenditure doesn’t appear to be helping people much (personally I’m not surprised because I find it hard to see how prescription drugs can help a problem that is largely related to lifestyle and mechanical functioning of the spine, but then again I’m not selling drugs . . .).

Pharmaceuticals made up 23% of total expenditures. Incredibly spending on drugs to combat back and neck pain grew 171% between 1997 and 2005, with narcotic painkillers ballooning an astounding 423%.

Question: Ask yourself how filling yourself with toxic chemicals can heal a largely mechanical body function?

If you want a

natural

sciatica treatment system that uses exercise and diet try the Better Back System

Note: Pharmaceutical companies’ direct-to-consumer advertising likely plays a role in the higher spending on drugs. Surprised?

The study examined data from 23,000 people in an annual federal survey and of these over 3,100 reported spine problems.

Back pain comes from a variety of sources, including:
- natural aging processes, injury,
- excessive or not enough physical activity
- obesity / carrying too much body weight.

Approx. 53% of the patients surveyed in 2005 had so-called “nonspecific back disorders” which includes
- spinal stenosis
- back ache and sciatica.

The next largest category was disk disorders with 16%.

A back injury can be financially devastating to people, Bean said. “There are some cases where you want to be justified in not doing something just as you want to be justified in doing something. It’s not always clear-cut. It’s not just an X-ray or scan. It’s a person with an individual life and personality that either tolerates discomfort or not. You have to take everything into account.”

Doctors suggest that patients with back pain do the following:
- stay active - be careful but don’t be afraid to exesrcise and use trainers, classes, coaches etc
- manage their weight,
- stay fit to better handle age-related changes,
- continue walking around if possible when they’re in pain,
- undertake physical conditioning - yoga, Pilates, bicycling and swimming can all be helpful.

To this list add:
- try physical therapies before drugs and surgery,
- review your habitual postures and movements and eliminate bad habits e.g. don’t slouch or slump, take regular stretch breaks, lift things properly, dont lift and twist.

Some people get a sore back if they sit on their walllet. Some find sleepin gwith a pillow between their knees is really helpful.

See a doctor if it doesn’t get better.

Sign up for our back health and exercise course

Popularity: 50% [?]

There’s a lot of talk about spinal decompression as the latest and greatest sciatica treatment at the moment, especially in relation to the system that uses the DRX9000 machine.

It has been shown that the DRX9000 system can give great results, however its NOT A MAGIC BULLET.

It needs to be used in conjunction with a home care regimen and exercise program and has very specific treatment procedures that must be followed in order to give the DRX the best chance of working.

Unfortunately, some patients are hoping for the elusive magic bullet - the magic pill as it were

Chiropractors report conversations such as: “I spoke to a patient recently with multiple level disc herniations in her low back. She wanted to know if we could get her in for a (i.e. just one) session so she could fix her back problem before she went on vacation. When I told her the treatment required 20 one hour sessions over 6 weeks, she about fainted.”

The DRX9000 treatment regimen for the lumbar spine includes:

- wearing a specially designed lumbar support during the day to make sure things you do when you leave the clinic do not reverse the work the DRX spinal decompression system does.

- refraining from exercise.

- doing specific spinal exercises once you reach the half way point.

- drinking 80-100oz of water per day which helps to hydrate the spinal discs and flush out waste products.

Summary:
There’s a lot involved with DRX9000 decompression therapy - make sure you are ready for it and you increase the odds of a favorable outcome.

Also, try the exercises in our back health exercise course. It’s free and might just give you the change in your routines your back needs.

Popularity: 39% [?]

One of the things we recommend is for you to expand your understanding of your back and how it all works.

Why?

Because you’ll get to see what an amazing mechanism it is and (I hope) appreciate how and why you should look after it.

What’s In Your Spine?
Your spine is a column of 26 bones that extend in a line from the base of your skull to your pelvis. Twenty-four of these bones are called vertebrae.

These link to each other and are cushioned by shock-absorbing disks that lie between them.

Your vertebral column provides the main support for your upper body. It enables you to stand upright, bend and twist, and it protects your spinal cord from injury.

Think of your spinal cord as the main transmission and distribution mechanism for your nervous system.

The vertebrae are organized as follows:- Neck - 7 cervical vertebrae
- Chest - 12 thoracic vertebrae at the back wall of your chest;
- Lower back - 5 lumbar vertebrae at the inward curve of your lower back;

Plus:- The sacrum - 1 bone that is composed of 5 fused vertebrae between your hip bones; and
- The coccyx or tailbone - 1 bone composed of 3 to 5 fused bones at the lower tip of your vertebral column.

Between each vertebra there is a disk. These are pads of cartilage filled with a gel-like substance, which act as shock absorbers. In addition, nerves leave and join your spinal cord through 2 openings in each vertebra.

Now the tendency is for us to take our backs for granted until the moment when we get back pain, then we think “what’s gone wrong with my back”.

Try looking at things differently.

Stop and think for a moment about the complexity of what your back does, the stresses and strains that it has to cope with every single day.

It’s amazing that it works as well as it does most of the time. All the other joints in your body have a simple job compared with what your back has to do. And of course, when your back does go wrong, you really feel it, because it’s so central to your body.

So, the point is to realize that moment by moment, through each day, you have a choice about how you treat your back. Often it’s the combination of lots of little things that can make all the difference to your back and not “one big thing.”

Many people say “I did so and so and my back just went out!”

However, it’s rarely “just one thing” that puts your back out, unless it’s a major accident or fall. It’s usually the build up of lots of little things over a long period of time and finally your back goes “I can’t take any more of this” and it “goes out”.

So firstly appreciate that your back likes and wants the right type of movement (this applies almost all of the time, but check the wellbeing/disclaimer ).

It doesn’t like being locked in the same position for hours on end e.g. slumped in front of the TV making out like Homer, or hunched over a desk, or a steering wheel.

Your back wants you to move around. So what’s a simple and easy exercise that you can do to look after your back - go for a walk!

You’re thinking “This sounds too simple” right? Well it’s not. In fact walking is one of the key exercises we recommend in the Better Back Book

Best ways you can help yourself:

1. Change the behaviour and movement patterns that are contributing to your back pain, because this will most probably reduce the number of times your back pain recurs.

- This could be as simple as getting up from your desk or workbench every 20 minutes and walking around for 30 seconds.

- If you drive long distances, stop your vehicle once an hour, get out and walk around it once then carry on with your trip. The same with flying long distance, get out of your seat every hour or so and walk up and down the plane.

Basically, just give your back a “break” and a vary your movements.

2. Start an exercise program to strengthen your back and the supporting muscles around it - we recommend the Better Back Book for this.

Popularity: 72% [?]