Scenar for Back Pain, Joints and
Muscles
With back pain, or painful joints or muscles, save yourself a
lot of time, money, and suffering: try Scenar, even just once -- it is simply one of the best treatments
available for back pain and other musculoskeletal
issues.
Scenar is based on similar principles to acupuncture and
other zonal therapies, and is at least as effective in treating back pain. In additon
to releasing cascades
of
natural pain-killing peptides, part of the
Scenar process is that it helps to relax, re-educate and re-align muscles,
ligaments,
joints and trapped nerves. Scenar helps the body to make its own
adjustments, and in releasing back pain this is
clearly essential.
This section is not designed to help
you diagnose your own back pain. You need to see a doctor for that. Please note that some back pain,
particularly in the upper part of the back, can be due to more serious causes such as cardiovascular
problems, so make sure you see your doctor for a diagnosis. Rather, it is meant to help you understand
the range of factors that may be involved (many of my chronic back pain clients have been desperate to
pin down a single cause, when it's more likely to be several), and to give you some ideas
on how to support the Scenar treatment and prevent further
recurrences.
New, Acute Back Pain
This is much
easier to describe, understand and treat. The pain comes on suddenly while doing some activity that may be
enough in itself or may trigger one of the chronic back pain factors mentioned below. Some of the most common
are:
-
Back pain from heavy lifting or
carrying: one of the most serious causes of back pain in that this is more likely than
most other factors to cause real damage to soft tissues or even the
spine. Can affect any part of the back but especially the lumbar
region.
-
Back pain from prolongued poor
posture: slouching in a chair, driving for a long time without a break, standing
up for long periods sets up a temporary misalignment in
muscles.
-
Back pain from over-stretching: twisting,
bending, reaching, stretching awkwardly sets up a temporary misalignment in
muscles.
- Back pain from respiratory conditions: violent
coughing causes spasms in the back muscles, which become temporarily misaligned. (It is particularly
important with thoracic back pain linked to chest discomfort to get a doctor's
diagnosis).
-
Back pain from major injuries: falls, car
crashes, contact or extreme sports
injuries and industrial accidents can all cause major
back problems. Scenar can help in most situations, but how it helps depends on the severity
of the damage, which may first necessitate various orthopedic
interventions.
Acute back pain is usually the easiest type to treat, and,
depending on whether any long-term damage has been done, one or two Scenar treatments may be
sufficient.
Old, Chronic Back Pain
Any of the above factors can be involved, but
the back is such a complex collection of bones, muscles, joints and nerves that it's notoriously difficult to
pin down the causes of any one case of back pain. So this is just an explanation of some of the most
common factors, and of how Scenar treatment may
help.
Every bone, joint and tendon in the body is
connected to all the others through the fascial network surrounding them, and via the propriocetive
nerve impulses connecting all of them to the brain. The root cause of most back pain -- muscle tension and
mis-alignment -- appears to build up from a collection of inter-locking factors, different in each
person: old injuries, years of poor posture, the angle the feet meet the ground, incorrect spinal
curvature, being overweight, pregnancy, driving for long periods, bad and insufficient sleep, poor bed
mattresses, respiratory conditions, bad workplace ergonomics, and type of work. These causes of
back pain can be massively exacerbated by a cycle of emotional stress, in which the stress and back pain
reinforce each
other.
Most chronic musculo-skeletal pain,
particularly back pain, stems from an imbalance in the muscles around the joints. When a muscle becomes
injured or stressed, the sensors inside it, which are constantly sending signals to the brain, stop
working properly. The brain then gets a bit scrambled and sends the wrong signals back to the
muscles, either:
- Too many
signals, resulting in a tight, shortened muscle. No amount of stretching exercises will keep it elongated
because the excess nerve messages will send the muscle back to its shortened state. To treat this
cause of back pain requires loosening and elongating the
muscle.
- Or not
enough signals, resulting in a weak, lengthened muscle. Again, the continuing impulses from
the brain ensure that no amount of resistance exercise will help the muscle to regain
its normal strength. This type of back pain requires tightening and tonifying the
muscle.
When
one side has been injured or gone weak, the same muscles on the other side will try to compensate, resulting
in further scrambling of the messages to and from the brain. Some acute back pain may already be
felt. This process undermines the overall integrity of the body's kinetic chain, as chronic weak
links appear. A problem in your lower back may cause a problem in your hips or your knees. Now what
started as fairly routine back pain is complicated by referred pain and described as sciatica
or radiculopathy.
Scenar's approach to back pain is to "re-boot
the computer". By stimulating the central nervous system, it helps to re-set the signals between the
brain and the muscles, which then cascades into the balance between the two sides of the body, and the
balance between different limbs or sections of the body. As these nerve signals are
normalised, the strength and length of the muscles is naturally restored, joints return to natural functions
with less deterioration, and inflammation and pain are
removed.
Without Scenar, or some other kind of
intervention that re-sets the malfunctioning neurology, any amount of kneading, pulling, twisting, and
bone-crunching will often do little more than temporarily alleviate the back pain and restore
limited function, without addressing the real, underlying causes of the
problem.
An epidemic of back pain
One in three adults in the U.K. suffers from back pain, and
about 2.6 million visits are made to GP's every year for treatment, and it is estimated to cost the National
Health Service £1.5 billion per
year.
A 2013 report by the U.K.'s Work Foundation think-tank
found that the British now take 15 million days off per year due to back pain, the second worst in
Europe after Germany. It forecast that many EU states will see half the population diagnosed wth back
pain by 2030 (not too suprising given the UK government's 2013 forecast that with obesity rates
soaring, three quarters of the U.K. adult population will have a major lifestyle disease by 2030). It
further suggested that absence rates across Europe could be greatly cut if early intervention became the
norm, which would greatly increase productivity and therefore economic growth. Unfortunately, it
said, doctors are not taking back pain seriously enough due it not being life
threatening.
Another recent survey by market research company ICM found
that 98% of manual workers have struggled into work while suffering with back pain. More than half of
all workers in plumbing, carpentry and other building trades said they forced themselves to keep working
due to worries about losing jobs or income, and nearly half did not tell their boss or
colleagues.
Another recent report by the UK's National Institute for
Health and Clinical Excellence
(NICE) said that 9 to 10
acupuncture or chiropractic sessions was the most effective
remedy for chronic lower back pain. Scenar is at least as
effective, but would have been too unfamiliar for them to recommend.
NICE also said doctors
should refrain from referring back pain patients for X-rays,
ultrasound and MRI scans, unless absolutely
necessary.
Many of the people I've treated with Scenar for simple neck
pain and back ache have seen a complete removal of pain in just a few
sessions. I've also had excellent
results, using a full course of treatments, with more chronic forms of
back pain such
as herniated discs and the referred pain of sciatica and
radiculopathy.
![Scenar Three Pathways Scenar Three Pathways](../images/3p6p_diagram.jpg)
In most courses of Scenar therapy, whatever the
condition, treating the back is central to everything, especially
the
"Three Pathways and Six Points protocol" shown above. This
gives us readings from the entire central nervous system, and through the back, we give what
amounts to a whole-body MOT and tune-up. Although the objective is wider than just back pain,
this general treatment is often enough on its own to remove simple back pain in just a
few treatments.
Some back pain just goes away temporarily without
treatment, but the factors that created it usually don't. If it's left until enough damage has happened for
strong drugs and surgery to be prescribed, the condition is already moving towards becoming a chronic
problem, or even
disability.
If you have recurring or continuous back pain, it
makes a lot of sense to deal with it now. Scenar can be effective at virtually any stage, but think of how
much pain, suffering and expense can be avoided through early
intervention.
Please note that these pages are for general information and not in any way intended to
help you diagnose a medical condition. You should first seek a diagnosis from a doctor, and, if you decide to
try Scenar therapy, work with your doctor in assessing the progress of the condition and the dosage of any
drugs you may be taking.
About the author: Paul Lowe has Scenar practices in Central London
and near Brighton in Sussex. He tackles many issues including back pain and joints (slipped disc,
sciatica, rheumatoid and osteo arthritis, frozen shoulder, carpal tunnel, RSI), neurological (migraines, IBS,
TMJ, RSD, fibromyalgia), burns, wounds and sports injuries. He also helps a wide range of other health
issues using a variety of specialist
therapies.
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