I am regularly using this description both to my students and patients because a body’s ‘treatability’ is such a critical factor in determining whether you are going to get rid of your back pain or sciatica easily or not and for how long it is likely to stay away.

Many of you would be familiar with the self treatment exercises that are contained on my Back Pain Blog  and judging by the emails I have been getting, the people who have been getting really good results by either reducing their back pain or taking it away completely are the ones with the healthiest body.

Being realistic I am sure there are some of you out there who haven’t had the same success and maybe one of the reasons is because your body is not in its optimal ‘treatable’ condition yet. This relates to any type of treatment you might be getting for your back pain or sciatica.

I have new people come into my clinic all the time but only a small percentage of them don’t need to make changes to their lifestyle to get their body into a condition where their back pain or sciatica is easy to fix.

Managing them is never that difficult if they want to spend the time and money seeing me regularly, but that is not my goal. I like to have people coming in for the shortest possible time and so for me, educating them on diet and lifestyle issues is an important part of providing an effective service.

It is very much the same information I cover in my self treatment program and teach to my students who are hopefully passing that same message on to their patients as well.

I find a lot of people who come in with back pain or sciatica involving tight stressed muscles are under the impression they are eating fairly well and I’d have to admit on the surface it often appears to be the case. The main weakness I have picked up from these people is that they are not eating foods in the right balance or they are not eating properly for the amount of activity they are doing in a day.

What I would like to do in this article is give you a few things to think about for yourself so you can better decide if you need to make some changes to your diet or perhaps lifestyle, to get your body into a more treatable condition. So that you will respond better to the self help exercises you are doing or the treatment you are getting from your SLM or other therapist, for your back pain or sciatica.

The first question I want you to ask yourself is, are you drinking enough water? Is there a chance that your body could be dehydrated? If you exercise a lot or work in a physical job such as a tradesperson, massage therapist or even do lots of flying in an aeroplane (very dehydrating), the answer could well be no.

If you work in shorts and T-shirt or the equivalent and feel quite comfortable even on a coolish day when everyone else is dressed warmer, you might well be losing a lot more fluid than you realise, even if you are not sweating a lot on the surface. If this sounds like you then just drinking water may not be quite enough and you may need to add a small amount of mineral salts to your water to help absorption and replace what you lose sweating to help counter dehydration. I personally drink alkaline water because it not only helps keep my body more alkaline but is better for absorption.

Secondly, a lot of back pain and sciatica sufferers who come in to see me suffer from not eating enough protein and far too many carbohydrates like pasta and bread or drinking soft drinks, alcohol, coffee and tea. Too much of these foods and fluids cause the muscles to feel stiff and dry and less responsive to techniques that would normally work to loosen them up. There are other drawbacks with this sort of diet.

Let me quote a small section of a very good book you could read if you were interested in learning more about food and diet and the way to better health and wellbeing. It is called the X Factor Diet, written by Leslie Kenton. I quote “In 1988 in a burst of enthusiasm the US Surgeon General officially directed all Americans to cut their consumption of fat, especially saturated fat- and increase the number of carbohydrates they ate. The rationale was simple, cut the fat intake to almost zero and you will leave behind heart disease, diabetes and obesity and most of the degenerative conditions plaguing modern man. However, in the 10 years following the US surgeon generals dietary directives, obesity in the US tripled, adult onset or type II diabetes soared while other degenerative diseases continued to mount.”

The book goes onto a more detailed explanation but the important message here is to cut back on carbohydrates, don’t be afraid of fats in moderation but eat more protein especially vegetable proteins and fish so as not to consume too much red meat or chicken. This is generally very poor quality protein due to the way they breed and feed chickens and cattle for the mass market.

I find getting someone to cut down on the carbohydrates, especially at dinner time, and eat more protein and even add some magnesium, to their daily intake helps soften their muscles sufficiently over a couple of months. I use this formula more for active people who like to exercise at least a few days a week or people who work in a physical job. Magnesium helps muscles relax which is great if you suffer from back pain or sciatica.

As a way of increasing their protein intake but not eating too much meat I recommend more vegetable proteins like beans, chick peas, lentils and tofu or mixed nuts for snacks. For the very active I add some protein powder like the Iso Whey which contains a good quantity of amino acids, the building blocks for protein. Best taken as a protein shake for breakfast or straight after training.

More protein in the diet generally leads to softer more supple tissue and less stiffness that triggers back pain or sciatica.

Obviously you can’t beat eating lots of fresh fruit and vegetables during your week but unfortunately these days we hear that they are also being sprayed with antibiotics and pesticides, picked before they are ripe and kept in storage and gas ripened to suit everyone except the consumers. We need plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables for their vitamin and mineral content, to help our body function properly and although I don’t avoid the regular trips to the fruit and vegetable market because of the things I mentioned above, I also make sure I take a daily serving of the probiotic super food such as Vitagest to get whatever I might be missing out on from the fresh produce. I give it to my young children as well in their juice or milk as I am sure they don’t get as much as they need either. To that end I also give them another concentrated organic form of fruit and vegetables called VegeBuddies which come in the form of gummy bear sweets which they love and see as a treat.

I understand eating well is an effort for many people because they are busy and preparing healthy nutritious meals takes time and planning. But the price you pay for neglecting this can be high because without it your chances of suffering from back pain or sciatica or other health problems for that matter are greatly increased.

The final point I would like to make on helping your body to become more treatable is getting enough sleep. Nothing will stress the body faster than a lack of good quality sleep, like 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a dark room. If you find it hard to sleep because of your pain, try to do some meditation for an hour everyday. This can also have the effect of relaxing and rejuvenating the muscles without you needing to actually go to sleep. It can also be a useful mental exercise for dropping tension from your muscles and reducing your pain levels.

I have put together a totally new form of meditative exercise that will really help with getting better sleep and taking away pain. It is called SLM Yoga and is an important part of the online self treatment program on my site which starts with a free video demonstrating a great technique you can use to get Instant Relief from Back Pain or Sciatica GO HERE

Disclaimer: The information above should be taken as a guide only and is just the opinion of the author Steve Lockhart. It is not a prescription that should be followed without first consulting your health professional as to its merits and relevancy to your particular situation.

© 2007 S.J.Lockhart All rights reserved.

 

 

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