Lower Back Pain Treatment - Is Yoga Safe?

Lower back pain is insidious and can be debilitating. it is also quite scary, since the spine is the nerve center of your entire body and damage to it can lead to partial or even complete paralysis. it is not something to be taken lightly, and not something to go the do it yourself route with.

That is why doing yoga as treatment is such a risk unless you have been directly prescribed to do so by a doctor or a licensed chiropractor. While yoga in general is a good idea - it improves muscle tone, increases flexibility and blood flow, and is good for your blood pressure as well - specifically doing yoga as a lower back pain treatment can be a risky proposition.

You are not a doctor, so you do not know if your lower back pain is because of something as simple as having slept wrong and pulled a muscle, or if you have slipped a disc, or even if you have some sort of degenerative condition that yoga will actually exacerbate rather than help. And bear in mind, your body does not always register pain when you are abusing it. You may even find yourself in less pain after yoga but actually have done some structural damage. That is the last thing you want.

So now that you are properly warned, it is time to educate yourself on the different kind of yoga that can be done as a lower back pain treatment, and all the other options there are out there. Of course, Yoga itself is not just one particular set of stretches or poses. There are different kinds practiced in different ways for different reasons, and finding out just which one is best for your aching back or shoulders is a matter of consulting a licensed professional.

That said, most back pain is caused by improper posture. If That is the case for you, then your best starting point is Hatha Yoga, a style and technique of Yoga that focuses on posture as a means of physical purification and restoration. It was created in the 15th century by the Yogi Swatmarama, and he took the word "Hatha" as its descriptor because "ha" means sun and "tha" means moon in Sanskrit. The idea was to strike a true, unencumbered balance between the two - just as that should be your goal when practicing yoga as a back pain treatment.

Of course, fixing your posture will not do much if you have slipped a disc or some other similarly gruesome injury. That is why you need to be diligent and realistic about what will work as a lower back pain treatment and what will just make it worse. So remember, step one is see your doctor.

By Noel DCosta
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4047191

Health Treatment Through Yoga

Yoga has proved itself as the factor to regain health and remain juvenile. Even in the Western World there is a wave of persons practicing Yoga in their daily life. There are success stories where individuals have sorted out their issues and manage stress through yoga. Yoga in fact is an ancient technique to optimize the mind and body and maintaining the health equilibrium. Today in the USA alone there are several Yoga centers where numerous peoples from all classes and standards are practicing Yoga.

So now what exactly the Yoga is? To understand the right meaning of Yoga along with its significance we have to understand the human anatomy. Biologically our body consists of several systems - Nervous System, Digestive System, Circulatory System, Excretory System & Muscular system etc. Whenever we are ill or fell ill there is some mishap with our systems. For example if we are caught up with influenza which is a disease caused by a microbe, we take antibiotic and all clear. But what about chronic diseases like stress, constipation, low eyesight, poor memory concentration, sleeplessness these are not caused by any microbe (disease carrying organism). So these are not considered as diseases but some sort of maladies or malfunctioning as:

o Constipation

o Hypertension (High Blood pressure)

o Hypotension (Low Blood pressure)

o Indigestion

o Tension

o Depression

o Stress

o Tiredness

o Obesity

o Eyesight weakness

o Asthma

o Migraine

o Insomnia etc.

All these are caused due to malfunctioning of our body systems which I have aforesaid. Though there exist the allopathic treatments for all of these disturbances, yet they are fully accompanied by several side effects. So there are alternatives - acupressure, ayurveda and one of the best alternatives considered is "YOGA". Yoga helps in maintaining body systems functioning properly. Any malfunction could be cured if an individual practiced Yoga regularly under an expert trainer.

The basic question - what Yoga comprises and how to initiate it. The answer - Yoga is an ancient system of treatment and not exactly the treatment but the method to keep your body and mind in normal / optimize phase. Pantajali (considered as Yoga's Guru) in his book on Yoga has explained several ways of performing Yoga. Yoga comprises of Asanas and Dhyana - Body postures and Meditation respectively.

Body postures includes several postures of body either standing or lying down in different ways in order to make the muscles and body parts press and relax. Meditation is of the most used and tested way of treating several mental problems including stress. In meditation there is a concentration equilibrium maintained between body and mind and the stage comes when an individual feels himself absence not physically but mentally. This way there is some sort of effect of secretion of brains nerves and a person feels relax and active.

Ultimately yoga is the best tool to fight against the bodily deformities/malfunctions and if practiced regularly could cure even the most chronic situations.

By Singh Vineet

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/698638