All posts by Kathryn Merrow

Lower Back Pain

How Do Muscles Cause Lower Back Pain And How Can You Fix Them

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Injury and muscle imbalances are the two most common causes of lower back pain. Muscle imbalances can cause you to have poor posture.  Poor posture is also called “forward head posture” and “collapsing posture.”  This causes pain.

Poor posture includes incorrect positioning of the pelvic bones and either too much or too little curvature in the spine. This causes increased wear and tear on your joints, muscles, ligaments and your spinal discs.  This happens because muscles move bones.

NOTE:  If you have loss of bowel or bladder control with your low back pain that can mean a medical emergency, so get to the Emergency Room in a hospital as quickly as possible.

What are the most common lower back pain treatments?

The most common treatment by doctors and Continue reading How Do Muscles Cause Lower Back Pain And How Can You Fix Them →

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Self Help

Tools To Get Rid Of Knots In Your Back

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If you have spasms or muscle knots around your shoulder blade there may be a simple cure for you.  Keep reading to discover simple tools you can use.

Therapeutic massage works to relieve knots by causing pressure on or around the areas of spasm or tightness (the knots.)  That increases the blood flow to the area and that, in turn, releases or relaxes your “knot.”

You can get a benefit similar to massage by applying your own pressure.  There are special tools for this.  One is called the Back Knobber.  Another is called the TheraCane.

These devices can be Continue reading Tools To Get Rid Of Knots In Your Back →

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Causes of Back Pain

What Keeps Back Pain From Going Away

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If your back pain won’t go away and stay away, maybe it just can’t.

Here are several possible reasons:

1.  Muscle memory.  You might be able to relax or release the muscles just enough so your pain lessens but it comes back because your muscles “remember” that they are supposed to be in spasm.  You can change this.

2.  Old age.  You may think that you cannot get better because you are “getting old.”  You are most likely wrong.

3.  Trigger points.  Muscles elsewhere or other soft tissues (not bones) have developed trigger points that are “firing” into Continue reading What Keeps Back Pain From Going Away →

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Upper Back Pain

Knots In Your Upper Back Caused By Forward Head Posture

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When you learned to walk, your spine did this really neat thing.  It developed curves to help you stand “straight.”

When we say, “Stand up straight,” it really means stand tall; stand with the proper curves in your spine; stand with your head over your body instead of in front of it.

See this fellow sitting with his back rounded?  Sitting, sleeping or working in a position with your back like that will cause you to lose the curve in your lower back.

You are supposed to have a curve behind your waist that creates a small hollow.

When you lose that curve, your head moves forward just like this fellow.

And that forward head posture creates a LOT of strain on the muscles of your upper back.  It can cause headaches, neck aches, lower back pain, upper back pain Continue reading Knots In Your Upper Back Caused By Forward Head Posture →

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Lower Back Pain

Low Back Pain Caused By Muscle Strain

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Muscle strain can cause low back pain.  No surprise there because muscles are the most common cause of back pain.  They are also the most commonly overlooked cause of pain.

Medical tests look for pressure on nerves.  But what causes the pressure?  Muscles.

Medical tests look for damage to joints.  Outside of direct injury, what’s the most likely cause of damage to joints?  Muscles.

And how about discs or spinal bones pressing on nerves?  What causes that?  I bet you know the answer.  Muscles!

Muscles pull on and move bones and discs.  Muscles are movers.  They are the only tissues in your whole body that have that ability.  That’s their job!

Muscle imbalances Continue reading Low Back Pain Caused By Muscle Strain →

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Causes of Back Pain

Dislocated Ribs Heal

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My last article told the story of how I dislocated my ribs.  This one continues to the cure.  🙂

It just wasn’t getting completely better so I ended up going to my colleague Janet who is an excellent massage therapist.  We took a lot of advanced training together and worked together, too.  She “surrounded the dragon” (the painful rib area) using finger pressure to relax tender muscles.

The dislocated ribs were mid-chest.  Janet pressed into the muscles in the upper ribs near my collar bones.  She also released (relaxed) the muscles on the sides of my back and spine.

But I just could not let her press into the painful rib joint at my breastbone.  I just couldn’t.  Way too painful!

And when she gently lifted my head Continue reading Dislocated Ribs Heal →

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Causes of Back Pain

Pain From Dislocated Ribs

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“Woman Breaks Her Own Ribs Crawling Through Cave”

That’s what I thought the headline would read.  It was my first time ever on a cave crawl.  When I got to the low ceiling and could no longer crawl on my knees I had to do the army crawl (belly crawl.)  That’s when I dislocated my ribs for the second time in 2 days.

I had done the same thing 2 days prior practicing this belly crawl on the living room floor but on the opposite side of my ribs.  That side was feeling somewhat better when I did it again in the cave.

I did this by cleverly (and incorrectly) placing Continue reading Pain From Dislocated Ribs →

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Lower Back Pain

The Four-Sided Devil Muscle That Causes Low Back Pain

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Low Back PainIf you have lower back pain or sciatica here’s something you should know.

There is a muscle on each side of your waist called the quadradus lumborum or QL.

It is also called “the muscle from hell” and “the four-sided devil.”

See the dark red muscle at the waist on the far side of this illustration?  That’s it on the left back side of a body.  It attaches to the lower ribs, the spine and the hip bone.  The outer side of the QL is open. (Those are the 4 sides.)

That one in the picture is Continue reading The Four-Sided Devil Muscle That Causes Low Back Pain →

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Causes of Back Pain, Upper Back Pain

Causes of Shoulder Blade Pain and Back Pain

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What causes shoulder blade pain and back tightness and pain?

Here’s an email I received from a healthy young man who always exercised with no health issues other than debilitating back pain.

I used to work a very physical job with a lot of heavy lifting, bending, and twisting for an 8 1/2 hour shift. The job caused soreness, tightness and an aching pain between my shoulder blades and sometimes my lower back would get stiff but Continue reading Causes of Shoulder Blade Pain and Back Pain →

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Lower Back Pain, Upper Back Pain

Back Pain Can Be Caused By Prescription Drugs

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Muscle and joint pain in your back can be caused by a variety of prescription medications.  Most prescription drugs have a whole laundry list of side effects.  That’s why I’m always encouraging you to go the natural route–no side effects.  That’s pretty cool.

Here’s an article about unwanted side effects like back pain caused by a drug called Continue reading Back Pain Can Be Caused By Prescription Drugs →

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