Thursday, August 29, 2013

Back Pain Treatment - How to Treat Lower Back Pain by Knowing the Cause


Back pain treatment is something that 80 percent of everyone will experience at some point in their life. It is a huge business because there is so much that can happen to a back to cause pain. Medical treatment is limited and largely ineffective. But, natural techniques that rely on the basic cause of back pain offers people real possibilities for treatment that works. Medicine is limited to pain killers, muscle relaxants, painful cortisone shots and radical surgery that has a poor success rate. All to treat symptoms, usually without consideration for the root cause. Recently, many doctors have started telling their patients to seek out natural methods of back pain relief.

Natural back pain treatment depends on knowing the root cause of the problem. Once the reason for the particular back pain is found, the treatment often reveals itself. For example, lower back pain, one of the most common complaints today, has the same root cause in most cases. Sciatica can be included here as well, though there is a little more to that story.

Processed foods like sugar, bread -- even "healthy" bread made from whole grains is still ground up which is processed, pasta dried fruit and even fruit juice cause problems that can lead to lower back pain. While doctors know the biochemistry behind this, their education hasn't included the connection. A simplified version follows.

Processed foods cause a spike in blood sugar levels. It is obvious how sugar does this. By the way, sugar includes most of the natural sugars that many believe to be better for the body -- they aren't. Ground up grains, even whole grains as mentioned earlier, are digested fast so that the stored sugar in the grain is released more quickly into the blood stream than the whole grain. It's the extra surface area that allows for faster break down of ground grains which quickly increases blood sugar levels.

The body brings this high blood sugar level down with high levels of insulin. It is the fast increase in blood sugar levels causes an over-response, a release of too much insulin. The result is blood sugar levels end up being too low, something the body must correct.

The correction the body does is to release cortisol, sometimes referred to as cortisone, which is a stress hormone that is produced by the adrenal glands. One of the things that cortisol does is release stored sugar to bring blood sugar levels up.

So, here's what might happen. You eat a big meal of pasta and garlic bread, yum-yum. Maybe you eat too much, it is delicious after all. Afterward, you feel sleepy and have to lie down or veg in front of the TV for awhile. Eventually, you feel more awake, and maybe you feel like having a little desert.

What has happened is that the meal brought the blood sugar way up, you might have even been having a good time laughing and talking with your companions, energized from all that blood sugar. Then, once insulin does its job and brings the blood sugar down, but too low, you feel like a nap, the brain is deprived of its main food, sugar. Later. cortisol brings blood sugar up again, so you feel awake again.

You want desert because stored sugar has been depleted, and the body wants it replaced. But, that's just another round about to happen, just like before.

Eventually, the adrenal glands become exhausted. They didn't evolve to deal with processed foods at all, but now they are called upon to do this process over and over again.

The connection with the lower back is that the exhausted adrenals draw the nutrients they need from available sources which includes stealing them away from the ligaments and tendons which use many of the same ones. Since the lower back supports the weight of the upper body, that is where you are most likely to experience a weakness from depleted ligaments first. Without ligament strength, the joints in the lower back and hips go out of alignment causing lower back pain that is so common today.

In this case, lower back pain treatment is obvious. A change of eating habits is essential, and supplying nutrients that the adrenals and ligaments need seems like a good idea too.

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