What Causes Bone Spurs In Your Neck And Spine

Here’s what causes bone spurs:

Imagine you are a bone.  Muscles keep pulling on you.  Why?

Because that’s what muscles do.

But sometimes a muscle is a bit ‘too tight.’  So it pulls a bit too much where it attaches to your neck or spine.

What can you–a bone–do?

Well, you can make a little more bone tissue to take the pressure off yourself.  You can grow a little nub of bone where the muscle attaches to you.  That has the effect of creating a little more slack in the tight muscle.

It’s called a bone spur.

If the spur grows into a large bony growth it can cause discomfort.

If the bone spur is in your neck or back it might even press on a nerve.  In that case it can cause tingling, nervy-type pain or numbness.

If a spur is large and is causing problems for you it may need to be corrected surgically.

But if the bony growth is small it can go away (be absorbed back into your body) if you take the muscle pressure off the bone.

How can you take the pressure off the bone?

Spurs usually start with poor posture.  Correcting your posture–getting your head and shoulders back where they belong–can make a big difference.

Poor posture causes muscles to be out of balance.  Some muscles are too weak (in back) and some are too tight and short (in front.)  The tight muscles pull on bones.

The bones create spurs to relieve the pulling.

And that, in a nutshell, is what causes bone spurs.

By the way, most of us would have bone spurs if our doctors took x-rays.  That doesn’t mean the pain you have is caused by the bony growths, though.

Muscles are still the most common cause of pain.  And the good news is that muscles are treatable, naturally.

If your doctor says your pain is caused by the spur he sees in your tests, she may be right.

Or maybe it’s just muscles, as usual.

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Flexibility Helps Relieve & Prevent Painful Stiff Backs

Is your back a little stiff?  Do you wish your posture was better?  Are you as flexible as you’d like to be?

Are you feeling “stuck”?

I will always believe that massage is the best thing to help muscles relax but stretching is the next best.  So, here’s something that’ll help you get “unstuck” and relieve your stiff back.

Are you familiar with the stretches called “cat” and “dog?”  I’ve also heard them called “camel” and other variations.

Sometimes they are done on all fours, on the floor, but I’m going to share a seated version with you.  If you are so stiff that it’s hard to get on the floor, you will appreciate this version.

These are good movements because they get your spine moving from front to back and your ribs moving.  These movements warm the muscles of your back and whole torso, or trunk.  They get your circulation going and can help to strengthen your back.

Here is the seated version:

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The Sitting Disease

It’s a serious problem, and lots and lots of us are affected by it!  The Sitting Disease is caused by…too much sitting!

All that sitting causes lots of muscle and body malfunctions and aches and pains and premature aging.

Knots in your back, problems breathing, constipation, carpal tunnel syndrome, osteoporosis, back pain and headaches and MORE are caused by “The Sitting Disease.”

It’s practically an epidemic!  But there is a simple, natural cure.

Walk.

Can’t get much more simple than that, right?

When you walk correctly, you use almost all of the muscles in your whole body!  Pretty cool.

My friend, Rosalie, had the sitting disease.  At first, she could only walk around her own back yard and then, eventually, around the block.  And then she ended up race walking and had a ton of health benefits!

All from walking, even though she didn’t want to, and from gradually ‘stepping up’ her walking distance as her ability increased. 🙂

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Why Do We Have Pain? Self-Help for Backaches, Headaches, Fibromyalgia & More

There are reasons why we have pain.  We don’t get a backache or a headache or any other pain unless there is a reason.

Chiropractor Greg Fors has written “A Complete Physical & Spiritual Guide To Healing Your Chronic Pain WHY WE HURT Your Total Self-Care Guide for Backaches, Headaches, Shoulder Pain, Arthritis and Fibromyalgia.”

Yes, that is a very long title, but perhaps that’s okay because it’s a very thick book.  Dr. Fors explains that pain can be healed.  He tells us the causes of pain, which he believes are 3:  physical, biochemical and spiritual.

Dr. Fors goes into the causes of pain, too.  Some of the causes may never have occurred to you.  He’ll tell you where the toxic chemicals that affect your health come from, and much, much more.

Why We Hurt is a logical, well-written, pretty easy to read pain relief book.

 

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