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What is your body telling you?
While pondering what to write about this month, it occurred to me that it might be interesting to share a couple of recent experiences I’ve had with interpreting messages from my body. We all have aches and pains, some familiar/chronic and some unfamiliar and perplexing. We usually think about these aches and pains as being of musculoskeletal origin. That may be true, but…
Are you moving functionally?
In my last article, Getting to the Root of Pain and Illness, I introduced Neurokinetic Therapy (NKT) as an option for treating musculoskeletal pain. I would like to focus a little more attention to this method, so that my clients can develop a deeper understanding of how their bodies work and how we can use NKT to increase function and decrease pain.
Getting to the root of pain and illness
Over the past several years, I have studied many different treatment methods. I’ve learned quite a few that are effective at stopping a symptom. I have found, however, that symptoms often return if the root cause wasn’t addressed. Suppose you have back pain for a prolonged period of time. You might be using pain killers or resorting to tropicals to alleviate the symptoms. But the pain keeps coming back. In this situation, you need to find what is causing these frequent aches in your back.
Poor posture = loss of function = pain
Do you have nagging pain in your low back? Do you carry chronic tension in your shoulders? If you have chronic discomfort in an area with no known injury, you may wonder why that is. The best answer is postural stress. Can you relate to the photo at left?
Interrupting the pain cycle
When it comes to pain, it’s all in our heads.
Actually, pain is experienced by way of our brains, via a cycle described in detail below. Pain can be acute, resolved quickly, or chronic, variously defined as lasting longer than 3 to 6 months. Acupuncture is particularly helpful in interrupting the pain cycle, especially for chronic pain. Herbs and bodywork are useful as well, depending on the condition.
Pain in the muscles and connective tissues
At some point we have all experienced pain in the muscles and their surrounding connective tissues, known as myofascial pain. Some people experience this kind of pain, whether widespread or localized, at all times.
Coming to terms with your diet
Would you like to have more energy and better overall health? At the cusp of the new year, many of us come to terms with old habits that no longer serve us and set new goals for our well-being. Consider making one of those resolutions reducing or eliminating those sweet things that do some not-so-sweet things to your body: sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and artificial sweeteners.
Healing after a whiplash injury
Every day, on average, 85 Minnesotans are injured in car accidents. And the most common injury that results from car accidents is whiplash.
Tools for combatting headaches
Headaches come in many forms, all of them distressing. I commonly see people in the clinic who suffer from tension headaches, sinus headaches, cervicogenic (stemming from the neck) headaches, migraines, or various combinations of these.