Directory of health resources for healthcare professionals.

Many yoga classes end with a full-body relaxation, sometimes with guided visualization. You can learn the details of how to do that in a class or another book, but here I do want to give you the basic position. It is a wonderful way to relax because it allows your spine to be in a neutral position, and frees it from the usual direction of gravitational pull. In this position you can also release tension in muscles in every area of the body. This makes it a good choice before and after any workout or for a 5-minute “time-out” in the middle of a day.Lie flat on the floor without a pillow. Extend your legs so they do not touch each other at any point, and place your arms slightly away from your body, resting your hands beside your hips, palms up. If this makes your lower back uncomfortable, bend one knee at a time and place your feet flat on the floor, slightly wider than hip distance apart, and lean your knees against each other. Stay for at least 5 minutes. Relax and feel your breath go in and out of all parts of your body. Focus on the breath and let the body reap the benefits—don’t focus on the body parts or try moving them, but follow the breath. This is an ideal time to practice the “relaxation response”, or any other meditative or visualization technique that calms and centers you.*128\228\2*

Besides eating right, kids need exercise, just like adults. There are ways you can help in this area, too: Set a good example. Let your child see you committed to fitness—and enjoying exercise.Exercise together. Ride bikes as a family. Invite your child to go jogging with you. Spend a Saturday hiking a nearby nature trail or mountain. Sign up for a parent/child dance or martial arts class. Make a weekly date to do an exercise video together. Learn how to in-line skate together. Whatever kind of movement you get excited about, share it. And let your child’s enthusiasm be contagious. Encourage your children’s interest in whatever sports catch their fancy. Resist the urge to focus on winning, and remember the joy of the game and the satisfaction of playing as well as you can. Don’t force your children into a sport (or to continue in a sport). Let them find what suits them.Fitness and exercise is something kids need to do with their friends, too, not just a parent. It has to be Jim, and something they’ll want to do on their own. By all means, spend active time together, but also encourage their independent pursuits.Make it a point to spend time together outside every day, or at least every weekend day, and move. Play catch or tag, chase squirrels, shoot hoops, walk to the playground, pretend you are kangaroos and HOP . . . now, that’s quality time.*18\228\2*

Pain in the back is among the most frequent of all symptoms affecting human beings. A woman was once defined as “a two-legged animal with a pain in the back.” Man has been declared by mechanical experts “a mechanical misfit.” The backbone is shaped like a spring curved like the letter “S”. The spinal column is composed of small bones between which are cushions of cartilage known as disks. The bones are bound together by strong tissues called ligaments. The nerves come out in little notches between the bones. Any inflammation or infection of any of these tissues may cause a pain in the back. A sudden stress or a long-continued strain may throw any of the joints into a wrong position. Diseases may injure the cartilage or bone and result in pain. People who do heavy lifting or who stand long on their feet are especially likely to have pains in the back.
The common name for backache is lumbago; scientifically doctors speak of it as low back-pain, since it is the lower portion of the spine that is most frequently affected. In determining the cause of the pain in the back, X-ray pictures are a necessity. The use of such pictures and of other tests will reveal whether or not damage has been done to a disk, or whether or not it has slipped out of position. Sometimes an inequality in the length of the legs, even of a tiny amount, may throw a strain on some portion of the back and bring about pain. Tumors also affect the back, as they do any other portion of the body.
Sometimes backache is incidental to gout, gall bladder disease, ulcer of’ the stomach, or childbirth. The pain in the back which women often have after childbirth is sometimes related to the organs of childbirth, but at other times to disturbances of the intestines and kidneys. Sometimes the stress comes from sleeping in a bed which does not properly support the spine. For this reason, the doctor who handles such cases will want to know about the bed. He may consider the patient’s obtaining relief by wearing proper braces or supports. He will treat any detectable infection. He will measure the length of the legs, examine the patient for overweight or flat feet, and of course prescribe drugs, to relieve the pain while he is making his studies. He will also recommend the application of heat and sometimes of massage or manipulation to bring about relief.
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