Chronic Pain Relief (IPT)

PAIN! Everyone experiences pain at some point.  Do you know what causes most of your pain? It is simpler than you think.  Remember when your mother told you to sit up and/or stand up straight? Your mother probably didn't know it but good posture is more than just about looking good.  Good posture is essential to a healthy, functioning, pain-free body.  Most of your pain is caused by poor posture.  You are in pain because you are misaligned or . . . . crooked!  Even if you think you have good posture you probably don't.  Many misalignments are not obvious to the untrained eye.

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This may seem too simple, but let's look at an example.  Picture a house in your mind.  Imagine that the basement of the house is a little lower on one side.  In other words, the house is crooked.  Over time, the crooked house develops all sorts of structural problems, i.e., the roof may leak, windows are hard to open, the chimney is leaning, marbles can roll down the floor, etc.  The structure of the building is not carrying the load the way it was designed to because it is not level.  All of these problems are caused by one condition . . . The House Is Crooked.  The solution is to bring the building back into proper alignment - give the building "good posture" so that it carries its load the way it was designed to.

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Let's apply this to the human body and to your pain.

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Do you know what the following conditions have in common:  sciatica, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, low back pain, most headaches and herniated discs?  At first, they don't seem to have much in common.  They are in different parts of the body and different structures are involved.  However, if you step back and look at the body as a whole, you will notice the common element.

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This element is called muscle imbalance.  This simply means that some muscles are too short and some muscles are too long.  Both muscles will feel tight.  The short muscle is contracted and tight and the long muscle is like an overstretched rubber band - too long and very tight (i.e. hamstrings!).

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Since every muscle is attached to a bone, muscle imbalances pull the bones out of alignment and that's what makes you crooked.

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Misalignment of the skeletal structure caused by muscle imbalance can cause compressions of the nerves, discs and other structures in the body.  It can also cause the fascia to be twisted.  Fascia is a a band of fibrous connective tissue enveloping, separating, or binding together muscles, organs, and other soft structures of the body.  These twists, compressions and tight muscles ultimately lead to less oxygen in the tissues at those areas.  The medical term for this is ischemia which means that there is not adequate blood getting to the tissues.  This also means the tissue is not getting enough oxygen. 

It is the lack of oxygen that is actually causing much of the pain.

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So, in a nutshell, these muscle imbalances pull the frame of the body (the bones) into misalignment, which then causes pain in the body.  Being out of alignment or crooked results in many neuromuscular pain patterns.  It is estimated that 80% of all the pain you will experience in your life is due to mechanical problems - your muscles are either too long or too short and are pulling your bones crooked, causing compression and lack of oxygen to the tissues.

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When you go to a doctor you could be diagnosed with any one of hundreds of conditions like those mentioned above.  In our Western model of medicine, standard treatment for conditions like sciatica, plantar fasciitis, carpal tunnel, tennis elbow, low back pain, most headaches and herniated discs involves treating the symptoms typically with a pain killer or an anti-inflammatory drug.  Seldom does it treat the cause.  The cause is muscle imbalances or misalignment and the correct treatment is to get you "uncrooked" - and to help you learn how to keep yourself that way!

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Lee Albert, Founder of Integrative Positional Therapy

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At The Pilates Greenhouse, our hour long IPT sessions have helped our clients to understand and practice proper posture alignment while instantly relieving chronic pain with gentle and powerful positional therapy techniques.  We will help you to learn how to help yourself daily with stretches and positions that counteract misalignments in the body for a life without pain and a body that is structurally balanced.  Call to make an appointment and to change your life!

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