90% of American Adults Experience Back Pain
Jul 24, 2008
Esther Gokhale, L.Ac., (Go-clay), pain expert and posture specialist, is the author of 8 Steps to a Pain-Free Back . Gokhale has been involved in integrative therapies all her life. As a young girl growing up in India, she helped her mother, a registered nurse, treat abandoned babies waiting to be adopted. This early interest in healing led her to study biochemistry at Harvard and Princeton and later, acupuncture at the San Francisco School of Oriental Medicine. She is the founder of the Esther Gokhale Wellness Center in Palo Alto, CA. Her course Gokhale Method 101 consists of six sessions that alter the way people use their bodies. Gokhale speaks her message that a pain-free life is possible at corporations, medical centers, and conventions.
I discovered the power of posture after bad posture and injury had me in constant pain in my 20’s. A variety of treatments including surgery did little to help, but I finally found relief when I discovered Aplomb®, a French posture system based on the movements and knowledge of people from traditional cultures. Not only was I living without pain, I discovered that good posture gave me more energy, and helped me move with greater ease and strength. I was inspired to travel extensively over the next two decades, studying the posture of traditional cultures from India to Brazil to Burkina Faso, and figuring out how best to teach natural posture to people in our culture.
Most people in our society suffer from compression of the spine, which may be due to tight back muscles, weak abdominal muscles, or poor alignment habits. It can hurt in several ways. Compression of the discs results in degenerative disc disease; compression of the vertebrae results in arthritic bone spurs; and compression of the spinal nerves results in pain, numbness, tingling or muscle atrophy. Fortunately, it is easy to reverse this compression. Stretchsitting and stretchlying are two techniques that are easy to learn, take only seconds to implement, and give hours of gentle therapeutic traction over the course of a day. After a few weeks of de-compression, most of my students actually grow taller, adding up to an inch in height!
Stretchsitting consists of elongating the torso against the backrest of a chair, thus transforming sitting from an activity that compresses and compromises the spine into one that stretches and heals the spine.
Stretchlying is similarly transformative. By digging your elbows into the bed and laying one vertebra down at a time, each one as far as possible from the previous one, you create extra length in your spine as you sleep.
Just from these two techniques, many people report freedom from back pain even after decades of problems. If you have suffered back pain or other musculoskeletal problems, do not assume that your pain is a natural part of life, or aging, or a stressful sedentary lifestyle. Our bodies are marvelously designed to support us into old age, no matter that we are stressed, that we sit to make our livings, or are a little heavier or taller than average. With the right guidelines and very little training, almost all of us can experience freedom from pain and discomfort.
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