From Family.Gather.ComHow Naturopathy Treatment Is Used For Back Pain
More good stuff, I think.
For many individuals living with daily back pain, naturopathy treatment has become a viable alternative to conventional measures in providing relief. The base concept of naturopathy is to utilize the body's ability to heal itself by promoting common-sense curative practices designed to heal from within. It is also quite common for practitioners of naturopathy to incorporate conventional measures into a wellness plan, using the best of both disciplines with a patient's best interest at heart. While extensive studies of the benefits of naturopathy are lacking in large numbers, patients who have been helped by it's use swear by the positive features of it's practice.
Naturopathy as used for back pain can use one singular method of treatment or a combination of many, including some non-invasive conventional measures. Acupuncture, relaxation therapy exercises, massage, reflexology, diet advice and lifestyle counseling all fall within the general parameters of naturopathy, with each serving a designated purpose in addressing back pain. A Doctor of Naturopathy may recommend manipulation, herbal treatments or simple exercise in enabling an individual to become their own greatest benefactor in the healing process. In naturopathy, treatment for back pain tends to address causes for the presentation of pain rather than the treatment of symptoms. In this manner naturopathy can prevent future incidents simply through the removal of the root cause of the patient's back pain.
A Doctor of Naturopathy utilizes many of the same diagnostic tools used in conventional medicine such as x-rays and MRI's, however the approach used in treatment is quite different. In naturopathy, back pain may be treated by something as simple as massage and changes in diet and lifestyle, while it may be recommended to the same patient by a a doctor of conventional medicine that surgery is required. While each doctor may present a valid case for their recommendations, the final treatment option lies with the patient suffering back pain. In it's truest sense, naturopathy always stays away from extreme or invasive measures such as surgery, radiation or strong medications that present possible difficulties with side-effects. In their place, naturopathy looks at a combination of often minor adjustments to overall lifestyle that can have a large cumulative impact of stopping back pain by enabling the body to correct itself.
Unfortunately, the practice of naturopathy to treat back pain is limited to a certain extent to those who are open-minded enough personally to attempt something different from the norm. This is also apparent in the fact that many if not most major health insurance carriers do not recognize or pay for naturopathic treatments.
Sunday 15 November 2009
Alternative medicene is becomong mainstream.
From the Los Angekes Times
I have always thpught in terms of complementary, rather than alternative, still, have a read.
Alternative medicine is becoming mainstream
Many Americans are choosing to treat themselves using nontraditional methods, but to what end?
Leon Wittman tweaked his shoulder in 1994 while attempting to keep his basement from flooding during a thunderstorm by scooping water out of a window well with a bucket.
His left arm began to ache. He realized about a year later that he rarely used it anymore and could no longer comfortably sleep on that side. A physician said the only cure was surgery.
Wittman and his wife Charlene have always shied away from physicians, preferring to "maintain a good attitude, drink lots of water and figure things out on our own," as he puts it. And so he opted instead to try a pain relief supplement that included acetaminophen, alfalfa, cramp bark and valerian root -- which, he says, improved his shoulder within a month. The Shawnee, Kan., man now takes a glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM supplement.
Many Americans like Wittman choose to treat themselves with complementary and alternative medicine in lieu of surgery, pharmaceuticals or other traditional care. Their numbers have been steadily climbing over the last decade. According to a July study from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, based on interviews with more than 23,300 adults during the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, almost 40% of adults use some form of complementary and alternative medicine to treat a variety of conditions.
They spent about $33.9 billion on these practices in 2007, accounting for about 11.2% of the public's total out-of-pocket health expenditures. In 1997, the last time such a survey was taken, the figure was $27 billion.
"Whatever this amount of the population is doing is no longer fringe," says Dr. Tracy Gaudet, executive director of Duke Integrative Medicine, part of the Duke University Health System. "We have to figure out what they are looking for that they can't find in conventional medicine."
Medicine outside the mainstream goes by many names -- naturopathy, complementary, alternative and integrative medicine -- partly because its umbrella covers almost any practice or product that is not generally taught in medical school or offered by traditional medical doctors. It encompasses a broad array of practices: crystal gazing, drinking green smoothies, taking fish oil, practicing yoga.
Alternative therapies are used most commonly to treat conditions such as back, joint and arthritis pain, colds and depression. The new study found the most popular therapies to be natural products, deep breathing, meditation, chiropractic and massage.
Self-care, at $22 billion, accounted for the majority of spending, mostly on nonvitamin, nonmineral, natural products. The most popular supplements are fish oil, glucosamine, echinacea and flaxseed. Americans spent $4 billion on yoga, tai chi and qigong classes, and $2.9 billion on homeopathic medicine.
The survey found that visits to practitioners overall have decreased by about 50% since 1997, with the biggest drop seen by providers of energy healing and relaxation techniques. An exception was acupuncture, whose providers saw a threefold increase from 1997 to 2007.
For years, there has been a false assumption that users are anti-establishment and alternative types who choose it over conventional treatments -- but the data suggests otherwise, complementary medicine experts say. Dr. Mimi Guarneri, medical director of Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in La Jolla, says that these are regular people who want more help staying well.
"The good news about Western medicine is that it responds well in an acute setting -- if they have a heart attack, stroke or are hit by a car," she says. "When you look at other healing traditions, prevention is the first step, treatment is the last step."
But the trend worries many medical experts, although they acknowledge that some alternative therapies seem useful -- acupuncture for treating back pain, for example, and exercise and dietary changes for better regulation of blood sugar.
A 2008 study in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings found, for example, that patients who exercised, ate a low-fat diet and took fish oil and red yeast rice supplements over a three-month period reduced their bad, or LDL, cholesterol by 42%. A group taking the cholesterol medication Zocor saw a 39% LDL reduction.
But many more of the therapies are unproven or untested. Echinacea, ginko biloba and shark cartilage all came up ineffective in recent studies. A June Associated Press article highlighted the fact that after 10 years and $2.5 billion in research, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has not found any alternative medicine that works, save patients taking ginger for chemotherapy-induced nausea and limited uses for acupuncture, yoga, massage and relaxation techniques such as meditation.
Almost $3 billion is spent annually on homeopathic medicine, for example, but there is no hard evidence to show that it is effective. The treatment, which is based on the theory that "like cures like," offers patients highly diluted solutions of natural substances that create similar symptoms. (An insomniac, for example, would be given a solution with a small amount of caffeine.) A number of homeopathy's key concepts "are not consistent with the current understanding of science, particularly chemistry and physics," the complementary medicine center notes on its website.
"I think people using alternative medicines are wasting their money and are being fooled into thinking they are getting something that is beneficial for them," says Dr. Jerome Kassirer, distinguished professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Then there's the issue of safety. Herbs and supplements used by alternative health practitioners are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration because they are considered food, not pharmaceuticals. Thus, their purity is not guaranteed. The FDA has identified concerns with some dietary supplements that have been adulterated with drugs, mislabeled or may contain harmful substances including kava, ephedra and comfrey. A listing of alerts is on its website at http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/Alerts/default.htm.
Some supplements -- such as St. John's Wort and ginko biloba -- also are known to interfere with conventional drugs, but many supplement users do not discuss the supplements they take with their doctors.
Gaudet says that medical students at Duke -- who are required as part of training to spend some time "loitering" in health food stores -- find that most consumers get information on how to use supplements from the health food store clerks. And a 2007 study by the complementary center and AARP looking at medical practices of people aged 50 and older found that 63% have used some form of alternative medicine but less than one-third told their doctor.
"There are some of these alternative medicine potions that can be harmful," Kassirer says. "And I think people treat themselves when they should be seeing a doctor, and that can result in a delay in necessary treatment."
Alternative medicine practitioners counter that most of the therapies, even if not effective, are not likely to harm. "I think many herbal remedies are quite gentle compared to strong drugs. . . . They aren't necessarily all safe, but by and large they have gentle effects," Briggs says.
Nor are all the issues unique to complementary medicine, Gaudet says, offering as an example: In many areas of traditional medicine, such as surgery, rigorous trials are rarely completed.
It's also unreasonable to argue that alternative therapies must be studied as thoroughly as a lot of mainstream medical practices, Guarneri says. The research should be as strong as a therapy's potential for risks.
Certainly, a new chemotherapy treatment should be rigorously tested, she says. But "I don't need a 2-million-person double-blind, randomized trial to tell someone to eat blueberries because they are low in sugar and high in antioxidants."
health@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Good news for those of us who believe there is a place for both the men in White Coats, and those of us who just use our hands.
Bye for now
Paul
I have always thpught in terms of complementary, rather than alternative, still, have a read.
Alternative medicine is becoming mainstream
Many Americans are choosing to treat themselves using nontraditional methods, but to what end?
Leon Wittman tweaked his shoulder in 1994 while attempting to keep his basement from flooding during a thunderstorm by scooping water out of a window well with a bucket.
His left arm began to ache. He realized about a year later that he rarely used it anymore and could no longer comfortably sleep on that side. A physician said the only cure was surgery.
Wittman and his wife Charlene have always shied away from physicians, preferring to "maintain a good attitude, drink lots of water and figure things out on our own," as he puts it. And so he opted instead to try a pain relief supplement that included acetaminophen, alfalfa, cramp bark and valerian root -- which, he says, improved his shoulder within a month. The Shawnee, Kan., man now takes a glucosamine, chondroitin and MSM supplement.
Many Americans like Wittman choose to treat themselves with complementary and alternative medicine in lieu of surgery, pharmaceuticals or other traditional care. Their numbers have been steadily climbing over the last decade. According to a July study from the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, based on interviews with more than 23,300 adults during the 2007 National Health Interview Survey, almost 40% of adults use some form of complementary and alternative medicine to treat a variety of conditions.
They spent about $33.9 billion on these practices in 2007, accounting for about 11.2% of the public's total out-of-pocket health expenditures. In 1997, the last time such a survey was taken, the figure was $27 billion.
"Whatever this amount of the population is doing is no longer fringe," says Dr. Tracy Gaudet, executive director of Duke Integrative Medicine, part of the Duke University Health System. "We have to figure out what they are looking for that they can't find in conventional medicine."
Medicine outside the mainstream goes by many names -- naturopathy, complementary, alternative and integrative medicine -- partly because its umbrella covers almost any practice or product that is not generally taught in medical school or offered by traditional medical doctors. It encompasses a broad array of practices: crystal gazing, drinking green smoothies, taking fish oil, practicing yoga.
Alternative therapies are used most commonly to treat conditions such as back, joint and arthritis pain, colds and depression. The new study found the most popular therapies to be natural products, deep breathing, meditation, chiropractic and massage.
Self-care, at $22 billion, accounted for the majority of spending, mostly on nonvitamin, nonmineral, natural products. The most popular supplements are fish oil, glucosamine, echinacea and flaxseed. Americans spent $4 billion on yoga, tai chi and qigong classes, and $2.9 billion on homeopathic medicine.
The survey found that visits to practitioners overall have decreased by about 50% since 1997, with the biggest drop seen by providers of energy healing and relaxation techniques. An exception was acupuncture, whose providers saw a threefold increase from 1997 to 2007.
For years, there has been a false assumption that users are anti-establishment and alternative types who choose it over conventional treatments -- but the data suggests otherwise, complementary medicine experts say. Dr. Mimi Guarneri, medical director of Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine in La Jolla, says that these are regular people who want more help staying well.
"The good news about Western medicine is that it responds well in an acute setting -- if they have a heart attack, stroke or are hit by a car," she says. "When you look at other healing traditions, prevention is the first step, treatment is the last step."
But the trend worries many medical experts, although they acknowledge that some alternative therapies seem useful -- acupuncture for treating back pain, for example, and exercise and dietary changes for better regulation of blood sugar.
A 2008 study in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings found, for example, that patients who exercised, ate a low-fat diet and took fish oil and red yeast rice supplements over a three-month period reduced their bad, or LDL, cholesterol by 42%. A group taking the cholesterol medication Zocor saw a 39% LDL reduction.
But many more of the therapies are unproven or untested. Echinacea, ginko biloba and shark cartilage all came up ineffective in recent studies. A June Associated Press article highlighted the fact that after 10 years and $2.5 billion in research, the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine has not found any alternative medicine that works, save patients taking ginger for chemotherapy-induced nausea and limited uses for acupuncture, yoga, massage and relaxation techniques such as meditation.
Almost $3 billion is spent annually on homeopathic medicine, for example, but there is no hard evidence to show that it is effective. The treatment, which is based on the theory that "like cures like," offers patients highly diluted solutions of natural substances that create similar symptoms. (An insomniac, for example, would be given a solution with a small amount of caffeine.) A number of homeopathy's key concepts "are not consistent with the current understanding of science, particularly chemistry and physics," the complementary medicine center notes on its website.
"I think people using alternative medicines are wasting their money and are being fooled into thinking they are getting something that is beneficial for them," says Dr. Jerome Kassirer, distinguished professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and former editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Then there's the issue of safety. Herbs and supplements used by alternative health practitioners are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration because they are considered food, not pharmaceuticals. Thus, their purity is not guaranteed. The FDA has identified concerns with some dietary supplements that have been adulterated with drugs, mislabeled or may contain harmful substances including kava, ephedra and comfrey. A listing of alerts is on its website at http://www.fda.gov/Food/DietarySupplements/Alerts/default.htm.
Some supplements -- such as St. John's Wort and ginko biloba -- also are known to interfere with conventional drugs, but many supplement users do not discuss the supplements they take with their doctors.
Gaudet says that medical students at Duke -- who are required as part of training to spend some time "loitering" in health food stores -- find that most consumers get information on how to use supplements from the health food store clerks. And a 2007 study by the complementary center and AARP looking at medical practices of people aged 50 and older found that 63% have used some form of alternative medicine but less than one-third told their doctor.
"There are some of these alternative medicine potions that can be harmful," Kassirer says. "And I think people treat themselves when they should be seeing a doctor, and that can result in a delay in necessary treatment."
Alternative medicine practitioners counter that most of the therapies, even if not effective, are not likely to harm. "I think many herbal remedies are quite gentle compared to strong drugs. . . . They aren't necessarily all safe, but by and large they have gentle effects," Briggs says.
Nor are all the issues unique to complementary medicine, Gaudet says, offering as an example: In many areas of traditional medicine, such as surgery, rigorous trials are rarely completed.
It's also unreasonable to argue that alternative therapies must be studied as thoroughly as a lot of mainstream medical practices, Guarneri says. The research should be as strong as a therapy's potential for risks.
Certainly, a new chemotherapy treatment should be rigorously tested, she says. But "I don't need a 2-million-person double-blind, randomized trial to tell someone to eat blueberries because they are low in sugar and high in antioxidants."
health@latimes.com
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times
Good news for those of us who believe there is a place for both the men in White Coats, and those of us who just use our hands.
Bye for now
Paul
Tomatoes and weight loss.
From Redif.com
If you carry extra weight this may cause back pain, if you worry about excess weight, this may also contribute to stress, leading to back pain. Here is a short and sweet answer, possibly, to weight loss.
Move over starving diets and strict exercise regimes -- the key to weight loss could simply be eating lots of tomatoes, experts believe.
According to researchers, the fruit leaves the eater feeling satisfied, and thus suppresses the urge to snack, which is one of a slimmer's main pitfalls, reports The Daily Express.
It is thought that tomatoes are rich in compounds, which alter levels of appetite hormones, making them an easy way to keep off hunger pangs.
To reach the conclusion, researchers at Reading University in London fed 17 women sandwiches made with white bread, bread enriched with carrots or with tomatoes.
The tomato bread proved the most filling, the researchers found.
Project leader Dr Julie Lovegrove said: "We can't yet say what the crucial ingredient is, but the results were statistically significant
I do hope this is informative and helpfull
Best Regards
Paul
If you carry extra weight this may cause back pain, if you worry about excess weight, this may also contribute to stress, leading to back pain. Here is a short and sweet answer, possibly, to weight loss.
Move over starving diets and strict exercise regimes -- the key to weight loss could simply be eating lots of tomatoes, experts believe.
According to researchers, the fruit leaves the eater feeling satisfied, and thus suppresses the urge to snack, which is one of a slimmer's main pitfalls, reports The Daily Express.
It is thought that tomatoes are rich in compounds, which alter levels of appetite hormones, making them an easy way to keep off hunger pangs.
To reach the conclusion, researchers at Reading University in London fed 17 women sandwiches made with white bread, bread enriched with carrots or with tomatoes.
The tomato bread proved the most filling, the researchers found.
Project leader Dr Julie Lovegrove said: "We can't yet say what the crucial ingredient is, but the results were statistically significant
I do hope this is informative and helpfull
Best Regards
Paul
Yoga and back Pain loss
Hello Again
An article from Science Daily, Yoga and its benefits with back pain loss
Researchers Find Yoga May Be Effective For Chronic Low Back Pain In Minority Populations
ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2009) — Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center found that yoga may be more effective than standard treatment for reducing chronic low back pain in minority populations. This study appears in the November issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.
back pain is common in the United States, resulting in substantial disability and cost to society. Individuals from low-income, minority backgrounds with chronic low back pain (CLBP) may be more affected due to disparities in access to treatment. Although many CLBP patients seek relief from complementary therapies such as yoga, use of these approaches are less common among minorities and individuals with lower incomes or less education.
BUSM researchers recruited adults with CLBP from two community health centers that serve racially diverse, low-income neighborhoods of Boston. They were randomly assigned to either a standardized 12-week series of hatha yoga classes or standard treatment including doctor's visits and medications.
As part of the trial, the researchers asked participants to report their average pain intensity for the previous week, how their function is limited due to back pain, and how much pain medication they are taking. The yoga group participated in 12 weekly 75-minute classes that included postures, breathing techniques, and meditation. Classes were taught by a team of registered yoga teachers and were limited to eight participants. Home practice for 30 minutes daily was strongly encouraged. Participants were provided with an audio CD of the class, a handbook describing and depicting the exercises, a yoga mat, strap, and block.
Pain scores for the yoga participants decreased by one-third compared to the control group, which decreased by only 5 percent. Whereas pain medication use in the control group did not change, yoga participants' use of pain medicines decreased by 80 percent. Improvement in function was also greater for yoga participants but was not statistically significant.
"Few studies of complementary therapies have targeted minority populations with low back pain" explained lead author Robert B. Saper, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of family medicine at BUSM and director of integrative medicine at Boston Medical Center. "Our pilot study showed that yoga is well-received in these communities and may be effective for reducing pain and pain medication use," said Saper.
This study was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
More on Yoga as a therapy at www.backpainloss.com
Paul
An article from Science Daily, Yoga and its benefits with back pain loss
Researchers Find Yoga May Be Effective For Chronic Low Back Pain In Minority Populations
ScienceDaily (Nov. 4, 2009) — Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and Boston Medical Center found that yoga may be more effective than standard treatment for reducing chronic low back pain in minority populations. This study appears in the November issue of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine.
back pain is common in the United States, resulting in substantial disability and cost to society. Individuals from low-income, minority backgrounds with chronic low back pain (CLBP) may be more affected due to disparities in access to treatment. Although many CLBP patients seek relief from complementary therapies such as yoga, use of these approaches are less common among minorities and individuals with lower incomes or less education.
BUSM researchers recruited adults with CLBP from two community health centers that serve racially diverse, low-income neighborhoods of Boston. They were randomly assigned to either a standardized 12-week series of hatha yoga classes or standard treatment including doctor's visits and medications.
As part of the trial, the researchers asked participants to report their average pain intensity for the previous week, how their function is limited due to back pain, and how much pain medication they are taking. The yoga group participated in 12 weekly 75-minute classes that included postures, breathing techniques, and meditation. Classes were taught by a team of registered yoga teachers and were limited to eight participants. Home practice for 30 minutes daily was strongly encouraged. Participants were provided with an audio CD of the class, a handbook describing and depicting the exercises, a yoga mat, strap, and block.
Pain scores for the yoga participants decreased by one-third compared to the control group, which decreased by only 5 percent. Whereas pain medication use in the control group did not change, yoga participants' use of pain medicines decreased by 80 percent. Improvement in function was also greater for yoga participants but was not statistically significant.
"Few studies of complementary therapies have targeted minority populations with low back pain" explained lead author Robert B. Saper, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of family medicine at BUSM and director of integrative medicine at Boston Medical Center. "Our pilot study showed that yoga is well-received in these communities and may be effective for reducing pain and pain medication use," said Saper.
This study was funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.
More on Yoga as a therapy at www.backpainloss.com
Paul
No more back pain
Hello
Here is an interesting article from the Montral Gazette
Fitness with Jill Barker
Photograph by: Gazette, GazetteIf you haven’t already, it’s time to remove sit-ups from your exercise routine. A stalwart of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, sit-ups were originally touted as the exercise of choice for whittling excess inches off the waistline. Yet even after spot-reducing was revealed as a myth, sit-ups maintained their popularity as a core strengthener.
Now even that claim has come under scrutiny. The sit-up targets one muscle (the rectus abdominus), which is responsible for bending the spine forward. Yet the body’s midsection, often referred to as the core, is made up of several muscles that not only generate movement in numerous directions but also stabilize the spinal column.
The final myth – the one that claims sit-ups improve back health – has now also been exposed. In fact, some spine experts suggest that sit-ups actually put the spine at risk, making it not only an exercise that has little benefit, but one that may actually do more harm than good.
Leading the pack of experts who think sit-ups don’t live up to their billing is Stuart McGill, a professor of spine mechanics at the University of Waterloo. According to McGill, all that bending of the spine isn’t good for back health.
“Given that the sit-up imposes such a large compression load on the spine, the issue is not which type of sit-up should be recommended,” McGill says in his book Low Back Disorders (Human Kinetics, $59). “Rather, sit-ups should not be performed at all by most people.”
McGill says the goal of a core exercise is to challenge the muscles in a way that spares the spine. He also maintains that when it comes to the back, the idea is to improve muscular endurance before trying to improve strength.
David Campbell is an athletic therapist and osteopath. The co-owner of Concordia Sports Medicine and Physiotherapy and osteopath for the Montreal Canadiens, Campbell has seen his share of back problems. And while he admits that the old school approach to better back health included prescribing sit-ups, that’s no longer the case.
“Sit-ups won’t make your back any better,” he said.
Campbell agrees with McGill that when it comes to the back, endurance is more important, at least initially, than strength. He also suggests that most back-pain sufferers lack good back mobility, which isn’t helped by a steady diet of sit-ups.
David Snively is one of Montreal’s top personal trainers. He prefers working the abs in a standing position, because it is more reflective of how we use our core muscles in everyday life.
Mimicking such movement patterns is referred to as functional training, which gets a big thumbs up from McGill, Snively and Campbell.
What about those who want to target the rectus abdominus? Is there an exercise that can take the place of a sit-up?
McGill suggests modifying the traditional sit-up so that it reduces the stress on the spine. His version of the sit-up starts by lying on your back, one leg straight and the other bent (the straight leg helps maintain the curve in the lower back and the bent leg reduces stress on the sciatica or piriformis). Place both hands under the small of the back. Lift the shoulder blades off the floor, hold for a couple of seconds and return to the starting position.
“Pretend the head and shoulders are propped on a scale,” said McGill describing the action when the shoulders are lifted off the floor.
“Just make sure that the weight on the scale weighs zero.”
McGill says there is no one-size-fits-all ab exercise. Such variables as an individual’s current back health, fitness level and training goals all come into play when choosing the right abdominal and core exercises. Also worth noting is that it takes more than one core exercise to achieve optimum spine health. The same can be said for those who are looking to improve athletic performance.
Quality core workouts consist of a variety of exercises, including those that build muscular endurance (stability exercises), teach proper movement patterns and, for the active individual, build strength.
Another goal to keep in mind is the importance of equalizing the muscular endurance and strength of all your supporting muscles so that no one muscle group overpowers another. Imbalance in the core muscles tends to pull the spine out of alignment, thereby increasing the risk of back pain and injury.
McGill also suggests that whatever exercise you are doing, the natural curve of the lower back should be maintained. That means avoid flattening the back or performing a pelvic tilt (tucking the hips under the belly button), which increases the stress on the spine.
Of course, for some of you, giving up the sit-up will be like kicking a habit. But faced with the mounting evidence that sweating through a set of sit-ups has little value beyond making you very good at sweating through a set of sit-ups, not to mention the stress it places on the spine, maybe you’re finally ready to bid adieu to this old-school exercise.
jbarker@videotron.ca
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
Hope you enjoyed this
Paul
Here is an interesting article from the Montral Gazette
Fitness with Jill Barker
Photograph by: Gazette, GazetteIf you haven’t already, it’s time to remove sit-ups from your exercise routine. A stalwart of the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, sit-ups were originally touted as the exercise of choice for whittling excess inches off the waistline. Yet even after spot-reducing was revealed as a myth, sit-ups maintained their popularity as a core strengthener.
Now even that claim has come under scrutiny. The sit-up targets one muscle (the rectus abdominus), which is responsible for bending the spine forward. Yet the body’s midsection, often referred to as the core, is made up of several muscles that not only generate movement in numerous directions but also stabilize the spinal column.
The final myth – the one that claims sit-ups improve back health – has now also been exposed. In fact, some spine experts suggest that sit-ups actually put the spine at risk, making it not only an exercise that has little benefit, but one that may actually do more harm than good.
Leading the pack of experts who think sit-ups don’t live up to their billing is Stuart McGill, a professor of spine mechanics at the University of Waterloo. According to McGill, all that bending of the spine isn’t good for back health.
“Given that the sit-up imposes such a large compression load on the spine, the issue is not which type of sit-up should be recommended,” McGill says in his book Low Back Disorders (Human Kinetics, $59). “Rather, sit-ups should not be performed at all by most people.”
McGill says the goal of a core exercise is to challenge the muscles in a way that spares the spine. He also maintains that when it comes to the back, the idea is to improve muscular endurance before trying to improve strength.
David Campbell is an athletic therapist and osteopath. The co-owner of Concordia Sports Medicine and Physiotherapy and osteopath for the Montreal Canadiens, Campbell has seen his share of back problems. And while he admits that the old school approach to better back health included prescribing sit-ups, that’s no longer the case.
“Sit-ups won’t make your back any better,” he said.
Campbell agrees with McGill that when it comes to the back, endurance is more important, at least initially, than strength. He also suggests that most back-pain sufferers lack good back mobility, which isn’t helped by a steady diet of sit-ups.
David Snively is one of Montreal’s top personal trainers. He prefers working the abs in a standing position, because it is more reflective of how we use our core muscles in everyday life.
Mimicking such movement patterns is referred to as functional training, which gets a big thumbs up from McGill, Snively and Campbell.
What about those who want to target the rectus abdominus? Is there an exercise that can take the place of a sit-up?
McGill suggests modifying the traditional sit-up so that it reduces the stress on the spine. His version of the sit-up starts by lying on your back, one leg straight and the other bent (the straight leg helps maintain the curve in the lower back and the bent leg reduces stress on the sciatica or piriformis). Place both hands under the small of the back. Lift the shoulder blades off the floor, hold for a couple of seconds and return to the starting position.
“Pretend the head and shoulders are propped on a scale,” said McGill describing the action when the shoulders are lifted off the floor.
“Just make sure that the weight on the scale weighs zero.”
McGill says there is no one-size-fits-all ab exercise. Such variables as an individual’s current back health, fitness level and training goals all come into play when choosing the right abdominal and core exercises. Also worth noting is that it takes more than one core exercise to achieve optimum spine health. The same can be said for those who are looking to improve athletic performance.
Quality core workouts consist of a variety of exercises, including those that build muscular endurance (stability exercises), teach proper movement patterns and, for the active individual, build strength.
Another goal to keep in mind is the importance of equalizing the muscular endurance and strength of all your supporting muscles so that no one muscle group overpowers another. Imbalance in the core muscles tends to pull the spine out of alignment, thereby increasing the risk of back pain and injury.
McGill also suggests that whatever exercise you are doing, the natural curve of the lower back should be maintained. That means avoid flattening the back or performing a pelvic tilt (tucking the hips under the belly button), which increases the stress on the spine.
Of course, for some of you, giving up the sit-up will be like kicking a habit. But faced with the mounting evidence that sweating through a set of sit-ups has little value beyond making you very good at sweating through a set of sit-ups, not to mention the stress it places on the spine, maybe you’re finally ready to bid adieu to this old-school exercise.
jbarker@videotron.ca
© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
Hope you enjoyed this
Paul
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