Banishing Backache and Disc Troubles PDF
Preview Banishing Backache and Disc Troubles
Harry elements is an osteopath 01 more than forty years' experience. and so the sufferer from any form of backache or disc trouble may have every confidence that the treatment outlined in this book is aimed at removing the primary causes 01 these troubles and so effecting a lasting cure. 65. net (30p) Banishing Backache and Disc Troubles Harry elements, N.D.,D.O. Author of SAVE YOUR TONSILS NATIJRE Cutm POll PllOSTATE DISOllDEllS SELP-T1lEATMENI' POll HEllNIA SELP-TllEATMENI' POll SION TROUBLES MAGIC, MYnI AND MEDICINE HEADACHES ANDMIGRAINE--eAUSES ANDTREATMENT NATURE Cu1lB POR ARTHRITIS NATURECu1lBPORCONSTIPATION,APPENDICITIS AND OTHEIl BOWEL DISORDERS REALlH FOR ALL PUBLISHING COMPANY GATEWAYHOUSE,BEDFORDPARK, CROYDONCR9 2AT, SURREY First Impression 1952 Second Impression 1955 Third Impression 1959 Fourth Impression 1963 Fifth Impression 1967 Sixth Impression 1970 ISBN 0 85269 021 5 © HARRY eLEMENTS 1952 Made and Printed in Great Britain for the Health for All Publishing Company. Croydon. Surrey. by The Lewes Press Wighlman &< Co. Ltd., Friars Walk. Lewes, Sussex. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 1. BACKACHE: A WIDESPREAD COMPLAINT 7 Backache: a Common Symptom-Definition of Back ache-Backache Associated with Many Forms of Disease -Little Relief from Taking Medicine-A Fertile Field for Physical Treatments-Systems of Spinal Treatment -The Erect Position of the Body-Recognising Mechanical Efficiency in the Body-The Use of the Body. 2. THE CAUSESOF BACKACHE .. 16 The Causes of Backache-Rheumatism and Fibrositis as Causes of Backache-Arthritis and Backache Ailments of the Digestive Tract as a Cause of Backache -Backache and Women's Troubles-Posture and Backache. 3. SYMPTOMS OF BACKACHE 28 The Symptoms of Backache-Effects of Differing Positions of the Body-Lumbago and Sciatica Backache in Children. 4. DISC TROUBLES AND BACKACHE 35 The Spinal Disc as a Problem in Backache-Some Mistaken Notions about the Problem-Causative Factors in Disc Troubles-The Symptoms of Disc Troubles-Treatment: Some Essential Points. 5. TREATMENT (1) 42 Improving the General Health of the Body-Attacking Specific Weaknesses that may Exist-The Question of Diet-Planning a Sensible Normal Diet-The Impor tance of Proper Food Combinations-The Importance of Relaxation-The Essentials of Relaxation-Aids to Relaxation. 6. TREATMENT (2) 57 Understanding Causes and Symptcms-s-The Importance of Self.Analysis-Reconstructing Body Habits. RESUME 64 FOREWORD V ERY FEW PE0 PLE live their lives without experiencing backache in one form or another. It may be just a temporary inconvenience that comes and goes; quickly relieved, perhaps, with a little extra care and rest. On the other hand there are those for whom the problem is of far greater dimensions, occupying, as it were,a dominant place in the whole of their lives. The sufferer is never without his ..back," which interferes relentlessly with his work and his pleasures. It intrudes itself at all times during the daily tasks and may even interfere with rest and sleep. In the past such sufferers appear to have received very little help from medicine, sothat many of them regarded it as something that had to be patiently borne. While on every side their fellow-creatures might tell of the marvellous progress of medical science, no one seemed able to lift the burden of aches and pains that weighed upon their backs. They were relegated to the class of suffererstooordinaryto be noticed. It may be said that since the advent of osteopathy there has been a brighter gleam of hope for these people, because it carried with it a new conception of the relationship between structure and function, and stressed the possibility that mechanical derangement could be a real causative factor, particularly in complaints like backache. From this standpoint body mechanics took on a new form and meaning; posture, balance and corre lation became terms of great physiological significance, and were recognised as the bodily factors out of which most of the cases of intractable backache were created. 5 6 BANISHING BACKACHE AND DISC TROUBLES Out of this idea has grown a new conception of the inherent power of adjustability of the structure of the body, similar, indeed, to the inherent quality within us that heals our wounds, sealsour cuts and reconstructs the broken bone. It is this concept that is important to the individual, because it emphasises the importance of self-help both in the preventive and in the curative sense. The habits by which we have built up the structural pattern of our bodies (the bad ones of which have made manifest the ailments like backache and similar troubles) are modifiable by the exercise of Will-power and self training. It is with this point of view in mind that this book has been written. CHAPTER ONE BACKACHE: A WIDESPREAD COMPLAINT Backache: a Common Symptom.-With perhaps the exception of headache, backache is the most common of all the symptoms of ill-health. There are very few people who have not suffered from it, and 50 little has been done in the ordinary way to meet this complaint that most people feel they have to putup with it. It may be because it is so common a symptom that so little has been done to meet it as a problem; there are many people who will say that they never mention the trouble to a doctor because they feel that medicine has so little to offer in the way of an effective remedy. It may be, they are wont to say, all right to take medicine for indigestion or constipation or someothersuch complaint, but there seems to be very little logic in taking it for a symptom like backache. In consequence, it becomes one of the commonest and one of the least regarded of all the burdens that the human has to bear. Generally speaking backache is regarded more as a nuisance than anything else, and very little sympathy is expended on its victims. It can be-and is-borne without too much outward manifestation, so that back ache is usually suffered in silence, mostly on the assump tion that it is a common trouble and a common lot. Definition of Backache.-It is often very difficult to get the sufferer to give a clear definition of what ismeant by this term. It seemsto vary with almost every patient. One will complain that it is a sharp, painful symptom; another will refer to it as a dull ache; while another may describe it as a kind of weakness. It is often hard, therefore, to give it a definition that will apply to all 7 8 BANISHING BACKACHE AND DISC TROUBLES the sufferers, and so we must content ourselves with a general one. Backache may be described as any aching pain affecting the structures of the body from the shoulders to the buttocks. Many people may think this too wide a region to be covered by the term, and usually confine it to a pain felt in the lower part of the back. But, as the pain is usually a radiating one, involving most of the large muscles of the back, it is wiser to think ofitin afairly wide sense. Backache Associated with Many Forms of Disease. Backache is associated with various disease conditions, both acute and chronic. In acute diseases, like 'flu, and in the various infectious complaints, an aching back is almost an invariable accompaniment. Why this should be is not easy to explain, but some people do suffer very much in this way, and in rare cases the trouble may persist into what one may call an ordinary backache. Generally, however, with the passing of the acute illness the pain in the back clears also. Thiskind of a backache is, therefore, so far as we are concerned, not considered as a condition requiring special attention. In some casesof so-called chronic disease there may be persistent backache. Many of the conditions that producegreatdebilitylead to this symptom, and ofcourse nothing save the successful treatment of the underlying disease will be of lasting value in clearing it up. The popular idea that backache is always associated with kidney trouble is not always true. It is true that in cases of established kidney disease there may be backache, but it is a fallacy to think that every backache indicates disturbance of the kidney and bladder functions, assome cleverly worded advertisements would have us believe. Many internal troubles give rise to backache. Afflictions of the bowel, like colitis, for example, are BACKACHE: A WIDESPREAD COMPLAINT 9 almost invariably associated with this trouble, and the so-called fallen stomach also produces it. Pelvic disorders can cause it too, and haemorrhoids, or piles, may be an unsuspected cause. Without going into too much detail about these forms of backache, we want to make it quite clear that backache can exist, as it were, not within its own right, but merely as a manifestation of some disease condition. It should not, therefore, be overlooked merely as an isolated symptom. Little Relief from Taking Medlcine.-Many sufferers are aware that very little relief is obtained from taking medicine. While this is never an advisable practice, there is no doubt that many other symptoms can be reli-eved in this way; but the weakness and persistence of backache seems to be not even temporarily amenable to these measures, and, as we shall explain later on, we believe that it is due to the fact that mechanical factors are involved. Now if proper measures are used in the alleviationofsuch mechanicalfactors no harmwill acrue, no matter what the underlying condition may be; on the other hand, the takingofsuppressivedrugs may easily mask a situation that will go from bad to worse. We desire to stress very strongly that the only way to giverelief from backache safely is always to bear in mind that the structure of the body is under strain, and that whatever measure ofrelief isundertaken should be based on this premise. We should say to ourselves: what is it that disturbs the balance of the structure and thus produces the feeling of aching weariness of the back? We should remember at all times that we are dealing with a mechanical problem, and if we are able to solve the trouble along those lines we shall make a useful contribution to the health of the whole system.
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