From:TheBahamasWeekly.com
You and Your Back Pain - Part 4
By Dr. Brian G. Blower, DC
Aug 10, 2010 - 1:50:03 PM
I was having a great morning
in practice the other day when introduced to a man that presented with
lower back pain. “Just crack it here.” he said with his finger
on part of the lower back. “I just need a crack or two and that
will take care of it.”
“How long have you been experiencing
this type of lower back pain?” I asked. He said it was here
for the past few weeks but he gets lower back pain all of the time and
has for most of his adult life. Now retired he found that some
of the problems were lessened since he didn’t have to use it much.
How I remembered that good looking shiny Chevy at the curb that we didn’t
dare start up.
Looking one way and managing to work is one thing
but when we think we look and work in a healthy manner but on examination
fail miserably that doesn’t cut it. His most recent lab work
showed elevated cholesterols and triglycerides and borderline diabetes.
High blood pressure, general malaise, headaches and fatigue were all
part of his recent history. Believe me when I say that these abnormal
findings are very common in our early seniors to-day. But what
really sent me reeling was our new patients comment, “Doc your fees
are too expensive can you cut me a deal and give me a little break on
them?”
I gave him the most recent comeback I had learned by
putting on a just-sucked-a-lemon face and asked him, “Is cheap (pause)
important to you?” I didn’t say a thing after that.
Some time passed and he finally said, “No I guess it isn’t important
to me.” And we then began to examine and teach him about his
health. And yes I did “crack” his back but not until he was
able to show holding strength with all of the muscles of the trunk and
legs assuring me that he had a chance at maintaining the corrected position
of the adjusted lower back vertebrae.
A few adjustments later and
his lower back pain had cleared up. His lower back pain was gone
completely as were his chronic headaches and upper back and neck problems. At the root of his problem we found he was basically “failing
to thrive” and had been for a very long arduous time. He is
a bachelor and although he thinks he’s doing all right with his diet
and lifestyle, under physical examination we quickly concluded that the
ongoing muscle weakness of his lower back and legs were directly related
to his faulting diet and internal stress. As a wealthy
man too, he can easily afford my meager fees as well as the components
of an ongoing healthy and reliable diet. He can afford the food
enzymes and intestinal formulas that will help him drop the inside ongoing
inflammation especially of his stomach. And he can afford to confront
his own ignorance and then get onto the bandwagon of health and become
like our friend Shannon. He must wake up though, and take
immediate action, for he cannot afford to not get his health back to
full potential at this age.
How many of us are negligent
in providing ongoing sources of only excellent food as well as never
abusing any of the inside tissues of the body? Remember Shannon
from “Part Two” of “You and Your 'Lower' Back Pain?”
Remember how she said the single most important thing she had ever come
across that helped her health the most was not eating those things common
to us that caused her to “fail to thrive.” That by her learning
how to keep her inside tissues cool and functional, by keeping herself
de-stressed through her diet she got the ongoing status of health she
had been looking for most of her life. And she had managed to
get rid of her chronic back pain too. Shannon has learned to thrive
better. Shannon succeeded by conquering the ability to decrease
her internal stress by simply not ever eating stressors. Stressors
are the cause of stress. By identifying and then eliminating commonly
found internal stressors we can reduce stress within and maintain more
health potential. We get healthy when enabled by our well nourished
better thriving bodies.
Let’s think a little differently
about “what we are.” Remember baby’s acupuncture meridian
for the primary muscle splinting chest strength of the “lung” which
in turn initiated front, side and back neck strength which then enabled
him to feed well? We do a “one-two” step of first breathing
then secondly eating. Every day, from the womb to the tomb, we
breathe and eat. Remember the ancient lung meridian terminated
in the thumbs. Baby held on and grasped to “thrive” with those
same thumbs. The thumbs evolved to help us in our need to feed.
They evolved to support the first function we do, that of breathing.
Our obese tourist (see Part Three) never learned in infancy and childhood
the lessons of how to thrive by making the right “grasping choices”
with her thumbs. To support her first function of chest strength
and breathing she must continually ingest and process to nurturing status
within her blood the essential proteins contained in her diet.
Proteins support the body’s lung structures. This step requires
excellent choices of protein rich food as well as vigorous enzyme and
other digestive reactions throughout the intestines and organs within
us. Our babies thrive only when fed the best formula and that
rule applies to us throughout life too. When taught how to choose
and grasp only the best foods for our thriving in the earliest stages
of infancy we do better over time at keeping obesity and internal inflammation
down. And through the practice of making only the best food choices
throughout our adult life we ensure better chances at thriving and much
less auto-immune illness too. Remember that to hit a “health
home run” you must be sure to touch all of the bases to score.
To get rid of your lower back pain it is essential that you learn how
to thrive. And my friends what you grasp and bring in to “sniff
and lick” before making that life giving or life taking decision of
whether or not to eat what you are holding matters here.
Right beside the thumb is the
forefinger that we “dip and lick” with (don’t deny it, we all
use this finger to taste with) and it is the termination of the acupuncture
meridian of the large intestine. Our hands evolved to help us
“hold on” with the grasping thumb to thrive and to “bring in,”
with the pointing finger for the large intestine, those foods that may
enable us to become healthy in our blood. As the “lung” muscles
are those of the chest, the top of the shoulder and diaphragm, also
unique to its own, the “large intestine” muscles are those of the
hamstrings and lateral lower back and leg. These lower back and
leg muscles push us down the trail, carrying our intestine, then covering
more area in which to “dip and lick” in with our pointing finger.
Remember we are looking to primarily make enough glucose for the brain,
nerves and all body cells. And along with that sugar, glucose, we also
must knit from our diet a blood formula fit for an adult human with
which we can constantly thrive. Many lower back conditions occur
with large intestine stress.
The third or middle finger
of our hand is the acupuncture termination for our “circulation,”
the blood. Blood and its components are the “health” that
Shannon was looking to have in a reliable and constant supply.
We thrive only when we always make available to each cell and part within
us a great blood formula. We make this blood of nurturing chemicals
from a great diet processed by healthy unstressed organs. The
muscles of the biceps along with the gluteals or rump muscles represent
the meridian of “circulation,” our health. We have all seen
the signing of health by our children as they flex their arm for us.
They are really saying “look how good I feel, I have eaten well and
have the components for energy and health available within my blood
and I feel feisty!” We also acknowledge a strong set of gluteals
as an attractive marker of health and virility. But these muscles
are only healthy when they can do “continual work” for us.
Continual health can only happen through constantly providing essential
nutriments for all of the body cells including the muscles.
Evolution shows itself helping
us to avoid internal stress when we pick through the little bits and
pieces of potential foods that we have held-on-to with our thumbs and
forefinger and brought-in-close to our face to sniff and lick helping
us decide its health or blood making potential. Our hand contributes
to the will to rid our diet of stressors by the actions of flicking
away with the fourth finger, the termination of the acupuncture system
of the adrenals. We “push away” decried stressors with a backhand
flick of the wrist or a sideways push with the fourth finger.
Our adrenal glands “cool” us, they are designed to help reduce temporary
inflammation that may come with occasional ingestion of non-nourishing
stressors. Eighty percent of our immune cells dwell in and about
the large intestine (the dip and lick system). Immune cells are
quick to release noxious pro-inflammatory chemistries should they encounter
any form of substance that negatively shocks or stimulates them.
Besides bacteria and virii immune cells on the intestinal wall may also
become aroused when touched by many forms of obnoxious proteins, carbohydrates
and fats and will cause the cells to release more pro inflammatory chemicals.
Inflammation of the gut wall is the “heat” of Chinese acupuncture
and it is the adrenal glands job to help reduce it. Some of the
sensitive intestinal wall cells when stressed cause hormones to be released
that force these same bowel cell walls to weaken and drift apart allowing
undigested foods and contaminants directly into our blood system.
Over time the faulting of the bowel wall causes transfer of immune cytokines
out of the intestine to other organs and tissues. Chronic
inflammation that we discussed in Part One as being the root of the
problem of our lower back pain as well as the background source of most
heart disease, diabetes, cancer, neurological sclerosing and a host
of other degenerative diseases is plaguing most of us.
It is essential for health
to consciously acknowledge evolutions first lines of defense against
the noxious potentially poisonous but common food like bits and pieces
we continually encounter. We are what we are. To make our choices
of what we will dare eat, we must think judiciously and apply the knowledge
we have learned about the senses of our eyes, the nose and the mouth
along with understanding the evolution of our hands in their helping
us to discern the values and qualities of potential food. It is
essential on a continual basis to get to know ourselves and understand
why it is so very important to vigilantly screen our foods before we
eat them.
And finally with our hands
we “back-slap” away anything that may surprise us or anger us in
its sudden presentation. We back-slap away things with our small
finger which is the termination of the “small intestine” meridian
as well as the “heart” meridian. Anger and inflammation first
of the stomach, then of the small intestine causes the pancreas, liver
and gallbladder to stress which in turn knocks out the nutriment source
of fatty acids changing our nurturing blood and causing mental frustration.
When we go without a good diet and have only a poor source of nutriments
in our blood our old brain receives signals from the needy hard working
tissues that say “we’re undernourished, we‘re hungry.” Yet
the old brain stem may have just seen, sniffed, licked and swallowed
what it thought was the food necessary for those same tissues to do
their work with. Internal frustration ensues for we don’t get
fed well. Our choices and screening must ensure the quality
of our food was excellent, as too must be its preparation. Our
foods must be prepared without “spicy” harshness like pepper, curries,
hot salsas, red sauces or chilies for these are common stressors we
don’t have a chance to thrive on.
Lower back pain has a complicated
presentation and I know that this is a lot of information to discuss
with the written word. That is why it is a multiple parts presentation,
for the subject of lower back pain is difficult for even the best of
the “experts.” I encourage you to continue with me into Part
Five and have faith that this new knowledge will provide for you the
foundation necessary to give yourselves first a glimpse and then a chance
of mastering what is necessary to get rid of lower back pain and avoid
failure to thrive.
Please assure you are up to
date for Part Five by review my other portions of this series.
You and Your Back Pain - Part 1
You and Your Back Pain - Part 2
You and Your Back Pain - Part 3
About the author:
Dr. Brian Blower has been a licensed chiropractor for 35 years
practicing Applied Kinesiology and has been in private practice on
Grand Bahama Island for the past
10 years. He is a founding member of Applied Kinesiology Canada and was
educated at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College. He has treated
many celebrities and also specializes in sports medicine. Dr Blower is
currently in practice at the
Family Wellness
Center across from the Rand Hospital, Freeport. He can be reached at 242-351-5424 or 727-2454.
You
can also find Dr. Blower on Facebook HERE
Feel free to contact Dr. Blower with any of your questions or comments at BodyByBlower@yahoo.com
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