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: 14% [?]

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?

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: 26% [?]

A key approach that we recommend in the Better Back System is educating yourself and taking responsibility for your own health and the condition of your back.

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.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Precise diagnosis of the causes of lower back and hip pain is notoriously difficult because your spine is a large and complex organ that is full of joints, nerves and ligaments and is heavily interconnected with the surrounding muscles that support it.

For example, a doctor or back specilist may look at the back X-ray of a somebody with severe pain and see nothing unuusal apart from “routine wear and tear”. On the other hand, people who are exeriencing no back problems may have X-rays that suggest they should hardly be able to walk!

All the major nerves to your body’s extremities start by running down your spine and then branch out to these other areas. So if you have a problem with your middle or upper back you may find it affects the strength or feeling in your arms or hands.

The sciatic nerve exits the spine in your lower back and connects with your legs - thigh, calf, foot toes etc.

If your back suffers injury or degeneration it can affect the spine’s structure and/or alignment of the vertebrae (bones in your spine). This can result in pressure being placed on nerves as they exit the spine via gaps in the vertebrae.

This is what happens with sciatica - pressure is placed upon the sciatic nerve which results in pain and/or tingling and/or loss of function in your legs.

In terms of lower back and hip pain, the lower back is an area that is frequently affected by injury, aging, degeneration or wear and tear because it is an area of high stress. Lifting, bending, twisting, sitting or driving for long periods all affect your lower back in particular.

Note:
Commonly, “L4″ and “L5″ are 2 vertebrae in your lower back that are frequently impacted by wear and tear or injury and a cause of lower back and hip pain.

Once your back suffers an injury, or loss of function through aging and/or wear and tear (for example one or more disks may become thinner or distorted in shape), then 2 things are liable to happen:

1. The surrounding muscles are likely to spasm or “freeze” in an attempt to protect the spine from the threat of (further) injury.

2. This wear and tear can cause the spine’s alignment and vertebral spacing to change, thus leading to pressure being placed on nerves in and around the spine.

Both effects are likely to cause pain in the lower back and hip areas.

The Solution:
Here are ways we suggest you can treat back pain:

1. Get your spine back in alignment (as best you can allowing for injury and aging).
The options here include:
(a) active treatment from various therapists and specialists (physiotherapists, osteopaths, chiropractors etc)
(b) doing items 2-4 below and waiting for healing to occur naturally
(c) doing a mix of (a) and (b) - this is my preference
(d) back surgery (be very careful with this)

2. Review your habits with the objective of eliminating bad movements and poor posture.

3. Improve your diet - eat healthy food and/or take a natural wholefood supplement

4.3. Strengthen the muscles that surround and support the spine. This treatment of sciatica back injuries is the focus of the the Better Back System.

Popularity: 47% [?]