The Stress & Back Pain Connection

Put your hand up if you've ever felt stressed - OK everybody has
got their hand up.

In fact, if you were about to order a truck load of horse manure to
be delivered to your boss' office, or desperately wanted to slash
the tires of the idiot who cut you off on the way home, this
newsletter is timely indeed.

(If you really are feeling like that try item 2(d) below, or watch
one the videos highlighted in 2(f)).

Of course, temporary stress is a natural and unavoidable part of
life and our bodies have numerous built-in mechanisms for dealing
with it.

However, a feature of the 21st century lifestyle is that prolonged,
or chronic stress is a common experience.

Many people find it hard to cope with this continuous stress. Some
don't even realize they are chronically stressed until something
happens to finally push them over the edge and the stress explodes
like a dam bursting.

OK, so what does this have to do with back pain and sciatica?

Well as far as your body is concerned, chronic stress is like
having a perpetual low grade illness that eats away at your health
and vitality.

Stress commonly manifests in physical symptoms such as:
- Stomach pains
- Headaches
- Overall stiffness
- Constipation
- Disturbed digestion (which can result in your body being
short of essential minerals and vitamins)
- Shoulder and neck stiffness
- Poor sleep . . leading to tiredness and low energy levels
- Lower back pain (especially with financial stress)
- Susceptibility to colds and flus

Now given your back is one of the most complicated and sensitive
organs in your body, guess where some of the effects of this stress
might show up?

You got it - back pain, back stiffness and spasms, your back "going
out".

(People experience stress symptoms in different areas. Some might
never have a problem with their back, but have long term stomach
pain and so on.)

You've got 26 bones in your back, each supported by a variety of
muscles and moving in different ways as you bend and twist.

So if the stress builds up in the muscles around your back, so
they're always stiff and tense and/or you're chronically tired
and/or you're short of minerals and vitamins, should you be
surprised if your back malfunctions?

How To Manage Stress

I deliberately say "manage stress" not "eliminate stress" because
unless you want to withdraw from the mainstream e.g. the
"go and meditate on a mountain top" escape dream, it's
unrealistic to say "stress begone" and expect the world to take
notice.

1. Acknowledge that you may in fact be stressed.

There's nothing wrong with being stressed, it's not a failing or a
weakness, it's just a mental or physiological reaction to being
placed in testing conditions.

Unfortunately a few million years of evolution in caves
and the jungle wasn't sufficient to prepare you for events
such as the sub-prime credit crunch, a**holes at work, or a 30 mile
freeway crawl in the rush hour.

n.b. a good test to find out if you're stressed is to ask a close
friend/spouse/partner this question"Do you think I'm stressed?"
(Their answer may entertain/shock/surprise you!)

2. Take action to reduce your stress

Here are a few suggestions:

(a) Physical exercise: especially outdoors in the fresh air.
A simple, 30 minute walk is a winner on every front. Anything that
gets you sweaty is recommended - see also (g).

Remember the Better Back System has a set of special exercises
for your back - you can find out about it here:
http://www.healthywealthyandhappy.com/better_back_book.html

(b) Meditation:
Meditation comes in many different flavors and forms. Many of them
are beneficial, a few of dubious value.

Some are free and effective e.g. Vipassana (www.dhamma.org).
Some are not free and effective e.g. Holosync (www.centerpointe.com)
which has a free demo you can get here:
https://www.centerpointe.com/demo/?x=mainnav_products_index

You can find links to free, audio meditation tracks here:
http://www.learningmeditation.com/music.htm

(c) Yoga:
Yoga has many devoted practitioners and just like meditation it
comes in many forms. Most people find it gives them both physical
and mental benefits. 

Here's a video of the yoga Salute to the Sun

Quite often you can find a local community yoga class you go to for
a few dollars to see if you like it.

(d) A punching bag
Yes this is form of exercise, but it deserves its own special
category.

Don't knock it until you've tried it - beating the c**p out of a
punching bag for 15 to 30 minutes is both an enormous reliever of
stress and anger and a highly aerobic exercise (if you keep
punching more or less continuously).

You can even stick a picture of your boss, spouse, mother-in-law,
or who/whatever you feel is the major source of your stress onto
the bag to add spice to the proceedings.

(e) Eat good food
Yep, bad food not only has low or no nutritional value, it messes
you up mentally and physically.

Note: Go to the next item if you want a laugh instead of a sermon
about the rotten food you're probably eating.

Bad food = sodas, fatty / fried fast foods, most processed foods,
foods with long list of  chemicals in the ingredients list (ever
found E260 in a field?), fast home microwave meals, food that's
been stored for ages (e.g. out of local season fruit and
vegetables), food that's been factory farmed and/or factory
fattened (e.g. most American meat products).

In fact let's be straight here - most of what the average American
eats is junk, or badly compromised.

Sad but true.

Basically your body has to spend heaps of energy and effort trying
to detoxify itself from this junk, rather than the much easier
process of extracting what it needs from simple natural foods.

It leaves you with less energy and a low level feeling of "not
rightness" and  prone to various physiological side effects,
including back pain.

Top this up with a cocktail of prescription drugs and you really do
have a recipe for trouble.

If you want to test this out, go on a "detox diet" of mostly fresh
fruit and vegetables for a couple of weeks (ideally organic produce
and no meat) and see what happens. The effect is similar to a
junkie coming off their habit.

You'll typically feel worse before you feel better , as your body
starts to detox itself properly, but once you get through that
phase the improvement is likely amaze you.

(f) Laugh out loud, often
Laughter is just the best stress relief.

Find something that makes you laugh so hard you almost wet yourself.

Try these videos for example.

(g) Have Sex
Preferably with somebody else and longer than 5 minutes to get the
full benefit!  :-)

So jokes aside, it's always worth emphasizing that your overall
health is going to affect your back.

If you're chronically stressed and have back pain, treating the
back pain in isolation without also doing something to reduce your
stress may have you going round in circles.

I'm speaking from experience here. In my times of greatest stress,
I'd go to see the chiropractor to get my back "put back in" and
sometimes just a few hours later it would go "out" again - for
no particular reason.

It took me quite a while to work out that stress=back out.

Anyway, that's it for now, stay well.

Best regards
Chris