Back pain?
Back pain is common problem. Back pain usually is
divided into up back pain, middle back pain and low back pain. Up back pain
includes neck pain and shoulder pain that I have wrote the article “Shoulder
Pain” before. The low back pain is more common in the clinic.
The low back pain at some point in the life affects
nearly eighty percent of adults. Simply, it is just low back aching that may
come and go. It may result from deficiency of the kidney and spleen, unbalance
of the liver and the spleen, or over working. Seriously; it is low back severe
pain all the time that influences their work and life because little moving,
coughing or sneezing may bring severe radiation pain. Generally, this kind of
pain is the result of spinal degeneration or injury, especially, the damage to
the intervertebral disc, which are structures located between the vertebrae
that act as cushion. Each disc included a tough, fibrous outer layer covering a
soft interior, which has the function of the cushion.
Western medicine thinks low back pain is the sing of
aging, related with poor posture, improper foot ware and incorrect walking
habits, improper lifting, straining, calcium deficiency, sloughing when
sitting, and sleeping on a mattress that is too soft. Also related with kidney,
bladder, and prostate problems, female pelvic disorders, constipation,
arthritis, rheumatism, fractures, bone diseases, abnormal curvature of spine,
deep-seated emotion, stress or lactic acid and pyruvic acid produced as byproducts
of muscular activity when muscles contract.
Traditional Chinese medicine thinks the same as
Western medicine. Also traditional Chinese medicine states the low back is the
house of the kidney and believes the low back pain caused by external or internal
or both reasons. The external reasons, such as injury, cold, wind and wet
weather attacks the low back, sitting or standing long, over using low back,
etc. The internal reasons, for example, the deficiency of the kidney and
spleen, unbalance of the liver and the spleen that causes the weak digestion,
which can’t provide enough Chi (vital energy) to the kidney, obstruction of
meridians, liver Chi stagnation, or disorder of Chi and blood.
There are may ways can help low back pain. In China,
Chinese medicine doctors had studied and tried to find out which way is best
way for low back pain, especially, for herniated disk low back pain since
1960s. After ten years researching, it was fund the better solution is to use
the combination treatment of acupuncture, TuiNa (Chinese medical massage),
herbs and exercise. To use acupuncture to control the muscle spasm, stop pain,
heal the injured nerves, unblock the meridians, and improve blood circulation.
To use Chinese herbs to build up the Chi of the kidney and the spleen in order
to strengthen the low back muscle, assist the speed healing, and prevent the intervertebral
disk problem. To use TuiNa (Chinese medical massage) to change the structure
and pathological circumstances of the affected tissue, regulate and restore the
tendon and eliminate the edema. To use Tai Chi Qi Gong exercise to tonify the
kidney and spleen; relieve stress; balance the whole body and prevent or reduce
low back pain. Wintertime is proper time to strengthen the kidney. Soups are
the top diet to nourish the kidney. Soups are also easy to warm up the body and
clear away the winter cold, and the nutrition in the soup is easy to be absorbed
by the body. I suggest you may cook some bone soup that is easy to cook, tasty
and full of nutrition and calcium. For example, turkey bones vegetable soup
(the recipe enclosed behind). No matter you have low back pain or not, let’s
enjoy the warm bone vegetable soup together in this wintertime.
Turkey Vegetable Bone Soup recipe
Ingredients: turkey bones from roasted whole turkey, spinach
1 lb
Seasonings: ginger 5 slices, green onion 1, chopped
garlic, salt
Cooking: 1) Put
the turkey bones in a deep container, add cold water to cover the bones, add
the ginger and green onion and boil. Bring to boil and turn the fire to medium
and boil the bone with soft fire for 1 hour.
2) Clean and rinse the spinach.
3) Add
salt for taste after boiling the bone for 1 hour, and then add the spinach,
wait to boil, turn off the fire, then add the chopped garlic and serve.
Notes:
You may use other kind of
bones (such as chicken bone or pork bone) and
vegetables
(such as Napa -Chinese cabbage or lettuces). The calcium in the
soup
is easier to be absorbed by the body. You also can add little rice or
noodles.