PAIN, ARTHRITIS, DISC HERNIATION, ROTATOR CUFF TEAR, TORN MENISCUS, & CARPAL TUNNEL SYNDROME
Are you in pain? Do you have muscle and joint pain-low back pain, neck pain, knee pain, shoulder pain, hip pain, elbow pain, ankle pain, hand pain, or foot pain? Has your doctor told you that you have strain or sprain, disc herniation, disc bulge, disc degeneration, rotator cuff tear, torn meniscus, carpal tunnel syndrome, spinal stenosis, fibromyalgia, arthritis, osteoporosis, tendinitis, bursitis, or spurs? Or perhaps you are healthy and want to know what you can do to avoid all of these problems.
STRETCHINGFORPAINRELIEF.COM is an appropriate tool to help resolve or prevent all of these conditions. It is one of the most important tools you can use for these conditions.
As we have already seen, much of the pain we experience with aging is from lack of motion with resultant muscle and ligament stiffness which then leads to joint stiffness and muscle and joint pain. Similarly with any muscle and ligament injury, a similar process of muscle and ligament stiffness will occur with healing which also leads to joint stiffness and muscle and joint pain.
When you go to your doctor you often start with your primary care doctor. He is typically not trained in musculoskeletal problems. He might get X-rays and he will get a reading from the radiologist who never sees you, the patient. If you are over forty, your X-rays may well show signs of aging which may be totally normal findings consistent with your age and not the cause of any pain. But the X-ray report will say arthritis and you will be told by your primary care doctor that you have arthritis. And I have also often seen where the X-ray technician who takes the X-rays tells the patient what the X-rays show when he is not trained to read or report on X-ray results. Somehow patients assume any doctor, no matter his specialty, knows everything, and anyone in a medical office wearing scrubs or a white coat somehow in the mind of the patient often deceptively takes on this false omniscient quality.
So when your primary care doctor tells you that you have arthritis or one of several other diagnoses based on the radiologist’s report, very often this is frightening for the patient and you assume that you are doomed to have pain for the rest of your life, and perhaps not just in the current location but soon to affect your whole body. Yet the doctor is so disconnected from you and how he is impacting you with his words. He is unaware that although the word arthritis and other labels he throws on patients for him means very little, but for you the patient these words can cause monumentous increase in fear and pain. He doesn’t even comprehend the true medical meaning of the words he is using because it wasn’t part of his training. And what is really sad is that very often your pain has nothing to do with arthritis or other labels that may be thrown at you, and instead is from the pain caused by lack of motion resulting in muscle and ligament shortening, or from pain associated with muscle and ligament injury. If so, the most important treatment you will be needing is motion to stretch, loosen, and lubricate the involved muscles and joints.
But if neither you nor your doctor know this and the pain persists even though it may be self-resolving in time, he can send you to the surgeon. And often these pains can last from minimally up to four to six weeks to sometimes up to three to twelve months, and so the primary care doctor will generally need to refer you out since he is not trained to manage these problems. You can even get unnecessary joint replacement surgery based on your X-ray results alone and persistence of pain if your doctors don’t first understand the process of your pain.
Similarly, people with muscle and joint pain are getting many MRI studies. Often the patient comes to the office requesting an MRI thinking this will provide the answer to all their problems. Many doctors of all types have also been deceived to think that an MRI will provide all the answers, and for those with MRI ownership or referral fees there is an obvious monetary incentive to get as many MRIs as possible.
Whereas MRI is a great tool for identifying cancer or infection or for confirming a clinical diagnostic impression prior to performing an appropriate surgery, when it comes to disc herniation, rotator cuff tear, torn meniscus, disc bulge, disc degeneration, spinal stenosis and other similar diagnostic labels, the MRI reading can result in frequent unnecessary labeling of patients with frightening sounding diagnoses and frequent unnecessary surgery.
As we have already discussed, musculoskeletal pain associated either with aging or with injury is often muscle and ligament related. And muscle and ligament pain more often than not will last for weeks to months, especially if the muscles and joints are not mobilized and strengthened. Most people over forty years of age with muscle and joint pain have pain from muscle and ligament shortening, with or without injury. And these problems are not generally seen with X-rays or MRI.
But MRI does show many other things. By thirty years of age a healthy asymptomatic person with no pain or injury if placed in an MRI may show up to roughly a 30% incidence of disc herniation of the neck, a 30% incidence of disc herniation of the low back, a 30% incidence of rotator cuff tear of the shoulder, and a 30% incidence of torn meniscus. These numbers can go up to 50% by age fifty and over 70% by age seventy. These are the terminologies and labels used to describe the picture on the MRIs-but these are in healthy asymptomatic people. What this means is that these labels from MRIs don’t necessarily mean that a patient who has an MRI and is given a certain diagnostic label has any pain or problem or “damage” related to the MRI label.
If somehow the obvious is not understood-that without regular full motion, as we age, muscles and ligaments will shorten and stiffen with resultant pain and loss of muscle motion and joint motion-and that with injury of muscles and ligaments the process of healing involves shortening and stiffening with resultant pain and loss of muscle motion and joint motion-the patient may unknowingly seek out all kinds of doctors and treatments-and doctors of all types may offer up, unknowingly or knowingly, tests and treatments of all types including pills, medications and potions, chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, X-rays, MRIs, injections of all kinds, and various surgeries. These tests and treatments may all have their temporary place for the right person at an appropriate time. However, what is missed is the education and understanding on the part of the patient, the public generally, and doctors and health care providers of all types who deal with musculoskeletal (muscle, bone, joint, and nerve) complaints and problems, that the muscles, ligaments, and joints of the body need to be put through a full range of motion on a regular basis, preferably at least daily.
We have a megabillion and perhaps multitrillion dollar musculoskeletal healthcare cost in this country, much of which is related to this concept. Patients in droves are being led to believe that their muscle and joint pains are explained by these technical labels which carry the connotation of “it’s damaged”. But the patient’s symptoms very often have absolutely nothing to do with these labels. Because these frightening sounding labels are used and thrown about quite a bit…and because surgeons have conditioned primary care doctors to get MRIs and other studies on patients to validate surgery prior to their visit to the surgeon so that the visit will not be a waste of his time…and because MRI is often jumped to prior to receiving appropriate therapy mobilization treatment…and because the muscle and joint pain and stiffness may persist for months before resolution with proper motion treatment…and because the patients are in pain, are afraid, and trust those experts in the scrub outfits and white coats who are telling them what to do…for all these reasons many patients accept these labels as the source of their pain. And because the labels themselves make it sound like something needs to be fixed, many readily undergo surgery. Many of these patients will then have problems like those patients with “failed back surgery syndrome”.
Rates of “failed back surgery” have been reported as high as twenty to fifty percent. I don’t think any other product or business could survive with such a high failure rate. However, surgery is being performed all the time, based primarily on MRI labels without good clinical evaluation and judgement, and without also understanding how soul pain and life stress can result in temporary muscle and joint symptoms mimicking these same diagnoses.
For those patients who don’t require surgery to get symptomatic relief, but unknowingly undergo surgery, some will get postoperative physical therapy. If they are treated by a good and caring therapist, they will finally get some warm therapeutic human interaction, which often is lacking up to that point. And they may also receive the much needed muscle and joint motion therapy through which they may finally achieve pain relief and recovery…but through which if done earlier on, with respect for healing over time, and avoidance of more aggressive treatment such as surgery, they might have recovered without surgery.
The STRETCHING FOR PAIN RELIEF routine is a powerful yet simple tool to help avoid getting into this mess. When performed on a daily basis the STRETCHING FOR PAIN RELIEF routine will help you maintain or increase your muscle and joint motion, will help keep your muscles and joints healthy, will help you avoid and prevent or overcome pain, and will help you detect when you may be experiencing a new problem associated with pain or loss of motion. Take this most important step in taking control of your muscle and joint health by learning and practicing the STRETCHING FOR PAIN RELIEF routine, your simplest, best and most effective tool for muscle and joint health with maintenance, prevention, therapeutic, and diagnostic healing properties.