05/02/2018
WHY SUFFER FROM PAIN WHEN YOU CAN START HEALING YOURSELF – Keep your body ‘straight’ and ‘flowing’ to prevent, relieve and cure your body pain – by Justine Vo, D.O., R.Ac., Nutritionist – CHR Health Centre
Almost every single patient who came to my clinic suffered from acute or chronic pain in one or more parts of the body as shown in the picture. Every treated patient made a promise to themselves and tried really hard to ‘keep their body straight and flowing’ to avoid recurrence and prevent future ailments. You can do it too.
The human body is made to be symmetric, vertical and horizontal. It is composed of bones, muscles, soft tissues, organs, nerves, veins and vessels that need to be straight, free, flexible and flowing, to function healthily without any pain or restriction. If you have been sleeping on your back all your life (meaning that your body is straight and horizontal on the bed as if it is straight and vertical during the day), you would have had very few health problems. The problem is that most people sleep on their stomach or on the sides with limbs all over the places, hence have moved many body parts out of their original line and have caused them to block, crush on each other, attach together, and slow down the circulation.
Examine your entire body in front of the mirror. Observe the asymmetrical lines of your face (deviation of eyebrows, cheek bones, nose, ears, mouth, lips, chin), neck (one side shorter than the other and possibly glued to the jaw line), shoulders (high or low, forwarded or straight), arms (one arm longer than the other), hips (tilted, over or under developed), sacrum (tilted), legs (one leg longer than the other), knees and feet (pointed forward, outward or inward), neck (protruded forward), head (tilted backward or forward), back (scoliosis, protruded or swayed), chest, rib cage and abdomen (uneven, under or over developed). If your body is misaligned, ailments will develop. The good news is that the body can be adjusted back to its original symmetric position. If the misalignment is mild, you can correct your nighttime and day time posture yourself. If the misalignment is severe, an osteopath may be able to help you.
Here is what you need to know and do, to start the healing process yourself:
1) SLEEP ON THE BACK – Changing your sleeping posture is the first step to healing. It takes a lot of ‘effort and will’ to change a lifelong habit, but it can be done. The brain is powerful and can adapt to changes beyond our imagination (e.g., people who lost the upper limbs can train the brain to use the lower limbs to do what the upper limbs were meant to do). So, sleeping on the back is much easier to do than you think. At the beginning, if you have to go on the sides to find a relief (since the body is not yet straight or comfortable), make sure that you lie on both sides equally. This prevents the body parts from being tossed to one side only. I recommend that you sleep straight on the back, with your arms along your sides, and the head/nape aligned with the spine and the sacrum, and parallel to the floor. To relieve the discomfort in the middle of the night, go on each side and roll your body to be in a fetus position (spine gently curved, leg on leg, one arm folded on the bed the other arm on the upper side of the body) for 15 seconds each side. You can also lie on your back, hold your legs with the knees bent, pull them gently towards your chest and hold for 6 seconds while lifting your head up slightly (repeat 6 times). These movements will help to flex your spine and relieve it from the stiffness of the extended position.
2) SLEEP ON THE RIGHT MATTRESS AND PILLOW – Your body needs to be straight/vertical during the day, and straight/horizontal during the night. This means that your bottom (sacrum, tailbone and hips), your spine, and your nape (base of the neck) must be parallel to the bed and the floor. One part must not be lower or higher than the other. Therefore, the ideal mattress would be a firm mattress with a tight top, to keep your body comfortably on a straight horizontal line. If your body sinks onto the mattress and/or forms the shape of your body (like in the case of memory foam and fluffy pillow-top models), the core-link between the sacrum and the neck is bent, hence restricting the flow of blood circulation and cranial fluid between the sacrum and the head. This can cause neck and shoulder pain, back pain, hip pain, arm and leg pain, headaches, digestive and respiratory problems. You also need the right pillow that can support your head comfortably while keeping your head/nape aligned with the spine and the sacrum. To test your back sleeping position and identify which pillow you need, lie down on the bed without a pillow. If your head is tilted backward (causing the neck to bend backward), you need a medium pillow to lift your neck up to the parallel position. If your head is tilted forward (causing the neck to bend forward towards the toes), you need a soft pillow to allow the head/neck to be parallel to the floor. I recommend anti-allergen down-alternative pillows with microfiber gels which are breathable, can be easily molded to support your head and shoulders, and allow your head/neck to be adjusted to the desired, parallel position. To secure your head and neck in the desired position, pull the edges of the pillow above your shoulders and adjust the pillow until your neck is parallel to the floor. Your whole head, not the shoulders, will lie comfortably on the pillow and keep your back straight. NOTE: If your head is tilted backward during the night, it will automatically tilt forward (eyes pointed downward) during the day to stay vertical. If your head is tilted forward all night, it will automatically tilt backward (eyes pointed upward) during the day. Also, dysfunctions generally appear more on the side which you sleep on, such as tinnitus, tight jaw, headache, frozen shoulder, numb arm/fingers or leg, tight chest, and abdominal blockage. The leg which you cross over your body while sleeping will be longer than the other one.
3) MAINTAIN A STRAIGHT DAY-TIME POSTURE – The straight standing posture is SYMMETRIC, arms along the sides, feet apart (shoulder-width) and on the same level. The straight sitting posture without contracting the muscles is also symmetric, while keeping all parts of the body either VERTICAL (head, neck, back/trunk, lower legs, upper arms), or HORIZONTAL (lower arms, hands, upper legs and feet parallel to the floor), and at a 90 DEGREES JOINT BENT (elbows, knees, ankles, hip/leg joints). Do not cross legs, feet, arms, and hands, nor pull them backward or forward, or lean on one side or the other. You can try these straight standing and sitting postures and observe how it feels. Then bend, hold, lean, twist, and cross your body parts to be in your habitual comfort zone and feel how your muscles are contracted, pulled, or blocked. You need to experience this to compare the results, in order to be conscious and mindful to self-correct your posture gradually, yourself.
4) KEEP YOUR WHOLE BODY FLOWING, I.E., FREE OF OBSTRUCTIONS – Besides your posture, all body parts need to be free to flow and to function without pain. Wear comfortable clothing, underwear, shoes and socks. Any object that is too tight (e.g., bras, underwear, shoes, socks, clothing, straps of handbags, schoolbags, prostheses, head bands, hair ties, hats, etc…) will block or impair the circulation of your blood, fluid, lymph nodes, and cause stress on your muscles, soft tissues, veins, vessels and nerves. Ongoing blockage will cause swelling, pain, and weak muscles/tissues in the blocked areas and referring areas. Experience the results yourself – tie then untie an object which you frequently use on your body, and observe the difference in the freedom/flowing or blockage/restriction of the affected body parts. Obstructions can also come from outside. For example, if your loving partner put a hand on your body, arm or chest while sleeping, you will also experience stagnation, blockage and even numbness on such body part.
5) IF NEEDED, CONSULT WITH AN OSTEOPATH AND AN ACUPUNCTURIST – An osteopath is trained to perform gentle yet very effective manual therapy on your body parts (muscles, soft tissues, organs, bones, veins and vessels) to release the dysfunctions and correct the misalignment. An acupuncturist can help to unblock the stagnation and promote the flow of the body fluids. Together, both can help to reduce the pain and correct your posture more rapidly, so that you can maintain your ‘keep the body straight and flowing’ goal easier and better. I do both, and also teach gentle corrective exercises to help my patients achieve their ‘keep the body straight and flowing’ goal faster. Besides adjusting the neck, shoulders, arms (neck pain, headache, frozen shoulders, numb fingers), the back (scoliosis, back pain, deviated spine), hips and sacrum (sciatica), skull and face (sinus, eye problems, hearing problems, jaw clenching, loss of senses, headaches, migraines, dizziness and vertigo), dysfunctions of the lower limbs, knees and feet, I have also helped adjusting the deviation of facial bones and muscles for cosmetic and rejuvenation purpose.
Every day, I work with each and every patient on the above issues. I want to encourage you by saying that many of my patients have changed to sleep on their back and no longer feel comfortable sleeping on the sides or on the stomach. The reward is priceless when you can live a pain-free life. The also caught themselves doing movements that contributed to putting their body out-of-line during day. The ailments and illnesses that derive from a misaligned and non-flowing body are too numerous for me to mention in this article. This picture is a good summary of common physical ailments which I will explain in more details in future articles, and in the two books I’m currently writing, 1) Straight Talk – Keep your body straight and flowing to be pain-free, and 2) Surprisingly Simple – The uncommon common-sense answers to your health issues.
If you have any questions re health issues, you can email to me at info@chrcentre.com.
Justine Vo – Osteopath, Acupuncturist, Nutritionist - www.CHRcentre.com
Comprehensive Health Recovery