Self Cure for Back Aches

Self-cure for Backaches:
A new prescription
By S.M. Acharya. M.A., B.Com., HDC, GDCA, CAIIB,
(Ex-Mg Director, Coop. Sugar Mills Fedtn.,1960s)


Frequently and repeated attacks of common backaches
are the single biggest cause of absenteeism from
productive work all over the world. It is estimated
that four out of five persons in the world, more so,
sedentary workers and executives at all levels suffer
from those nagging backaches resulting in loss of
millions of man-hours and billions of dollars worth of
production worldwide annually.

It is more common among the professionals especially
at the middle and upper managerial levels. With the
onset of computerization, Internet, etc., more and
more persons are spending long hours sitting in front
of their machines and screens, straining their backs
against the rule of nature, causing damage to their
spinal columns creating nervous troubles and aches and
pains of varied nature.

If timely precautions and curative measures are not
taken, the occasional troubles slowly degenerate into
lumbago, cervical spondylosis and several such
troubles which, if neglected, may turn into
irreparable degeneration of the ligaments and even
cancer of the spine.

The writer too having worked as an executive most of
his working life, suffered from backaches for forty
long years. He had to absent himself from work quite
often, sometimes for weeks together, on account of his
acute backaches; and was prescribed strong allopathic
medicines, pain-killers ointments, belt, traction,
heat therapy and finally was recommended for spinal
operation after the X-ray image showed extensive
degeneration of the spine with no prospects of
becoming a normal person with a normal back doing
normal work.

The condition was so bad that it was difficult to even
turn sides in bed without suffering excruciating pain.
It required literally crawling around to move in the
house or to go into the toilet or enter or alight from
a car. Driving long distances would cause more
trouble. Climbing stairs, gardening, walking or even
sitting at the dinner table, were all very painful.
This limited my normal activities still further,
resulting in over-weight and ultimately heart attack.

But how was it that animals never suffered backaches?
They could run much faster than men and fly long
distances without any trouble at all. That set me
thinking as to what could be done by human beings to
avoid such troubles.

The great Swami Shivananda of Rishikesh, a great yogi
himself, suffered from backaches. While going up hill
to a temple, he could not climb the stairs due to
acute backache. So he walked on all fours and climbed
up the hill and made it to the temple. It came to him
naturally.

Prevention is better than cure and cheaper to. All
animals and birds follow their natural way of eating,
drinking, sleeping, walking and even indulging in sex.
Man is the only animal, a two-legged one of course,
who goes on breaking all rules of nature and natural
behaviour. If man too could follow nature and all
natural rules, he could certainly avoid various
problems, including backaches. This writer did it and
got cured completely.

While it may not be possible to describe all the do’s
and don’ts in a short article for want of space,
interested persons can visit www.atbsnr.com for
details. Readers of ASCENT are also welcome to seek
more information from the author by email to him at
smacharya@yahoo. co.uk free of charge.

Briefly, the technique is a three to five-minute
toning up regimen. After waking up in the morning or
even after an afternoon nap, lie straight on your back
on a relatively hard bed, diwan or sofa with your
palms placed in place of the pillow under your head
facing upwards. Thus the palms support the spine. Then
try to induce natural stressing as if we are taking
what is called in Hindi an “angdai”. This is good for
even those suffering from cervical spondylosis. Don’t
exert. Just do it like an innocent child when he lies
in the lap of his/her mother. If you are already
suffering from backache, it may take a few days to
induce this stretching

Now remaining in that relaxed position, move one foot
clock-wise and the other anti-clockwise without moving
the heels, in a synchronized manner to complete a full
circle and then relax leaving both the feet in their
original place. When you do it in a relaxed manner,
each time when you take the feet apart and relax, you
will start enjoying it very much. It takes hardly a
couple of seconds to complete one round. That means
you are enjoying every two or three seconds. Repeat
this ten times or more if you have the time.

Next, do the same in the reverse direction. Doing ten
times hardly takes half-a-minute. Then take the legs
six to ten inches apart, as apart as you feel
comfortable. Then jerk up both feet together, keeping
the heels on the bed only. That will make both the
knees rise up slightly, feet working as lever. Then
strike the knees together, quickly but without force.
Then jerk back the feet effortlessly to their original
position. The knees will automatically fall down where
they were. Repeat this enjoying the relaxation it
gives. Do it playfully as many times as you enjoy.

Then finally, draw both the feet to the middle of the
bed so that the knees would also rise up; just like
when we draw our legs towards us when reading a book
lying on the bed. Now lift up the feet from heels to
toes but keeping the heels stay put in their place.
Then strike the knees together without force. Stay for
a second. Then drop the feet back to their place with
slight thud. This is highly relaxing for leg muscles
and for the mind to unwind from tiredness. Repeat ten
times or more.

The entire relaxing technique described above, takes
two or three minutes. Thereafter, start taking your
feet slowing downwards towards the end of the bed to
make them straight, thinking only that you are
stretching from head to toe in a straight line to grow
taller and taller. When fully stretched, then take a
deep breath, keeping your palms under the head all the
time. After fully inhaling, induce the same “angdai”
effortlessly. Then turn sideways and get up. If you
have neck pain, then put your palms behind the head.
breath in, raise your heels a bit as if you are
standing on the toes just for a second, take ‘angdai’
and start walking straight.

This way you can keep your posture straight throughout
your life without stooping as many aged people do. It
will keep you free from most aches and pains of the
spine and the joints as long as you live. What more a
human being could pray for?

Hence, the new good health slogan for the new
millennium is:
“Three minutes a day?;
Keep the doctor away.”
And,
When ever you are too tired, just lie down and do
this 3-minute stretching to come out
“Fresh-like-a- flower’ each and every time.

Doing this routin daily will find you a rejuvenated
person. There is a short 20-minute video film
demonstrating the exercises and explaining other
details that can also be screened at free demo camps
if Rotarians/Lions/ Senior Citizens’ clubs and other
establishments employing large number of people, could
organize such free backache-cure camps to make their
members and other citizens Backache-free;