______________________________ "The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." - Joseph Stalin -----Original Message----- From: ransley [mailto:rans...@atmc.net] Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 9:16 AM To: The Silverlist; Nathan Filyk Subject: RE: CS>The origin of back pain
Nathan- I have been diagnosed by a Neurosurgeon using MRI & Myelogram to have 3 ruptured disks (L4-5, C3-4, C4-5) near critical cervical stenosis, lumbar stenosis, Ankylosing Spondylitis and Degenerative Disk Disease; plus, below the L5 vertebra, the Doc said that "Everything below there is pretty rotten". You know the sick feeling you get when a mechanic looks under your hood and lets out a long whistle? I've been whistled at by a Neurosurgeon. I can't remember how many days I've spent flat on my back with my wife attending to every need. I don't even want to remember. Neither does she. I've spent thousands on Chiropractors and everyone of them did something good for me, but at last I learned how to duplicate everything they did for me and no longer need to go to them. Besides, no DC in his right mind would touch my neck. After my last DC learned of the full extent of my injuries, he was shaken that he had ever adjusted my neck. That's the only criticism I have of them- they rely on mostly x-rays or trained judgement, when they need better diagnostic tools. To be fair, that's not all their fault, as the mainstream MD's control the access to those tools. That was just to say that I'm more than a little familiar with back pain. The number one treatment is WATER!!! (non-chlorinated, non-flouridated) It will help to swell your disks back to proper shape and size so your muscles aren't straining to hold your bent back in line. But water alone may not be enough. The number two treatment is Amino Acids and protein. It will strengthen your muscles and ligaments so they can do the job. You can get relief in this area by eating more meat, but it's not enough. Many body-building amino acid supplements will help; the best I've ever found is Whey Protein. It won't help enough if you don't drink enough water. Number three is in making sure you get enough raw trace elements. There are ways of getting them in concentrated form, and this delves into a subject most have never heard of, so I will keep it off list. If you're not too bad off, you may get enough from taking Laminaria Digitata Kelp. If that's not enough there are other things to take. It won't help enough if you don't get enough water. As you can see, I can't say enough about water. Eliminate all soft drinks with aspertame, phosporic acid and caffeine. Limit your intake of coffee, tea and alcohol. I need to get 2 quarts of water a day to maintain my back. Sometimes less, but that's an average. Every time I fall off the water wagon I suffer. A Crock Device helped me with back pain. I may not elude surgery all my life. I'm far too far gone for the common surgeries of today, and I've found more than enough relief for now, so I'm biding time and making good use of it. If you have a protruding disk that has not ruptured, you can avoid surgery. If it's fairly newly ruptured and can be saved by surgery, I would do that before it becomes stenosis. I'm way too gone for all that. My diagnosis is for 3 diskectomies. I won't do that until it's the only option. There are better alternatives on the medical horizon. Diskectomy is a highly personal choice, and it's a very tough procedure. I have one friend who is a paraplegic from back surgery. One friend is dead from same, and his demise was slow and painful; his family suffered much. Another friend had surgery then had to have another to stop the complications of the first. My mother, father and brother have all had back surgeries with different levels of success and complications. I've seen enough. Drink water. Daddybob
