Healing Back Pain: The Mind-Body Connection pot

[...]... disability THE CHARACTER OF ONSET The Acute Attack Perhaps the most common, and undoubtedly the most frightening, 14 Healing Back Pain manifestation of TMS is the acute attack It usually comes out of the blue and the pain is often excruciating, as described in the case of the young man above The most common location for these attacks is the low back, involving the lumbar (small of the back) muscles, the buttock... of the back: the outer aspect of both buttocks (and sometimes to the entire buttock), the muscles in the lumbar area and both upper trapezius (shoulder) muscles This consistent pattern is important because it supports the hypothesis that the pain syndrome The Manifestations of TMS 7 originates in the brain rather than in some structural abnormality of the spine or incompetence of the muscle Nerve The. .. in the family or a financial crisis They are physically fine as they live through the trouble, but one or two weeks after it’s all over they have an attack of back pain, either acute or slow onset It seems as though they 18 Healing Back Pain rise to the occasion and do whatever they have to do to deal with the trouble, but once it’s over the accumulated anxiety threatens to overwhelm them, and so the. .. susceptible to TMS are those in the 6 Healing Back Pain back of the neck, the entire back, and the buttocks, known collectively as postural muscles They are so named because they maintain the correct posture of the head and trunk and contribute to the effective use of the arms Postural muscles have a higher proportion of “slow twitch” muscle fibers than limb muscles, making them more efficient for endurance... The pain is usually in the side of the neck and the top of the shoulder, in the upper trapezius muscle TMS can occur anywhere else in the back, between the shoulders and low back, but does so far less frequently than in the two areas mentioned Generally a patient will complain of pain in one of these prime areas, as, for example, in the left buttock or the right shoulder, but the physical examination... one considers the nature of TMS Despite the perception of injury, patients are not injured The physical occurrence has given the brain the opportunity to begin an attack of TMS There is another reason to doubt the role of injury in these attacks of back pain One of the most powerful systems that has evolved over the millions of years of life on this planet is the biologic capacity for healing, for restoration... that they almost always have an attack of pain when they are on vacation, or if they already have pain that it gets worse on weekends For some the reason is obvious They are very anxious about their work or business when they are away from it It’s a bit like the delayed reaction; as long as they are on the job they may be “burning up” the anxiety but when they are away from it, supposedly relaxing, the. .. of them Whether or not this is the reason why TMS is restricted to this group of muscles we do not know It is possible, though, since the muscles most frequently involved have the most important jobs These are the buttock muscles, known anatomically as gluteal muscles Their job is to keep the trunk upright on the legs, to prevent it from falling forward or to either side Statistically, the low back buttock... getting married or the birth of a child I have had a number of highly competitive people whose pain began in the course of athletic competition, like a tennis match Naturally, they assumed The Manifestations of TMS 17 that they had “hurt” themselves When they realized they had TMS, they admitted how very anxious they had been about the competition It is not the occasion itself but the degree of anxiety... knee pain are chondromalacia, unstable knee cap and trauma However, the examination discloses that there is tenderness of one or more of the tendons and ligaments surrounding the knee joint and the pain usually disappears along with the back pain Another common place is the foot and ankle, either the top or bottom of the foot, or the Achilles tendon Common foot diagnoses are neuroma, bone spur, plantar . conditioning contributes to ongoing back pain. Be intimidated by back pain. You have the power to overcome it. HEALING BACK PAIN Using the actual case histories. sure what these regimens were supposed to do but they seemed to help in some cases. It was said that the exercise strengthened the abdominal and back muscles