Sailing and Syatica...

[KellysEye]

Another thought, one thing I do if I have a sore back is to bend over to touch my toes bending over a little distance at first and slowly going further down until the pain stops.

 

[Habebty]

Chiropractor - complete and utter waste of time and money. The exercises the NHS physio set me did a lot more good.

 

[johnalison]

Another thought, one thing I do if I have a sore back is to bend over to touch my toes bending over a little distance at first and slowly going further down until the pain stops.

The exercise I was given was similar but the instruction was to start bending from the neck, and then progressively down the spine. I find it rather too arduous and have postponed doing it for a while.

 

[Steve Clayton]

Just one of our testimonials:
thank you very much for the gel, i must admit i was very very sceptical about your claims so i thought to myself what do i have to lose give it a chance, similar products did nothing. I have been suffering sciatic pain in my leg for well over 3 months now coming from my back and hip and after having expensive physio treatment nothing has progressed so both doctor and physiotherapist have both agreed that further investigation is required i.e, MRI scan. Having received your Pain gel within 4 days the sciatic pain in my lower leg has now gone, this was the most annoying one. The niggling part is now my lower back that i know is damaged and i will continue to use your gel until such times that i feel more comfortable or whatever happens. Scan can take up to 2 months for appointments. I do know believe that the relief i have been given has been through the use of Spanish Aloe vera gel from yourselves. I have taken the liberty of ordering some more gel, hope this is okay if not please advise myself and i will correct it immediately. Once again thank you very much for your time.

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[Supine Being]

Steve, sciatica is caused by pressure on the sciatic nerve by the spine. Your gel may act against the pain but it will do nothing to treat the root cause. Frankly, I'd be amazed if magic cactus juice can be shown to do anything at all beyond placebo.

 

[TimfromMersea]

I had the same problem. Two things cured it:-

1) Hermann Miller Mirra chair at work (http://www.hermanmiller.co.uk/products/seating/performance-work-chairs/mirra-chairs.html) (it's a Health and Safety issue, I told them......)

2) adding a normal size keyboard and screen to my laptop that I use at the office

 

[davidpbo]

I mentioned to a friend this morning that I was unable to work at the moment because of back, shoulder and arm problems. He spent 1.5 hours extolling the virtues of Chinese Medicine and acupuncture.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I have a congenital narrowing of the spinal canal in the lumbar region. No problem most of the time, but I had a bad session a few years ago, with one episode (when I was flying home from Antarctica!) really nasty - barely able to move.

All the advice about good posture and physiotherapy is to be taken VERY seriously. I'd also advise that you take advice about lifting and bending very seriously as well - it was an awkward heavy lift that set me off last time. However, one thing that is very helpful in my case is to take Ibuprofen as an anti-inflammatory drug. For me - and it may be different if you have an prolapsed disc - the thing that prolongs the problem is inflammation, so reducing the inflammation ASAP is helpful to get a rapid improvement.

The thing to watch out for is not just pain, but loss of movement, which might not be apparent to you; your body is pretty good at compensating for reduced mobility or strength. But the loss of movement is actually a more serious symptom than the pain.

 

[johnalison]

For me - and it may be different if you have an prolapsed disc - the thing that prolongs the problem is inflammation, so reducing the inflammation ASAP is helpful to get a rapid improvement.

The thing to watch out for is not just pain, but loss of movement, which might not be apparent to you; your body is pretty good at compensating for reduced mobility or strength. But the loss of movement is actually a more serious symptom than the pain.

I am sceptical about your claim for anti-inflammatories. Inflammation is part of the body's defence against injury, enforcing rest in many cases, and interference with this process may be counter-productive. I don't know about spines but there have been trials suggesting that such as Ibuprofen delay recovery in sprained ankles. Ibuprofen can be a useful pain-killer but I would not be hoping for anything more.

I don't understand your proposition about loss of movement. If temporary, a general loss of range is to be expected. People with specific problems, such a a disc lesion may well show an asymmetrical loss of movement which can be useful diagnostically, but it is hard to equate the degree of stiffness with the likely seriousness or duration of the condition. What can be serious is any indication that might suggest possible damage to the nerves to the bowel or bladder. Although not especially common, numbness in the sit-upon area or change in bladder or bowel function should be treated as urgent or even as an emergency.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I am sceptical about your claim for anti-inflammatories. Inflammation is part of the body's defence against injury, enforcing rest in many cases, and interference with this process may be counter-productive. I don't know about spines but there have been trials suggesting that such as Ibuprofen delay recovery in sprained ankles. Ibuprofen can be a useful pain-killer but I would not be hoping for anything more.

I don't understand your proposition about loss of movement. If temporary, a general loss of range is to be expected. People with specific problems, such a a disc lesion may well show an asymmetrical loss of movement which can be useful diagnostically, but it is hard to equate the degree of stiffness with the likely seriousness or duration of the condition. What can be serious is any indication that might suggest possible damage to the nerves to the bowel or bladder. Although not especially common, numbness in the sit-upon area or change in bladder or bowel function should be treated as urgent or even as an emergency.

In my case, the root problem is inflammation caused by a narrow passage for the spinal cord; no inflammation = no problem. I fully accept that this is probably not the case for the majority of sciatica sufferers. However, in my case, Ibuprofen usually gives rapid(ish) relief and the pain does not recur. The doctors in my case recommended anti-inflammatory medications.

The initial diagnosis by the GP was that I had a prolapsed disc; various imaging techniques showed that this was not the case. There was no surgical intervention indicated, as surgical correction of the narrow passage was regarded as too risky.

I may not be expressing myself well about the loss of movement. The tests the doctor carried out were to ask me to push my foot against her hand in various directions; it was rapidly apparent that I couldn't exert any force in certain directions on one side. The doctor certainly regarded this as more significant than the pain I was suffering! And it took a long time to recover from; perhaps 6 months to a year.

Of course, I write only from the POV of a patient, and may well have misunderstood some of the doctors' explanations.

 

[johnalison]

You are describing muscle power, which indeed can be an indication of nerve function. In my simple mind, movement = range of movement! hence the confusion.

Inflammation can be a factor in several back conditions and it is often the inflammatory swelling around a prolapsed disc that is responsible for much of the pressure, which is why steroid injection via epidural can be used to reduce the swelling. I just doubt that NSAIDs have much effect in this way.

 

[onesea]

Well for me I think my back is ok again...

Lack of movement oh yeah touching my toes that's just a dream... I bend forward and try as instructed gently, I do the exercises. I take the Ibuprofen, paracetamol, deep heat hot water bottles ice and various other prescription drugs to ease the pain.
I have taken more drugs in the last 3 months than I have in the rest of my life put together.

After advice from here I am off to see an Osteopath tomorrow to see if he has any bright ideas (although he seemed to doubt it but happy to take my money) and am sorting a referral for a scan...

Aloe Vera you say is it expensive?

I got a PM suggesting "herbal" smokes, I would love to try as I have had fond memories but work likes Drug & Alcohol tests so in the long term its a bad idea..

Latest toy I have manged to get some usage of is a hot tub and that can bring some interesting changes, muscles stop spasuming and then I get a different "mellow" but slowly increasing pain but increased flexibility for a whilst after... If you crank it up to 40 degrees its great you just feel nothing and start looking like a lobster so have to bail before to long.

Alcohol does not work that well unless taken in stupendous quantities and industrial strengths and that's just not sustainable.

 

[Babylon]

On the whole, my back problems tend to improve when I am afloat

I find the same. A small boat at sea is in constant movement, so one's whole body is in constant (usually gentle) movement, which is very good for it.

Conversely, working long and stressful hours by sitting at a desk and/or driving med/long distances confined in a car seat are disasterous things to do to one's body, which didn't evolve for these scenarios.

One other thing. I decided to smoke cigarettes again two years ago (and have since stopped again). In that period - one of the most stressful times of my life - I suffered two episodes of my lower back locking up and reducing me to howling pain. A daily cocktail of ibuprofen, paracaetemol and codine eased things so I could function - albeit in a pharmaceutical haze - but moderate exercise, and ultimately sailing, completely cured it again.

Stop stressing, stop sitting at work, go sailing.