?The cry of mankind is not for pleasure but release from pain.? Goethe
Pain can be a life saving bodily defense. To be born with the inability to feel pain assures early death, but in the vast, ordinary middle ground of living - between first perception and life threat - the hope for pain relief is a driving universal need. Yet, while pain relief is historically first priority for a host of health-care professions: traditional medicine, osteopathy, chiropractic, physical therapy and others, all associated with related industries that pervade the societies of the world, despite all that alleged effort, there is, in fact, a Pain Pandemic. Because the fundamentals are not universally accepted, for more than a century and a half, countless millions have suffered unnecessarily and continue to suffer? especially wherever Westernized medicine in practiced as the result of medicine's Fundamental Flaw. In a single simple statement, parts of the body operate similarly to machines. Each has levers, pulleys, power sources, support systems and the need for balance in performance. When imbalance occurs, performance is impaired. Pain can be equivalent to squeaks in the machinery that may be relieved by skills not dissimilar to those of the machinist, the mechanic, the carpenter ? the study of function through knowledgeable examination of the materials they work with. In the body, the exquisitely complex relationships and interactions between the parts are the substance for the production of a host of pain syndromes whether experienced as headache, back pain, neck pain - musculoskeletal pain in any of its expressions. Many, regardless, are inherently, sometimes uniquely receptive to relief and functional restoration by approaches that include hands-on techniques. Such concepts emerged from the mists of antiquity. The idea is ancient. Wherever native societies developed healing systems, they incorporated some form of these applications. What is new are advances from increased knowledge and experience ? and, at the same time, what was tragic is what transpired during the formation of ?professions? when, many generations ago, the basic understandings became the fodder of contention, conflict, greed, lust for power ? domination at any cost. Logic died. Because during one of its lowest intellectual ebbs traditionalism rejected the hands-on (manipulative) therapies, instead of reinvestigating, it went to war at any cost as reaction to the subsequent emergence of osteopathy, then chiropractic. ?Enemies? have to be despised so how could they do anything worth emulating? And there certainly were always cases of abuse to ?justify? such attitudes. The ongoing screams of societal pain eventually became background noise, ?just the way things are,? as the essence of the issue became lost in the professional posturing and the onslaught of pill popping advertising as the ?normal? way to relieve pain. Medicine's technological advances with interposed instrumentation only further obscure and distance the clinician from primary responsibility to understand what the patient's tissues willingly reveal to the respectful clinical examination. And, the advent of managed care shoveled on another layer of obfuscation. But truth persists: There are invaluable medical therapies that only hands can successfully administer. As I relate on the cover of Release From Pain: If you want to live with less pain ?if you want to help relieve the pain of others - or better represent them; if you are a student in any of the healing professions - or contemplating it - if you want to contribute to resolving what historians may well call this last century - a time of unnecessarily perpetuated pain - then please continue reading? Eventually I accepted that my life's work has encompassed the entirety of this issue - that I offer for your understanding - because ultimately only you are responsible for you. The revolution and the resolution to return medicine to its essential foundation must be energized and powered by you! So please go from here .
Paul H. Goodley, M.D. Orthopaedic Medicine
You can believe it or not, but your posture says a lot about how your body is working. It's a snapshot of how all the components of your musculoskeletal system work together, and it can shed light on 4 important elements: muscle balance, kinesthetic sense, neuromuscular coordination, and mechanical efficiency. Who knew your posture could say all that?
We'll start with your muscle balance. Every muscle in your body is there for a reason. They all have a job to do that is very specific. For example, every muscle whose job it is to bend an arm or a leg has an opposing muscle, an ?antagonist?, whose job it is to straighten. In a perfectly aligned body, these muscles should all be equal. In many people, however, they're not equal. One muscle will be dominant, or ?stronger?, than the other, which means they demand more from the nervous system. What happens to the weaker muscle? Well, it just keeps getting weaker as it gets less attention.
Now, kinesthetic sense is technical term for how we move without the use of visual aids. If you close your eyes and bend over, and raise your arm and bend it 90 degrees, you still know where your hand is, right? That's kinesthetic sense. If you have good kinesthetic sense then you know when your posture is out of alignment. Someone with poor kinesthetic sense, however, doesn't know they have bad posture. If they could see themselves as others see them, they'd probably be shocked at how they're standing and walking!
Neuromuscular coordination is, in a nutshell, how your eyes, your ears, your muscles, and many other things work to gather information about your environment and then use that information so you can move accordingly. If you've ever been on a rocking boat then you'll get the picture. It's how your body stabilizes itself based on the outside environment. Someone with poor neuromuscular coordination stumbles often, and is more prone to injury than someone with good coordination.
Mechanical efficiency is how your body moves as a whole. If your alignment is off, your body, or your ?machine?, if you will, won't function correctly.
When one of these key elements isn't working properly, your posture will show it. Every time you walk it will show, since the way you walk is really just your posture in motion. If left untreated, whatever element is throwing off your posture or gait will cause long-term, negative effects to your body, along with chronic pain such as back pain or joint pain. Take a good look in the mirror, and see what your posture is trying to tell you! And then take steps to get yourself back on track and pain-free.
Both Dr. Paul Goodley & Anthony Carey, M.a., Cscs are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Dr. Paul Goodley has sinced written about articles on various topics from Medicine. For further information please visit Dr. Goodley's Website: . Dr. Paul Goodley's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.
Anthony Carey, M.a., Cscs has sinced written about articles on various topics from Health, Fitness and Health. Anthony Carey is the author of and the founder and CEO of Function First. Function First helps those with back pain,. Anthony Carey, M.a., Cscs's top article generates over 2900 views. to your Favourites.