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Hi there and welcome again to my articles, in support of The Back Pain Show.

As I alluded to in my first article, my aim with these articles is to provide you with some tips and advice which can help make your life easier with regard to the pain you are in, along with some others which may be a bit more educational in nature, for example the anatomy of the lower back and sciatic nerve.

I’ve had a think about what to write for this article and decided to write about what is probably the single most important piece of advice I can offer anyone suffering with Low Back Pain and/or Sciatica (or any pain for that matter) and that is Listen to your body!

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Listen to your body.
Make no mistake about it, your body does not want to be in pain. If you are suffering in pain, it is nearly always because you are doing something that your body does not like and therefore it is giving you pain as its way of asking you to stop doing it.

The human body has an innate desire to heal itself of any injury it encounters 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Whether you have a simple paper cut, a broken bone or low back pain and sciatica, your body will always strive to repair itself.

So where does the body go wrong with low back pain and sciatica?
The truth is, it doesn't go wrong, it is just we do not always give it the best conditions for it to work. I get very frustrated with the mystique often created with regard to low back pain or sciatica. Ultimately, it is the same as any other injury... if you provide your body with the correct conditions to heal itself, heal itself it will.

What are the correct conditions for our body to heal itself then?
Well, that’s an impossible question for me to answer on an individual basis, simply because your low back pain or sciatica will be different from the next person who is suffering with low back pain or sciatica. However, you can answer the question for yourself by quite simply listening to what your body is telling you.

If you are suffering with low back pain or sciatica and you perform a certain activity or get yourself in a specific posture which increases your level of pain, then you are doing something which your body does not like and therefore you are interfering with your body’s natural desire to heal itself. Alternatively, if you are performing a certain activity or in a specific posture and your levels of pain decrease or go completely, then without doubt your body likes what it is doing and therefore it is healing itself to the best of its ability.

Although I appreciate it is not always practical, adopting postures and performing activities which your body likes, along with avoiding or modifying those activities and posture that it does not like (those which increase your levels of low back pain and sciatica) is something that you should aim for 24 hours a day... I guarantee you it will go a long way to resolving your pain!

Isn’t that just like a Tommy cooper gag though?

I went to the doctor the other day, I said: Doctor, it hurts when I do this.
He said: ...well don't do it then

Funny, yes (well, for those older one’s like myself!) but also very true.

Believe me, your body does not want to give you pain just for the sake of it. If you are feeling pain, it is because you are creating inappropriate stresses across the structures responsible for your pain. In turn, these inappropriate stresses are interfering with your body’s desire to heal yourself of the low back pain or sciatica you are suffering with. Consequently, your pain is not going to get better, or at best, take longer to get better than it should do.

It’s like having a cut across your elbow or any other joint. Due to the natural movement that occurs at that joint, you will keep on interfering with the healing trying to take place for that cut. Therefore it is highly likely, due to this interference, that this cut will take longer to heal than if it were just on your forearm say.

Anything you do which interferes with the healing process trying to take place for your low back pain or sciatica, I can almost guarantee you will increase your levels of pain, so why keep on doing it? Whereas if you are doing something which is not interfering with the healing process, your level of pain will at worst not increase, although more than likely it will decrease or go away.

Is that all I have to do for my low back pain or sciatica to get better then?

I’m afraid not, although it is without doubt an integral part of resolving your pain. Ultimately, you need to address the cause of your low back pain or sciatica, which in my opinion is a combination of incorrect postures and movements, along with muscle imbalance (tight and/or weak muscles). However, if you do not stop aggravating your pain, it will not matter how much you do to address the cause of your problem, you will always be fighting a bit of a battle due to you interfering with your own body’s natural desire to heal itself. Therefore always try your best to...

avoid or modify the things which aggravate your pain and encourage those that ease it.

If you take this little saying on board and put it into practice as much as you can throughout the day, you will be on the right road to begin healing your pain. As I mentioned above, more will be needed with regards to getting to the cause of your problem, but if I can offer one single piece of advice for you to put into practice, this would be it.

It’s only what the professional do anyway...
Just before I go, I know there may well be some people thinking that not doing things that increase your levels of pain is stating the obvious, or maybe even burying your head in the sand. Well firstly, you will be surprised at the number of people who do not listen to their body. For example, I have treated many people who know that sitting in a certain chair aggravates their pain, while walking around a little eases it.

However, when I discuss this matter further with them, it transpires they still spend much of the evening sat in that same chair, not even thinking to get up and walk around a bit! The best they muster is to ‘fidget around’ in the chair, even though this only gives them temporary relief at best. They are then surprised when they find it difficult to get to sleep because their low back pain or sciatica is worse when they finally do get up to go to bed!

I would usually suggest for this type of problem (it may well be one you recognise) that the individual concerned only sits for about 15-20 minutes and then stands up and has a little walk around the living room for a minute or two. It is amazing the difference a small change like this can make, not just to the pain being suffered while sitting, but also to the pain that is preventing them from getting to sleep.

Another suggestion is obviously with regard to the chair, maybe a firmer one should be used, or at least a rolled up towel or something similar should be placed in the small of the back.

Anyway, I am really digressing now! Back on to my point with regard to those who think it is stating the obvious, or even just burying your head in the sand by avoiding things that aggravate your pain, have a think about what professional athletes do during the rehabilitation of an injury...

If there was a professional sprinter who tore his hamstring, do you think he would keep on trying to run on it? Of course he wouldn’t. Why not? Because he knows that if he were to do that, the tear would just get worse and therefore take longer to heal.

It is more likely the first thing he would do is rest it, maybe only walking but potentially using crutches if the tear was severe enough. As the body began healing itself, he may take up some brisk walking, but he would still avoid doing any more than that for fear of re-injury or simply it taking longer to heal. As time passed though, this athlete would begin gentle jogging (but no more at this stage) and then slowly but surely progress to full jogging, running and then finally sprinting.

This would all be a very gradual process, where he would be constantly listening to what his body (hamstrings in this case) were telling him. If at any stage while exercising, pain was felt from the site of injury, he would ease off straight away and not perform that exercise (at that intensity anyway) until enough healing had taken place to allow him to perform it pain free.

If we think about it, what this athlete is doing (and what any athlete does for that matter) is listening to his body and avoiding the activities that aggravate his injury while encouraging those he can do pain free...exactly the approach I would want you to take when suffering with low back pain or sciatica. This approach, along with an appropriate exercise programme to address the cause of the problem, will soon see you free of the pain you are suffering with.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this article. Please accept my apologies for it being a bit of a lengthy one, but hopefully you have enjoyed it and gained a good insight into one of the most important things to take on board when trying to cure yourself of the pain you are currently suffering with.

As always, this article will be available on my blog. To view it click here!

Please feel free to leave your comments about this blog or any others I have written on there. If I can also encourage you to make suggestions for any future articles you would like me to write for the Back Pain Show, then that would be great.

Take Care & Good Luck,

Paul.

PS, I have had a great response with regard to my book being available for the 50% discounted price of £13.97. Therefore I have kept it available at this price for a little longer.

If you would like to purchase “Low Back Pain & Sciatica – A Personalised Treatment Approach” for £13.97 (instead of the RRP of £27.99) use the following link: Spinal Health Care Offer (click here)

If you do use this link, not only will you receive this substantial discount available only to The Back Pain Show e-clinic subscribers, but you will also receive immediate access to the eBook and an unconditional 90 day money back guarantee.
Many thanks again,

Paul Boxcer - Spinal Health Care
www.spinal-health-care.com
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