Eat Healthily

Your healing process will definitely be helped with a good diet and nutrition. Your diet should include good quality protein - vegetable or animal - as a source of the building blocks for tissue healing. Add plenty of  fresh fruit and vegetables to supply the vitamins and trace elements necessary for effective healing. A wholefood/natural vitamin supplement is often helpful too.

Get Plenty of Sleep

Active exercise is one of the best ways to encourage sleep. Inactivity tends to prevent the deep sleep that is so helpful for healing - both physical and emotional. Avoid stimulants such as caffeine or nicotine close to bedtime.

Don’t Smoke

Smoking is always bad for you (you knew that). When you are recovering it should be avoided in particular, because it diminishes the available blood supply to the injured areas and makes your nervous system more sensitive.

Control Your Anxiety

Managing anxiety and fear of re-injury is important to enable you to regain normal muscle function. A common psychological reaction to low back pain is that your nervous system responds to the pain by instructing the muscles near the affected part to protect against further injury.These muscles then “seize up” which causes more pain and stops the correct movements.

The exercises in the Better Back System specifically tell your back muscles to re-start their normal movements to overcome this neurological barrier to correct muscle function.

Limit Drug Use

Clearly medications help with pain relief and sciatica and back pain can be particularly excrutiating. Nevertheless, try and restrict your use of drugs. medications. The use of heat or cold, or liniment or massage, as a mechanism for pain control is a very safe and positive alternative for pain management.

When drugs e.g. narcotic medications and muscle relaxants are used over extended periods, they can cause depression, so try to use them as little as possible. Also, anti-inflammatory medications may provide short-term pain relief, but there is no evidence that they do anything to speed up the healing process.

Exercise Properly
We recommend the Better Back System for special back exercises that will help your back to heal and build up strength so your back injury is much less likely to occur again.

The special exercises train your nervous system to instruct your back muscles what to do and provide an effective exercise and rehabilitation program.

See Your Doctor

If back pain persists or yu have not experience dit before, you can seek the assistance of an appropriately trained and licensed health professional for your rehabilitation.

Also, its important to see a physician if your sciatica or lower back pain lasts for more than a few weeks or a month, or if you have any symptoms that cause you concern.

This site is designed to give you access to materials, including a free back health course that will help you learn about sciatica, back pain and home treatment of sciatica.

There are a large number of reasons why you can get sciatica and back pain. My view is that there are relatively few that benefit from drugs. Mostly sciatica and back pain (excluding accidents and obvious injuries) are related to issues such as:

- poor posture,

- bad habits that aggravate your back,

- mechanical weakness,

- lack of exercise 

- diet and

- ageing.

Many of these can be treated by yourself with sciatica home treatment. The Better Back System is an excellent resource to assist you in your own treatment with a better than 97% chance of success.

However, if you are newly suffering from back problems or back pain and/or you are under the care of a doctor you should consult your doctor before beginning any treatment. Also read our disclaimer before trying anything unfamiliar.

My theory is that the less toxins we put into our bodies, the more energy and ability our bodies have to stay healthy and fight sickness and injury before they really take hold. This includes delaying the impacts of the  ageing process.

Obviously, injuries to your back from accidents, vehicle crashes etc create a different set of circumstances to your normal level of health.

However, even then your healing process is greatly enhanced by a focus on your overall wellbeing, healthy eating and minimizing exposure to toxic chemicals.

There are many sources that argue this same proposition. As an illustration, many alternative cancer treatments basically consist of a diet of freshly juiced natural foods, combined with rest, fresh air and exercise.

So if you combine a healthy diet with exercises such as yoga, plus specific back exercises such as those in the Better Back System you’re likely to find your way to a new healthy world where your sciatica and back pain are much less troublesome or even disappear altogether.

If you have read this message elsewhere on the site, that’s good, because it’s one of the key health lessons to be learned.

n.b If you find particular health issues stay around, it’s also worth checking out EFT at www.emofree.com.

Your lower back, which is where many back problems occur, is supported by the so-called “core muscles”.

If your core muscles in particular are weak, it means your lower back is carrying a larger part of the strain of lifting and twisting and you are more likely to suffer low back pain as a result.

This is why a lot of back pain exercises focus on strengthening these core muscles, or at least “waking them up” and making them more flexible.

Sciatica Exercise - The Back Pull Down
This exercise is quite different to the run-of-the-mill back exercise but it is great at waking up back muscles that are often dormant.

It is best done with an elastic exercise band which you can buy from almost any sporting goods store.

As an alternative, you can use any household item that has some degree of elasticity e.g. an elastic luggage strap, an old bicycle inner tube etc. You can also use a rolled up towel, but the lack of stretch in it will make the exercise harder to do.

Sit upright in a chair with your back straight and your tummy pulled in. Raise your arms above your head holding the elastic band or towel in between them horizontally with your hands approximately shoulder width apart.

Stretch your arms up as far as they will go then slowly pull your arms behind your neck, keeping the elastic band or towel horizontal and with a slight tension on it.

Keep pulling down until the band is roughly half way down your back (if you can get that far). Rest there briefly, then raise your arms again until your arms up as far as they will go again. Remember to keep the band horizontal while you move it up and down.

Do the movements up and down slowly and steadily, don’t rush them. You can change the degree of difficulty and effect of the exercise by increasing or decreasing the tension on the band or towel.

If you pull harder to make it tight as you move up and down it takes more effort, but it has the benefit of working your back muscles harder and differently than if you do it with only light tension in the band.

Repeat the exercise about 5 times the first time you do it (depending on how fit you are and what your back tells you about the effect.

DON’T OVERDO it at first or you’re likely to end up sore and not inclined to do it again for a while and it is best done regularly.

Then you can build up the repetitions over time until you’ve reached 20, which is about as many as you will ever need to do at one time. (Feel free to do more if you want to though. I sometimes keep on going to 30 or more, especially if I’ve been sitting at a PC all day and feel stiff or tense. I might rest for a few minutes and then do another 20-30 depending on how I feel).

Remember the Better Back System gives you a complete easy-to-follow exercise and diet system for treating sciatica and back pain. Check it out here.

One of the reasons is that studies show that surgery produces no statistical difference in long-term results for curing sciatica and lower back pain, as compared to conservative (i.e. non-surgical) care.

The key words used here are “no statistical difference”.

What this means is that in a sample of say 100 people who have back surgery, there will be:

1. Some people who obtain a positive benefit,
2. Some who end up worse off and
3. The majority for whom there is minimal difference. The average, long term result for the whole group is no difference.

It’s important that you understand how the statistics work.

The other factor to understand is that the benefits from back surgery are typically not long lasting. After 6 months or so, people tend to be back where they started.

So the summary is that you should be very cautious before embarking on back surgery, because the odds on it helping you are not good. I suggest you get at least two opinions before considering surgery.

Again, what we recommend in terms of non surgical lower back pain treatment and sciatica is:

1. Change your pattern of movement, routine, exercise - if you’re not doing any exercise then start!

2. Start a set of exercises designed for your back. You can sign up for the free back exercise course using the form on the left, or buy the Better Back System.

3. Develop good eating habits. Food is the fuel, lubrication and building material of your body. Guess what - if you feed it poor quality food and chemical toxins it just can’t work very well!

(a) understand what you are (probably) doing that is causing you back pain in the first place and

(b) learn more how your back works and

(c) find out what you can do e.g. siatica exercises to strengthen your back, avoid injury and stay pain free.

Most people will find out it is possible to stop low back pain and sciatica in just a few weeks or sometimes even days and build themselves a healthy back.

The factors that increase the risks of you experiencing back pain or sciatica include common conditions such as:

* Sitting for long periods with a bad posture
* Driving for long periods without a stretch or a walk
* Being overweight
* Smoking
* Heavy lifting with bad technique

Of course, Its better if you get help and take action early, because it will probably reduce the number of times your back pain recurs.

Also, prevention is than a cure, so we’ll also help you learn about what you can do to stop it from happening in the first place.

Things You Can Do To Help Your Back

1. If you want learn more about your back, sciatica and how to deal with your back pain, subscribe to the free Back Exercise Course (see the form on the left of this page)

2. Try the Better Back System.

The Better Back System guides you through a set of special siatica exercises that you can do at home in about 5-10 minutes a day with a 97% chance of success.

3. Start eating properly! Give your body the nutrition it needs to function and heal itself properly i.e. a simple diet with a good selection of fresh foods and less (and ideally no) processed junk is one of the keys to goo dhealth

Because many of the foods we eat today are highly processed, we also suggest a natural nutrition supplement to make sure your body gets all the nutrients it needs. The BodyBalance supplement is one of the best we’ve found so far. Google it and you can often get a month’s free supply which will give you enough time to see if it works for you.

Remember to read our disclaimer. We are not medical practitioners and you should always consult your doctor, health practitioner or back specialist, especially if you experience progressive weakness in the legs.

If you want more detailed information on exercises for relieving siatica and back pain relief, register for the course and newsletter or buy the Better Back Book.

It’s also important for you to understand that everybody has a different physical condition and makeup, so not all exercises have the same effect for all people.

If you think a particular exercise isn’t helping you, or it hurts, then stop doing it and try a different one.

You Probably Don’t Exercise Enough

You probably didn’t want to hear that!

However, as a general rule, most people don’t exercise enough nowadays. This means that many people will experience some discomfort when they attempt new stretches and exercises. This is normal.

The key thing is to be sensible and consistent. Keep on exercising regularly, ideally varying your routine so your body doesn’t get in a comfortable rut and you’ll find you steadily extend your capabilities.

When I first started doing yoga I was stiff as a board and couldn’t even get close to touching my toes in the hamstring stretch (and I was already physically fit from playing competitive soccer). It took me well over a year to get to the point where I could consistently touch and hold my toes.

It’s likely you’ll go through a similar process. Just keep plugging away.

Take Action

Find the right exercises for yourself and make them a part of your daily routine.

• Yoga Salute To The Sun Back Exercise

The Yoga Salute to the Sun is a simple yet powerful exercise that you can do virtually anywhere - your home, at the gym, in a hotel, at the beach etc.  It is just a great all round stretching, strengthening and warm up exercise …

• How Does Yoga Help Your Sciatica, Health and Wellbeing?

The benefits of yoga are that you can expect your back and body to become stronger and much more flexible, and your mind to become more settled and clear.

• Back Exercise Made Simple - How You Can Build A Strong Healthy Back

The good news is that by doing back exercise in the right way, sufficiently often you can keep your back healthy and strong.

• Exercises For Sciatica

If you don’t exert yourself reasonably regularly, especially as you age, the muscles supporting and surrounding your back will eventually get weak and stiff. Then these muscles won’t be able to work well enough when you most need them to - when you put a strain on your back.

• Exercises For Lower Back Pain - The Hamstring Stretch

This is a demanding stretch, so if you are in doubt, or too stiff, or your back already hurts, start with one leg at a time or wait until your pain has reduced and/or you feel stronger. Sit on the floor (use a padded mat or a rug, don’t do this on a hard surface) with one leg out in front of you. Tuck the other leg in so that …

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.

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

Especially, don’t wait to get sick and then try and fix yourself, rather take steps in advance to look after your wellbeing.

Exercise and diet are the two foundations of this approach.

Another important aspect is to review your routine daily activities and look for habits or postures that are placing stress on your back.

If you don’t do this and start swallowing a few pills each day instead, can you explain how that is going to help your back?

Unapologetically, we are advocates of natural health practices. It’s clear to me that the general American public is under the spell of the powerful “drugs and surgery” lobby groups and their health is suffering badly as a result.

You don’t have to take my word for it, below you’ll find links to eBooks with well researched information on the dangers of mainstream “healthcare”, which by the way is such a classic “big lie”.

Sickness care is too kind also, as there’s more care about profit than for the patient in many medical practices, but it is closer to the truth.

Book 1:
Death by Medicine

Book 2:
Interview with Gary Knull best selling author of “Get Healthy Now”

The Bottom Line:
More than 750,000 Americans are killed every year by American medicine.

Surely this can’t possibly be true!? Read the books for yourself and you decide.

Stay well.