How You Can Get Natural Back Pain Relief Through High-Tech and High-Touch Approaches

By Christopher Vogelmann

With all of our overloaded schedules, ever-increasing workloads, and expanding to-do lists, as well as caring for children, grandchildren and aging parents, back pain is often a common theme amongst baby boomers. At any given time, nearly 25% of Americans report that they have experienced back pain within the last 3 months – this according to an article published in the November 2006 edition of the medical journal Spine. We Boomers, however, are not likely to accept “normal aging changes.”

What steps can we take to prevent back pain from ever starting up in the first place? This checklist should provide you with some ideas on how to optimize your back health. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Are you very active or quite sedentary in your daily routine? Are you chained to your computer or free to move about?
• Do you have a strong core? What do you do to increase your core strength? Sit-ups? Pilates? Yoga?
• Do you effectively manage your stress? (Creative down time, meditation or visualization?) • Do you have good posture and effective body mechanics?
• Do you have regular bodywork, chiropractic care, acupuncture, or massage treatments for nagging aches, pains or old surgeries?
• Are you aware of your of restrictions, imbalances or pain in your body? What things do you do to address these limitations? Do you exercise regularly or wait until the thought passes?
• Are cardiovascular exercise, flexibility and mobility exercises as well strength training part of your health routine?
• How much sleep do you need? Are you getting enough snooze time? Or are you sleep-deprived?
• Do you practice eating a really healthy diet? Or are you just kidding yourself by eating your burgers with a diet soda and a handful of multi-vitamins?

Injury prevention as well as pain prevention together help achieve an individual’s lifestyle balance. Even seemingly insignificant things like getting the proper amount of sleep and eating good foods can help prevent injury. Moreover, we can prevent back injury by being sure that we have regular exercise and that our routine addresses our specific needs for flexibility, strength, stability, as well as mobility. It does no good for us to be strong but inflexible. Preventing back pain is also about establishing and maintaining both good posture and correct body mechanics. We need to be mindful of how we lift things and about how we sit or move in our daily life. It is critical that we consciously perform our movements with awareness. Proper alignment goes a long way in preventing an injury from ever occurring.

If you have continual mental or physical stress as a daily part of your life, be certain that you take the time to become more aware of your body. This can be enhanced by practicing meditation and relaxation techniques. The power of mental and emotional energy cannot be underestimated. As Dr. Thurman Fleet said: “The human body is but a literal transcript of the mind”. Our thoughts and emotions will determine our health choices or the lack thereof. If you have suffered past injuries, traumas, or have had surgeries, you can enjoy the healing benefits of chiropractic adjustments, massage, myofascial release or energy work. These techniques are great ways to energize and strengthen your body to make it more “back pain proof”. Improving your resistance to back pain is far more beneficial than treating your pain from crisis to crisis.

As a practicing chiropractor with over 22 years of experience in the Alexandria, Rockville, North Bethesda, Potomac and Kensington, MD areas, I have seen thousands of people with low back pain, neck pain and shoulder pain. And these folks have had pain from a wide variety of causes. They have also expressed those various causes as a variety of symptoms. Since we are all genetically unique, we are also biochemically and biomechanically unique. Since no two back pain conditions are exactly the same, both the evaluation and treatment must be tailor-made to your individual needs. There is no “onesize- fits-all health care.” The most serious warning signs of a severe health condition are unexplained weakness or paralysis, a loss of bladder or bowel control, and inner thigh or leg numbness that does not improve when you rest. Please see your doctor as soon as possible if you experience any of these symptoms. They may require immediate medical attention.

Most lower back and neck pain, however, can be cost-effectively treated with gentle chiropractic care and exercise, without the use of drugs, needles or surgery. Your individualized treatment plan might include pain-reduction techniques, physical therapy modalities, myofascial release and chiropractic spinal adjustments to improve the normal flow of nerve energy to your body. You may also be encouraged to restore your muscle balance and posture through specific exercises and neuro-muscular re-education. Our chiropractors and therapists can also teach you to relieve tension and stress through practicing relaxation techniques and improved body awareness. We have specific techniques that are excellent in removing painful restricted areas of your body, reducing deep tension and helping to increase both your range of motion as well as your circulation.

Just because you don’t have pain, doesn’t mean that you don’t have an underlying health condition. Remember, many health problems linger beneath the surface until we become aware of them through symptoms. The absence of symptoms is not the definition of “Health.” Many people have fallen over dead from a heart attack when everyone thought they they “looked just fine.” In like manner, you may have hidden spinal or other joint or muscle misalignments that may be interfering with you enjoying your life to its fullest potential. Simple stiffness, loss of normal range of motion, weakness or increased fatigue can all be signs of a hidden health problem. A good comprehensive evaluation and examination can go a long way to uncovering hidden health conditions before they become major problems. Even as we tune our cars to get maximum performance, we also need to get our body tuned-up in order to free up our restrictions and improve our energy levels.

Even though the best time for addressing back pain is before we ever experience it, most people wait for a health crisis to develop before they take on health-producing action steps. Your body is constantly sending you messages. Isn’t it time that you listened to those messages rather than checking your body’s answering machine every few years or so? The old cliche is that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Your daily choices will either produce health or promote dis-ease. Choose to exercise. Choose to practice good posture and alignment. Choose to get a refreshing massage. Choose to eat well and think well and you will definitely enjoy glowing health. At Allegro Wellness, we are here to help you to maximize your health potential. If you’re stuck, we’re here to “unstick” you and to get you moving again.

Dr. Christopher Vogelmann, a practicing chiropractor in North Bethesda (Rockville), Maryland, is the founder and director of Allegro Wellness in Montgomery County, Maryland. He is a graduate of Harvard and is both a noted author and health expert who has taught doctors all over the United States and Canada. His purpose is to help people to realize their maximum health and energy levels through hands-on chiropractic, massage, nutrition, patient education as well as other holistic health services and resources. His treatments are comprehensive, integrated, holistic, and individualized to give you maximum results in a minimum of time.

Give us a call at (301) 881-1110. You can also follow Dr. Vogelmann on Twitter at http://Twitter.com/drvogelmann or on Facebook at: http://facebook.com/christopher.vogelmann.

He brings pain relief without the use of drugs, needles, or surgery to people of North Bethesda, Rockville, MD, Kensington, Potomac, and Silver Spring. Dr. Vogelmann explains the importance of exercise, good posture, and stress in bringing you freedom from pain and ease of movement. Call him today for a FREE Health Risk Analysis: 301-881-1110.