The Pain Cycle

Back pain is like a bad dream.  So, your  first goal is to find where you are on the pain cycle and then to wake yourself up and stop the cycle as soon as possible.   What is pain? Pain comes after a muscle spasm suffocates your muscles and chokes off their oxygen.  But, you can undo with exercise and relaxation.  If you let the pain continue for years and you set the stage for permanent back damage, which surgery can never fully repair, no matter how skilful the surgeon....So, what you have to do is take control and break the pain cycle.

1.         Warning Zone: Inactivity and Stress

Being unfit and under stress sets the stage for back pain. Weak, stiff muscles can’t bounce back when they’re hit with stress. Constant, unrelieved stress always takes its toll somewhere in the body-usually your back.

2.         Signs Zone: Muscle Spasm

One day....for no reason, you may feel a jabbing pain in your back- a muscle spasm. Your back muscles contract suddenly and painfully like a charley horse. A spasm is your body’s natural splinting reaction to prevent more damage to your back.

3.         Exceed to Danger Zone: Muscle Can’t Breathe

A spasm chokes off circulation to your knotted muscle and cuts off its supply of oxygen-rich blood. Pain increase because the muscle can’t take in oxygen to work smoothly and because lactic acid and other waste products build up in the muscle.

4.         Danger Zone: Stiff Muscle

Weeks of pain and inactivity lead to stiff, shortened muscle. Your spine is locked in place an can no longer move freely..for example, so hard to move or you can’t move. When your back muscles can no longer protect the joints in your spine, the joins may degenerate quickly.

5.         Permanent Back Damage Zone: Bone and Disk Disease

Ignoring pain and stiffness sets the stage for permanent back damage. If you have degenerative disease in your vertebrae and disks, your doctor may recommend surgery...

6.         Red Zone: Bed Rest and Worry

Inactivity only prolongs the pain cycle, whether you’re resting in bed after back surgery or relying on pain medications for relief. If you’re flat on your back in bed, your muscles get weaker and stiffer, worry and stress increase and the cycles repeats itself....

So..protect yourself....adios