Reinventing
the wheel (and backpain)
The legend of how Osteopathy was
discovered by our founder Dr. Andrew Taylor Still was one day, Dr. Still had a
headache. To have a rest, he put his head on the seat of a swing,
attached to a tree. When he awoke, his
headache was gone. Thus, the seeds of
Osteopathy were planted on how the body can heal itself naturally. Almost
150 years later, I should be sitting here writing this in pain. Yesterday afternoon, I felt the sudden onset
of low back pain, mainly on my right side, fortunately with no referral pain
down my leg. Into the evening, my back seemed to get tighter and this
morning it was affecting my daily activities like putting on my socks and
getting into and out of my car. Sneezing
did not aggravate the pain, and I wondered if Mother Nature was helping me
diagnose my mechanical lower back pain.
Having treated many patients with
similar symptoms, and usually being their last resort after they had suffered
for weeks or months, I was worried that this was only the start of my back
pain. Would muscle guarding lead to increased muscle tension? Would chronic muscle tightness lead to nerve
irritation? This was a slippery slope
but fortunately, Osteopathy has taught me how to treat people’s bodies, but now
I needed to treat myself. As Osteopaths, we know that the body is capable
of self-healing, so I thought some rest would help, similar to that day our
founder had a headache. However, after a
short nap on my couch, when I awoke, I could still feel the tightness in my
back. So I had an epiphany, to speed up
my self-healing, what Osteopathic techniques could I use on myself? As I
soon realized, treating patients with back pain is sometimes easier than
treating myself. Many techniques, like
adjustments, muscle energy, even massage were harder to do on myself.
So I tried Counterstrain. By
sitting upright, I could use more angles and leverage than laying on my back or
side. Since it was my back being tight, I thought of the different
muscles who function to extend, sidebend and rotate. Then, I thought if
they are too tight, then how to shorten them.
Thus, by sitting upright, I was able to angle my body backwards, rotate
and sidebend into the tight muscles. I could feel like a good pinching of
the muscles; almost sour, like sucking on a lemon, kind of feeling in my
muscles on the right. Then I held that
position, just letting my body relax into it. After a few moments, in my
mind I remember my textbooks recommending about 90 seconds, I straightened my
body slowly and was relieved that my back was feeling about 50% better, with
increased range of movement without the feeling of tightness like before.
Similar to heat packs and ice therapy, Counterstrain has minimal side
effects so I thought I would try it again.
To pass the time, I watched some music videos on YouTube on my mobile
phone. My Osteopathic Treatments are
about 60 minutes so I thought I could watch 10-15 videos with this easy
technique if I am the patient here. Fortunately, after a few more videos,
my back was feeling good enough for me to go wash my car. I am still aware it is not 100% again, so it
will be interesting in the next day or two, to see how the body can more
quickly heal rather than suffer weeks or months like some patients.
Thus, this new experience with back
pain has taught me to be more empathetic on how my patients feel and how back
pain can affect our daily activities. I have read studies that back pain
may affect 4 out of 5 people in their lifetime, and how sitting is like the new
heart attack. Sitting can aggravate back
pain and is linked to heart disease. This experience has taught me as
Osteopaths we have the techniques to help, naturally and quickly. So no need to reinvent the wheel because I am
grateful for Osteopathy and thankful to our founder Dr. Still for finding a way
to help headaches and today, I personally felt how Osteopathy can help back
pain. I can only imagine how YouTube might have helped Dr. Still as well.
So if you are having back pain, or
headaches, shoulder pain, leg cramps, nerve irritation or sports injuries,
please contact your local Osteopathic Practitioner.
Dickson Wong
Osteopathic Practitioner
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