Wellness 4 Life

How to Use a Posture Pump to Gently Stretch your Neck

Here is an effective cervical traction unit called the posture pump that I have recommended to many patients. Its called the arc4life posture pump:

The posture pump cervical traction device works to alleviate neck and shoulder pain. If you have been diagnosed with a disc issue such as disc bulge, stenosis or herniation and are looking for an alternative to neck surgery, you may want to explore this device.It can help to alleviate symptoms such as neck pain, muscle spasms, numbness, radiation into the fingers/hands, tingling sensation. One caveat - you may have soreness after you use this type of neck stretcher. Start very slowly - maybe you only traction your neck for 1-2 minutes the first day, and work up from there. You can avoid extra soreness by making sure you warm up your neck and shoulder muscles before starting. You will think its uncomfortable right in the beginning, but that will all change as your symptoms slowly start to dissipate. Dr. Bellinger mentions this in the video above.

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Next Time You have Lower Back Pain, Your First Stop Shouldn't be the Medicine Cabinet...

 Lower Back Pain is the worst. It affects everything you do in  your daily life. Simple acts like brushing your teeth, putting your clothes on, even sitting can be difficult. For so many Americans, the first step in resolving this pain is often the medicine cabinet. Its the quick fix that takes 5 seconds. They reach for the ibuprofen or a muscle relaxant. 

However, new guidelines on how to deal with lower back pain have recently come out - and it's kinda huge. As a chiropractor myself, its huge. Its a shift in thinking really. The American College of Physicians (ACP), recommends avoiding pills and using other modalities such as massage, heat, acupuncture, exercise, yoga or physical therapy as the primary approach to patients with pain in the lower back that lasts less than 12 weeks' duration.

We all know that all Low Back Pain is not the Same. The ACP is talking specifically about pain that lasts less than 12 weeks in duration (approx 4 months). They emphasize that most cases of low back pain will go away on their own. Here are their new recommendations on how to treat this pain:

• Exercise
• Stay Active
• Light Stretching
• Be Patient

Let's add to this: Chiropractic, Acupuncture, Massage, Yoga are other great treatments that will treat this kind of lower back pain. 

For years and years Dr's have been overprescribing medications for mild cases of lower back pain.Not only are there dangerous long term side effects but drugs taken with other drugs can be deadly as well. "These important new guidelines will help clinicians better manage their patients with chronic pain and give them safer alternatives to use than opioids and NSAIDS," said Rich Able, partner and chief strategy officer at Intuitive IP, a life science company exploring targeted innovations to improve the lives of patients and delivery of healthcare. “ The overprescribing and over-reliance on opiates and NSAIDS has destroyed millions of lives and has had a tremendous causal effect on the skyrocketing rates of drug overdose and sudden death in America.” These guidelines are not intended for patients with with low back pain that radiates down one or both legs, associated with weakness, tingling or any associated fever, or fecal or urinary incontinence. This type of lower back pain needs urgent management by a healthcare practitioner.

 

 

Source:  If You Have Lower Back Pain, Don't Reach For A Pill