WELLBYTES BLOG
Bite-Sized Doses of Health & Holistic Lifestyle Tips
Eye diseases are scary, to say the least. We only have two eyes and they are supposed to last us for an entire lifetime. Not to mention, they are incredibly small for the job they have been assigned: sight!
Macular degeneration is age-related, so as our bodies age, the likelihood of developing this eye disease becomes greater. The good news is it typically doesn’t affect those people under 50. The bad news is, if you’ve been diagnosed with macular degeneration, there is no known “cure” for it. Unfortunately, there are no blatant symptoms for high cholesterol. That’s why it is considered one of the silent killers. Many people who suddenly suffer a heart attack only find out much later that their arteries were blocked and their cholesterol levels were high.
This is one reason why everyone over the age of 20 should do a blood test to check their cholesterol readings once every few years. This will help ascertain if you have any health risks or a high cholesterol level. Do not wait till the problem escalates to a point where there is imminent danger to your life. There’s no argument that lower back pain is debilitating, however, before you reach for over-the-counter painkillers you may like to try a few natural treatments such as these listed below.
Boost Your Body’s Own Natural Painkillers The human body is amazing in many ways. One is its ability to produce endorphins which serves as our very own natural painkillers. When the body produces these natural pain relieving chemicals, the pain signals to the brain are blocked or reduced in intensity. One of the best ways to boost or enable your body to produce these feel-good hormones is to engage in aerobic exercise or any physical activity. Start Doing Back Strengthening Exercises There are special exercises you can do to help improve the strength of your back muscles. If you develop the strength of the muscles surrounding your spine, your body has an improved ability to hold the spine in it’s correct posture. This in itself can reduce pain as it lessens any pressure on surrounding nerves. Most people will experience back pain at some point in their lives. You might over-exert yourself, move the wrong way, attempt to lift something improperly, and back pain is your unwanted reward. Lower back pain is the most commonly reported form of back pain and usually fixes itself in a few weeks.
Sometimes the condition lasts for a few months, but the human body is pretty good at repairing itself. As long as you don't aggravate the problem or injure your back again, you will usually soon be back in action like nothing ever happened. Since, statistically speaking, you are probably going to have to deal with this problem eventually, it makes sense to know what you can do to minimize the negative influence of back pain on your life. The following exercises have been proven by many to speed up your recovery from lower back pain, whether it is a one-time or chronic condition. The Halfway Crunch Lie as comfortably as possible on your back with your feet flat on the floor and your knees bent. Cross your arms, holding opposite shoulders, and squeeze your tummy muscles, then slowly move your shoulders up off the ground. Exhale as you raise your shoulders, hold briefly for a few seconds, then lower back to the starting position. Perform 7 to 10 times. If you are a person who visits your chiropractor regularly to keep your body in tip-top shape, or if you make regular visits to relieve chronic back pain, you will more than likely love your chiropractor.
If you have never been, you may be wondering if they will ‘crack your bones’ and cause more pain than you are already experiencing. To make it perfectly clear and to ease your mind, chiropractors do not crack bones. Your Chiropractor Does Not ‘Crack’ Your Bones Chiropractic care is a non-surgical treatment that helps many problems that affect the musculoskeletal system and nervous system. Chiropractors perform specific manipulations to the spine and its surrounding structures. As they make their manipulations, you may hear a sound that may sound like a pop or crack, but it’s just a change in the pressure of the joint. Some patients don’t even feel like they have been ‘fixed’ unless they hear the popping sounds. They assume the bones have ‘cracked ‘ back into place. This is not the case. However, they will certainly feel better if any misalignment is now realigned. Spondylolisthesis is a condition that refers to a vertebra that slips forward onto the bone below in the lower back region, resulting in abnormal placement of the vertebrae. If the vertebrae begins to press on nerves, severe back pain can be felt.
The severity of Spondylolisthesis can be determined by grading the level of vertebral slippage. These levels start at grade 1, where the slippage is not more than 25%, up to grade 4, where the reading is up to 100%. Any nerve pressure can cause excruciating pain, so patients usually look for some sort of treatment. Treatments for this condition rarely require any invasive procedures and most cases of Spondylolisthesis can be treated successfully using natural treatments. Some of the common natural treatments for this condition are the following: A muscle imbalance can cause strain on the back and/or postural dysfunction, which usually results in some degree of back pain. The primary reason why many body aches and back pain exists in the first place is quite often due to a muscle imbalance.
Alignment and Misalignment of The Body The reason pain is felt is because the muscle imbalance causes tension and strain. Muscle imbalances can cause poor alignment of the spine and the muscular system. If the body is out of alignment it affects many parts of the body, and if left misaligned for a lengthy period of time further problems can occur. For example, the left side of the body may be tight and tense, while the right side weaker and lacking strength. This then causes problems to the spine, resulting in possible permanent spinal curvature. Do you suffer with health problems that cause both back pain and breathing problems? There are certainly instances where back pain is accompanied by a shortness of breath, and it’s not uncommon at all.
However, there are also cases where an illness or disease causes both back pain and breathing difficulties. Below are some examples of associated back pain and breathing problems. Scoliosis An individual having a problem with the structure of the spine faces a higher risk of experiencing breathing problems, such as with scoliosis. Although it is completely normal for the spine to curve, scoliosis causes the spine to develop an abnormal curvature. The sideways curvature of scoliosis can significantly affect the chest and ribcage. As a result, the lungs are also affected, thereby causing difficulties with breathing. This abnormal curvature of the spine may occur in the thoracic or lumbar area, or both. Kyphosis The term “kyphosis” refers to a type of curve that is usually seen in the chest area of the spine, although there are some cases of kyphosis that affect the lumbar and cervical parts of the spine. The word ‘lumbago’ originates from the Latin word ‘lumbus’ which means loin, and today it is used as a general term to describe pain in the lower part of the back.
Therefore lumbago is commonly known as having ‘low back pain’. Many people think lumbago and sciatica are the same condition, which is totally understandable. The symptoms and specific causes of lumbago may vary, however, one of its many causes can be sciatica pain. Sciatica refers to a specific ‘radicular’ lumbar pain. The term ‘radicular’ comes from the word ‘radiate’. This is why when a person is diagnosed with sciatica it means that they are experiencing a radiating pain from the lower back, down the upper thigh, to the back of the legs. In other words, lumbago is a generalized condition, low back pain, with many possible causes. Sciatica pain is a specific condition, a symptom of sciatica nerve compression, which can be one cause of lumbago. Causes of Lumbago The causes of lumbago are not always easy to determine. Your doctor will undertake tests or methods to help make a correct diagnosis, and will diagnose first before administering any treatment methods. To better understand the difference between a bulging disk and a herniated disk, let’s first look at what a disk is.
The disk is the part of the spine that can be seen in between each vertebra of the spinal column. These small disks serve as a cushion or shock absorber in between each of the vertebra. Its tough circular exterior is called annulus fibrosus. This outer layer of the disk is made up of sheets of collagen fibers which surround the inner layer of the disk. The inner layer of the disk, which is referred to as nucleus pulposus, is composed of a loose network of fibers. These fibers are suspended in a gel-like substance called mucoprotein. This gel-like substance in the disks makes it possible for us to turn and twist our body, and to bend, without hurting the vertebrae. The disks also act as shock absorbers, which allows us to run and jump without breaking our spine. The disk serves as protection to the spine and its nerves from any impact or stress that the body is exposed to every single day. However, just like any other parts of the body, the outer layer of these disks may become weak. This increases the risk of experiencing either a bulging or herniated disk. What is a Bulging Disk? This is a condition where the disk outer layer is not broken and its inner layer, which is the nucleus pulposus, is still intact. The sight of its inner content bulging is much like a volcano that is about to erupt. However, a bulging disk can be a precursor to herniation of the disk. The sciatic nerve is the longest nerve of the body. It starts from the lower spinal cord and then down through your hips and buttocks, then down the back of the legs.
If you suffer from sciatica pain, you will most likely experience mild to severe pain in the areas of your body where the sciatic nerve runs. There will also be times when you may experience numbness and weakness in these body parts. The reason you feel pain is because of the sciatic nerve compression, irritation and swelling. The most common causes for developing sciatica pain are as follows. Herniated Disks Each vertebra in your spinal cord is separated by a disk, which is a piece of cartilage that helps enable flexibility. This cartilage serves as a cushion between each of your vertebra. It allows your back to move and bend. However, if the disks between your vertebrae become damaged in some way, the surrounding nerves can become irritated, thereby causing much pain and discomfort. 90% of sciatica pain cases are caused by disc herniation. Once the inflammation ceases and healing occurs, sciatica pain will also decrease and ideally cease. Lower back pain is the leading cause of disability around the world and it’s the second biggest reason why people need to visit a doctor. It’s certainly a pity we aren’t taught to care for our backs at a very young age. We just take our spine for granted, not realizing that it can easily be injured.
Before we look at common back pain problems, let’s first look at the ‘back’. The back starts from the neck and goes all the way down to the coccyx, or tailbone. The back includes the vertebrae, the disks between each vertebra, the ligaments and muscles which hold the spine, and many, many nerves. The back supports our body and if something goes wrong, it can affect our life dramatically. Back Pain – Acute or Chronic A back problem is almost always first detected when pain is felt. It’s the body’s way of letting you consciously know something is not right. Acute back pain is often a symptom of a bone fracture, a disk herniation or sprained ligament. During the first few days of developing an injury, acute pain will radiate from the affected area. The sensation of pain usually limits the person from doing any physical movement. This is because movement generally exacerbates the pain. Chronic pain is when the back pain seems to never end. It may be felt day after day, year after year. The healing time is prolonged as the injury sustained may require a lengthy healing process. Chronic back pain may also be due to improper lifting techniques, excess body weight and/or a lack of exercise. Here are some of the most common back problems. Do you know what your metabolism is? Many people think it’s just to do with weight gain or weight loss, but it is far more complex than that. The dictionary meaning is, “Your metabolism is the way that chemical processes in your body cause food to be used in an efficient way, for example to make new cells and to give you energy.” – Collins Dictionary
What many people don’t realize is that the body burns calories even when it is resting. The body doesn’t just burn calories when performing rigorous physical training. Our body requires calories to produce energy for many body processes. Your body constantly needs energy just to stay alive. The problem is, many people take in more calories than their body needs for fuel or energy, which raises a very good question. How do you know how much energy your body needs every day for good health? This is vital for weight management, as ingested calories which are excess to energy requirements will very likely be stored as body fat. There are numerous causes of muscle pain, including sports injury, accidents, exercise, and general wear and tear. Sometimes fatigue and over work or certain types of jobs cause muscle pain, and for some it can be quite severe.
Irrelevant of the cause, muscle pain can be hard to manage, inconvenient and annoying. While it is tempting to go to the pharmacy or doctor and take painkillers, they just treat the pain. Instead, there are a number of natural ways to heal sore muscles and reduce the pain they can cause. 1. Epsom Salt A few teaspoons of Epsom salt in a warm bath can do wonders for any aching or sore muscles. Epsom salts contain high levels of magnesium sulphate, which is a natural muscle relaxant. Epsom salt works by removing fluid from muscles, and therefore reducing any inflammation and swelling of the muscle. 2. Essential oils Certain oils have been recommended for many years as a remedy for all sorts of health issues. For muscle soreness and cramps, lemongrass and peppermint are amongst the favourite. Camomile has many beneficial properties and can help induce rest as well as reduce soreness in muscles. Back pain is one of the main reasons people see their local doctor, and it has many potential causes. Despite the varying causes, there are many natural remedies that will reduce the pain and discomfort associated with back pain.
1. Valerian capsules The active ingredient in valerian has a soothing and sedating effect on the brain. Whilst this can help you to sleep in a natural way, it can also help soothe the pain of back ache. Not something to be used every day because of the sedating effects, but certainly worth using when the pain is particularly bad. 2. Devil’s Claw Devil’s Claw has been studied fairly extensively recently, and has now been shown to be an effective remedy for conditions such as knee pain, osteoarthritis, gout and lower back pain. Whilst it may not provide immediate pain relief in the way traditional painkillers do, if used consistently, it can relieve chronic back pain and have preventative effects. 3. Ginger Ginger has so many benefits for different health conditions, and back pain is no different. Ginger has been proven to have anti-inflammatory properties, which can help with any swelling in the back that causes pain. Ginger can either be applied topically to the area in need, or can be taken on a more preventative basis as a supplement. |
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