Health
Why You Still Have Back Pain
Health Goals in the New Year (And How To Get Rid Of It For Good) By Dr. Jenna Dye, Naturopathic Physician
H
appy New Year! As 2023 rolls in, we may be thinking about our New Year’s resolutions and health goals! I always look forward to a fresh, healthy start by a simple and effective detoxification protocol. This detox can include diet modifications, immune system support, and gentle cleansing and can provide a jump start to optimal health for the entire year. Detoxification is the process of clearing toxins from the body. A healthy functioning body has the capacity to handle a certain level of toxins day to day. However, there are many factors that can hinder our body’s ability to detoxify and support a healthy immune system. Toxins can be found in our environment, products we use on our skin and clothes, as well as food we ingest. An overload of toxins can weigh down our immune system and accumulate in our cells. This accumulation negatively affects our immune system and can lead to chronic illnesses such as autoimmune diseases, allergies, obesity, cardiovascular disease, and skin conditions. Our body detoxifies through the following systems: • The Gastrointestinal System: Liver, gallbladder, and intestines • The Urinary System: Kidneys and urine • Respiratory System: Lungs, nose, sinuses • Integumentary System: Skin (Sweat) • Lymphatic System Healthy detox/cleansing tips for optimal health: • Include whole foods such as fruits and vegetables, nuts, healthy oils, seeds, and healthy fats. • Eliminate sugar, refined foods, processed foods, canned foods, salt, coffee, cured meats, organ meats. • Eat organic and fresh when possible. • Drink filtered water and drink at least ½ your body weight in ounces each day. • Avoid alcohol and nicotine.
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• If you have food sensitivities, it is important to eliminate them during any detox. Doing this will help decrease inflammation and allow the body to detox more efficiently. • Consume dark leafy greens such as kale, spinach, and dandelion greens. These support the liver and help promote healthy digestion. • Ensure that you have regular, daily bowel movements. This will aid in the elimination of toxins. If you suffer from gastrointestinal disorders, it is important to find the root cause and support the digestive system. • Sleep: Your body needs proper rest. Seven to eight hours of sleep will help facilitate the cleansing. • Exercise: During any detox, regular exercise of at least 30 minutes per day is beneficial. It does not have to be intense, even just walking can be beneficial. • Breathing: Take the time to breath, we often forget this part. Take breath breaks often and breathe deeply through the nose and exhale through the mouth. • Keep sinuses and lungs healthy during cleansing, daily neti pot use, or nasal rinses can be helpful. • Use clean beauty and cleaning products to help support the detox systems. Cleansing/detoxing can help the body restore itself and help maintain excellent health and wellness. There are many different detoxification protocols. It is always best to check with your doctor to see which methods would be the safest and most beneficial for you. Naturopathic physicians can individualize treatment by supporting foundational health, treating underlying health conditions, and developing specific detox and cleansing protocols specific to your health. Dr. Jenna Dye is a licensed naturopathic physician. Her role is to support the body’s foundation to restore and maintain optimal health. Together with her patients, this is achieved by identifying and removing barriers that may be impacting health while creating a healing environment. For more information visit drjennadye.com.
• By Leading USA Back Pain Expert, Dr. Tom Padilla
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s doing everyday things from tying your shoes to finding a comfortable sleeping position difficult because of back pain? You may find it hard to enjoy those around you because you’re in pain. You may have already tried “everything,” but the difficulty is finding the things that will help and actually last. It seems like even things that help are only temporary fixes. Maybe you’ve started to think you just have a “bad back.” Back pain isn’t caused by a “bad back.” And it’s not fixed by stretching or surgery or painkillers. Back pain is caused by fatigued, overworked muscles that have to work overtime because your brain has stopped using your smaller stabilizing muscles to do their jobs. The problem is in the communication between your brain and your body. This is the reason so many of the “solutions” we try only provide temporary relief–they’re not targeting the root cause. And without getting to the source of the problem, back pain will continue to return because the cause was never addressed. So how do you fix back pain? You retrain the brain. Exercises that remind your brain which muscles to use and in what order keep the pain from returning (and getting worse). If you’re active and conventional advice like resting and “taking it easy” isn’t working for you, you don’t have to choose between surgery and giving up the activities that you love. You’ve likely already tried many different things. Usually the list includes massage, stretching, chiropractic, and different exercises. One of my patients, Shelley, had tried everything above and was getting ready to see a surgeon because none of it lasted. Shelley told me, “Regular household tasks like mopping, vacuuming, putting sheets on the bed, etc., became things that would randomly set off my back and put me in bed for several days.” Eighty percent of back pain is reversible. No matter how long you’ve suffered, you can still get your life back. No surgery. No pills. The core issue, which has been proven time and again in the best research, is that the brain has developed new ways of moving your body to protect itself after injury. After a while, these new patterns become hardwired into the brain. No matter what you do to relax the muscles, the pain will continue unless you fix the patterns your brain is using. This pattern is what CAUSES back pain. These muscles get called on to do everything, from stabilizing the skeleton to moving the body, when your body is designed to spread the burden of these tasks across a variety of muscles. When the smaller muscles aren’t doing their jobs, the brain recruits the big muscles to take on the task and they quickly become tired and overworked. The 7 Most Common “Fixes”... That Don’t Work Long Term 1. Stretching: It helps for a little bit, but the pain will keep coming back because it doesn’t address the root cause of the pain. 2. Hot-packs or hot showers: These feel good in the moment and help get blood-flow to the muscles, but are only temporary fixes. 3. Massage: It felt good for a few days but then it came back. 4. Chiropractic care: It eased the pain a bit, but the nagging sensation is still there. 5. Painkillers: You went to the doctor’s office, and they gave you pain meds and told you to come back in 6 weeks if it didn’t work. 6. Physical Therapy: You went to a physical therapist
who put you on the same exercises everyone else with back pain gets…then they left you with an assistant who only half watched your technique. Activities To Avoid Here are 3 things that can make your back pain worse. Lollygagging: Believe it or not, your pace matters. When you’re browsing at the mall, you sway back and forth a little bit because you’re not really using your muscles. Have you noticed that the longer you casually browse, the more your back starts to hurt until you need to take a break? Crossing Your Legs: This is a biggie. When you cross your legs, it puts pressure on your spine, rotating or bending it to the side. Ignoring It: If this strategy hasn’t worked for you up until now, you’re not getting closer to a breakthrough. Trust me, there’s no prize for persistence in this category. How to Fix Back Pain for the Long Term These days, Shelley is playing basketball with her boys again, exercising, and living her daily life without pain. After 20 years of chronic back pain, she was able to get back to the life she loved by correcting misalignment we found in her hips and re-teaching her muscles how to work (correctly) and strengthening them. After hearing the game plan to get her back to her life, she said, “It sounded so simple and made so much sense.” She said, “It was such a relief to learn that I didn’t have a lifelong condition that I just had to live with or attempt to fix with surgery as I had been told before!” Shelley said she “was skeptical of physical therapy because of what I’d heard from others’ experiences, but I was ready to try anything. From my first visit, I felt hopeful for the first time in years that I could be active again and get over my chronic back trouble.” Tips and Exercises to Crush Back Pain for Good Our special back pain report is full of tips and exercises to ease your pain and change the way your brain works for the long term so you can get back to picking up your kids, playing your sports, or just tying your shoes. Get the report by calling or texting us at 480-482-0651 and asking for a copy, or emailing us at info@thedoctorsofpt.com and saying, “Send me a back pain report.” Or, if you’d like to meet with one of our doctors one on one for a personalized diagnosis and roadmap to healing, ask us about our free discovery visits. Our doctors believe in teaching you about your body and finding an approach that works best for you. To Apply For a Discovery Visit go to: www. thedoctorsofpt.com/discovery-session Dr. Tom Padilla, Doctor of Physical Therapy, author, and back pain expert, is the owner of The Doctors of Physical Therapy in Scottsdale, Arizona and has helped thousands of people across the country get back to living the lives they love without pain.
THE SCOTTSDALE STANDARD • January 2023 • 25
