SEARCH:
Sign in | Join | Help
search Mercola.com
 
FREE Subscription 
The World’s Most Popular Natural Health Newsletter
Low Back Pain Linked to Stress in Young Adulthood
Posted by: Dr. Mercola
October 06 2001 | 2,300 views

Stress in your 20s may lead to low back pain in your 30s.

Researchers interviewed nearly 6,000 33-year-old men and women about a variety of physical and psychological variables. Of this group, about 10%, reported experiencing low back pain for the first time during the year before the interview. All of the study participants had been interviewed 10 years earlier, when they were 23 years old.

People who reported feeling psychological distress at age 23 were 2.5 times more likely to report having low back pain at age 33.

The researchers note that a number of factors can contribute to psychological distress in young adulthood, including low socioeconomic status in childhood, poor academic achievement and behavior problems at school, and early childbearing and single parenthood.

American Journal of Public Health October 2001;91:1671-1678



Dr. Mercola's Comments:
Follow me on facebook

Although this is certainly not the first mention of the connection between low back pain and emotional distress, I thought that I would review this topic again.

Healing Back Pain, by Dr. John Sarno, describes his wonderful success treating chronic low back patients who have failed surgeries for back pain.

I have recently started treating patients with EFT and have been enormously impressed with the results.

I would like to share the story of a person who I recently treated with EFT at the Physician's retreat conference that I attended at the end of September. Dr. Sally Rockwood is a natural medicine nutritionist and has written several books on nutrition.

She had chronic neck pain for 13 years that resulted from a whiplash injury in 1988. At the time I treated her I did not know that in 1997 she had a spinal fusion of her fifth, sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae several years prior.

This did provide her with about 70% improvement, but after about two years she had developed secondary new pains that were every bit as severe as the original. When she returned to the neurosurgeons for a reevaluation, she was told that she would need a repeat spinal fusion and that there was only a 25% chance that the second spinal fusion would give her any relief.

She was determined to find a non-drug, non-surgical option and had done everything she could think of including natural medicine such as osteopathic and chiropractic adjustments, acupuncture, cranial therapy, physical therapy, prayer, glucosamine, MSM, energy work and prolotherapy without major long lasting relief.

She had attended the Physician Healing Retreat the last week of September as a personal guest of Dr. Klinghardt who felt that she might pick up something there to help resolve her pain.

We were both at the retreat and I was excited to share my new found application of EFT to treat food cravings, pain and emotional trauma.

I asked for volunteers from the audience, and the first person was Dr. Klinghardt's nurse, Andreanna, who had a craving for Hazlenut lattes that was quite strong and we were able to resolve it in a few minutes.

I then asked for volunteers for those who had pain and Dr. Rockwell immediately rose her hand and when I asked her about her pain and she said it was in her neck. I told her that should be easy and it should be gone in a few minutes.

At the time I had no idea of her story and attempts to resolve this pain over 13 years. But as it turns out, my prediction was quite accurate and her pain was in fact permanently removed in a few minutes.

I initially taped on the actual pain and that did not work at all, but then I explored the underlying emotional issues surrounding the pain that related to her childhood. She had experienced a tremendous amount of physical abuse in her childhood.

I used an affirmation technique that was a form of prayer and served as an integration of God's healing love coming into her life along with the forgiveness of her father for having performed such cruel and non-loving acts to his daughter. Once we tapped on this issue, her pain, which was a ten plus out of ten immediately disappeared. She had a full pain free range of motion, which she had not experienced since her accident in 1988.

The treatment lasted all of about ten to fifteen minutes and all her pain was removed and she remains pain-free to this day, despite the fact that she has two fused cervical vertebrae and a metal plate in her neck.

EFT is truly one of the most amazing healing tools I have ever seen.






 
 
 
© Copyright 2009 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your site please click here. This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Dr. Mercola is required.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your physician before using this product.