Other than eating and breathing nothing is as important as exercise!

Even mentally-controlled rhythmic breathing is minor physical activity and can relieve symptoms of anxiety, depression and pain! In an article published in May 2013, the increasingly common use of injections for back pain is reported to be useless in the long run!

(JAMA. 2013 Jun 19;309(23):2439-40. doi: 10.1001/jama.2013.5892)

Of course, I wrote a book on this subject in 1969! Repeated cortisone shots are particularly worrisome.

In February a JAMA article the authors concluded doctors “should not” recommend injection therapy to their patients with chronic low back pain.

Take heed!! Those shots carry as many problems as they do short term help!

Yoga, Pilates, stationary bicycling, walking and acupuncture have all been found to be MORE effective, short- and long-term than injections! Now, if you happen to be one of the 15% of low back pain sufferers with a sacral shear, the best movement is osteopathic adjustment. Just last week I saw an 82-year-old man who had been operated on 6 years earlier for chronic low back pain. However, he had NO RELIEF from the surgery because, of course, they missed a sacral shear! Took me all of one minute to fix it. That is a situation where movement by someone else can be better than self-movement. Incidentally, I may be the only M.D. who even diagnoses this problem and for some odd reason, most of the people with it have been unsuccessfully treated by chiropractors. The bottom line is to see a REAL D.O. before you allow any M.D. to tamper with your chronic back pain!

And of course exercise of almost any kind is beneficial in every aspect of health, providing more benefit than all the drugs in the world! Less than 30 minutes of exercise daily is ultimately deadly.

Norman Shealy, M.D., Ph.D. is the father of holistic medicine. He recommends autogenic focus (the basis of the Biogenics System) as part of your overall commitment to self-health. Register to download your FREE autogenic focus MP3 now.