Back pain is one of the most common medical problems today, affecting 8 out of 10 people at some point during their lives. It can originate in the muscles, in the nerves, or in the bones and their supporting structures. As with most maladies, back pain is considered either chronic or acute. Chronic pain is continuously present, in varying degrees of severity, and can last for months or even years. The causes of chronic pain can be myriad, but are often linked to old trauma, muscles strain, or spinal misalignment. Acute back pain is pain that occurs suddenly, and can be caused by disease, infection, injury, or misalignment of the spine. Some of these conditions can be serious. If you experience acute back pain, you should be checked by your health care provider as soon as possible to rule out potentially life threatening situations.

By far the most common type of back pain is lower back pain, often caused by muscle strain or spinal misalignment. In order to improve this type of back pain, you need to focus first on identifying the situations in your life that may be causing or worsening the problem. Some things that contribute to back pain are: poor body mechanics; excess weight; stress; poor posture; lack of exercise; poor nutrition; improper shoes; and, repetitive tasks. Each of these contributing factors could be a blog entry of its own, and we’ll look at some of them in the near future. In the meantime, if you find that any of these things are contributing to your back pain, do a little research to learn what you can do to change them. Sometimes just a small change can make a big difference.

There are certain protective actions you can take to keep from worsening your back pain. The basic idea is to protect your back from strain by maintaining good posture, whether sitting, standing and walking, or sleeping. When sitting, men should stop wearing their wallets in their back pockets (women, too, if it applies). Sitting with a wallet under one hip all the time chronically misaligns your back. You should also avoid sitting with your legs crossed. Instead, sit with your feet flat on the floor, or crossed at the ankles. This keeps your posture balanced and improves muscle strength. Also avoid slouching. Sit up straight instead. Finally, try not to stay seated for too long at a stretch. Get up and move around to prevent muscle fatigue.

When you are standing, practice relaxing your knees instead of locking them. This helps with good posture as well. If you must stand in one place for extended periods, rest one foot at a time on a low box or stool, once more preventing muscle fatigue. Work at keeping your shoulders directly over your hips rather than letting them hunch forward. When reaching for things, turn your whole body instead of twisting at the waist. And bend at the knees to pick things up rather than bending from the back. For women (or men, if it applies), switching to well-fitting low-heeled or flat shoes can also help protect your back.

The first, and perhaps most important, consideration in protecting your back while you sleep is to choose a mattress that supports all parts of your body as evenly as possible. Most people will spend from a quarter to a third of their lives sleeping. If you’re going to spend that much time anyplace, it should be the best possible. There are lots of options in the world of mattresses, and some of them can be pretty pricey. If you decide you need a new mattress, be sure to do your research. And do your best to try out mattresses before your buy. Personally, I’ve tried all the latest and greatest designs–water beds, adjustable air mattresses, and viscoelastic foam (“memory” foam). They all had their pros and cons for me, but I finally landed (no pun intended) on a memory foam mattress, with a softer memory foam topper on it. But what meets your needs could be entirely different.

There are a few other tips for protecting your back while sleeping. First of all, try to avoid sleeping on your stomach. This position can twist the neck and put unusual strain on the shoulders. It also exaggerates the natural curves of your back. If you sleep on your side, try to keep both legs bent. Using a body pillow or bolster to support your upper arm and leg will help maintain the proper alignment of your spine. And make sure your pillow is shaped so that it supports your head and neck well enough that your lower shoulder doesn’t curl under. If you sleep on your back, try to keep your arms relaxed at your sides. And make sure your pillow isn’t so high that it tilts your neck at an unnatural angle. You can try placing small pillows or rolled up towels under your knees and your neck, and maybe even the small of your back, to relieve pressure points. (This can help even if you don’t have the best mattress.)

Besides just protecting your back, there are many other natural things you can try to relieve back pain. Some of the simplest are exercises to strengthen the back muscles and relieve tension. We’ll look at some specific exercises you can do tomorrow.

One of the up and coming marketing trends among major retailers is the introduction of more organic merchandise. This is especially true in the grocery industry. I suspect the major force driving this shift is public demand. People are becoming more informed about all the unhealthy additives that can be found in plant and animal products mass grown for consumption. And the more people know about such things, the less tolerant they become. Thus the push for more organics.

Organic products, in general, come from plants and animals that have been grown without the addition of artificial chemicals. So organic plants are grown without chemical fertilizers or pesticides, and organic animals are raised without being injected with hormones or antibiotics. Organic foods have also not been bioengineered or irradiated. At least, that’s the simple explanation. It gets just a bit more complicated when you’re reading labels at the grocery store.

Now, I know that there are organic products other than food. We’ll talk about those in other posts. For now, I want to look at food because its a basic necessity of life, and it affects everything about our health.

In the U.S. there are actually three classifications or “levels” of organic foods. These have been defined by the United States Department of Agriculture, in the National Organic Program (NOP). Single ingredient foods, such as fruit or vegetables, will simply be labeled Organic, and many will have the USDA Organic label on them. Multiple ingredient foods may be labeled either 100% Organic, Organic, or Made with Organic Ingredients. 100% Organic means exactly that–all ingredients and handling processes meet the requirements of the NOP, as certified by an approved certifying agency. A food may be labeled as Organic if it contains 95-99% organic ingredients by weight, excluding water and salt. These foods must also be certified by an approved agency. Either 100% Organic or Organic foods may carry the USDA Organic seal, but this isn’t a requirement. The third category, Made with Organic Ingredients, means the food has 70-94% organic ingredients. This, too, must be certified by an approved agency, but the product may not display the USDA Organic seal. Instead, it can list up to three specific organic ingredients on the front of the package.

Any other products may only list organic ingredients on the information panel of the label or box, and may not make any claim that the product itself is organic. Other words you may see on products, such as Natural, Range-free, No Additives, or Hormone-free, are not regulated by any agency, and they aren’t synonymous with Organic. On the other hand, many companies don’t want to go through the cumbersome and potentially expensive process of becoming certified, even though they are essentially following all the same practices. If you think a product looks good, but it doesn’t say organic, make a call to the customer service number. You might be surprised what good information you get.

On a final note, I would encourage you to become as informed as possible without becoming obsessive. Even in the NOP, there are allowable synthetic products that can be used in operations that produce organic foods. Most of these are reasonable, but in some situations, you should be aware of these things. For instance, the drug oxytocin may be used on cows after they give birth. (This is the same drug pregnant women are given to induce labor.) And it’s possible for a certified organic producer to get a variance to use non-organic feed if a situation arises that makes organic feed unavailable. Additionally, synthetic vitamin supplementation is always permitted. For a full list of the allowed substances, have a look at the NOP and scroll down to Subsection G. It makes for interesting reading.

Most people, I think, could benefit from adding supplements to their diet. Proponents of supplementation will tell you a lot of the problem with our food supply is that it’s being grown in soil depleted of minerals. Personally I don’t know that for sure, having never seen the research. What I do know is how much difference supplements have made in my life. If I forget my vitamins one day, I’m dragging by nightfall. And if it happens two days running, by the afternoon I have a serious case of brain fog and a nagging ache behind my eyes. Not pretty. If I’m taking my supplements, on the other hand, I generally have enough energy to run (not walk) up my stairs and to keep up with the grandkids.

It took me a while to find the right combination of supplements. There are basically four types: vitamins, minerals, herbs, and nutritional. Each has its benefits, and sometimes precautions. Let’s look briefly at each one.

There are 13 vitamins, denoted by letters of the alphabet. Vitamins A, D, E, and K are fat-soluble. The 8 B vitamins and vitamin C are water soluble. Vitamins are necessary for the body to function properly, yet it can only produce two of these vitamins, D and K, for itself, and then only under certain conditions. So the only place for us to get the vitamins we need is to ingest them, either in our food or in the form of supplements. The water soluble vitamins in particular are “washed” out of the body more quickly than the fat-soluble ones, and need to be ingested more often.

Minerals are exactly what they sound like. They are inorganic substances found in the earth and in our food. Minerals in small amounts are needed by our bodies to form bones, control nervous system function, support digestion, and balance fluids, among other things. There are 22 minerals that have been identified as “essential” minerals. Seven of the 22 (calcium, chloride, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, sulfur) are called macrominerals. The other 15 are considered trace minerals. Beyond these, there are more than 38 other minerals found in body that haven’t (yet) made the ranks of essential.

Herbs are botanicals, meaning that they are derived from various parts of plants. They can come in the form of extracts, capsules, tablets, roots, leaves, powders, berries, or teas. Herbs have been used to support health since the earliest days of man. The majority of the world’s population still uses herbal remedies today. Herbs are used for a wide range of conditions. In general, they support the body and its systems to improve health. Because this is such a vast subject, we’ll look at botanicals in more depth in other articles.

Finally, there are nutritional supplements. This is a bit of a catch-all category that includes some food substances, such as fish oil, some phytochemicals, such as flavonoids, some synthesized body chemicals, such as melatonin and amino acids, and some bacterium, such as acidophilus. Research is just beginning to show how wonderfully beneficial some of these supplements can be. We’ll be looking more in depth at many of these substances in future posts as well.

Just a word of caution before we go. There is no one combination of supplements that will suit everyone’s needs. Different people in different situations will benefit from different things. You absolutely must be armed with good information about supplements before you start adding them to your diet. Some of the supplements, particularly herbs and nutritional supplements, can have powerful effects. Pregnant and nursing women, and those already taking prescription medications should be especially cautious about beginning a supplementation regimen. Talk to your health care provider about adding supplements if you have any doubts at all. Many physicians these days understand that there is great benefit to natural supplementation, and they can help you avoid problems and drug interactions.

Welcome to the Natural, Herbal, and Organic blog. As the name suggests, this site looks for ways to improve our lives that are natural rather than artificial.

In the last few years, many people have come to the realization that our modern lifestyle is contributing greatly to the surge in disease rates. Powerful chemicals are in our food and water, in the air we breath, in the things we touch, and in our medicines. We’re bombarded with advertising encouraging us to take a pill for every symptom, or to buy this food for convenience or that one to lose weight. We’re told that this cleaning product will kill more germs and that shampoo will make us beautiful. Unfortunately, these products have not been designed solely for our good, but primarily to make a profit for the manufacturers. The more we consume, the sicker we get.

Mind you, I don’t blame the manufacturers. The first responsibility of any business is to make a profit, and I whole heartedly support free enterprise. No, I believe in personal responsibility. We, the consumers, are responsible for how we live our lives. What we need in order to make better choices is the truth. We need the knowledge that will help us lose weight, have more energy, keep a clean house, and have more time in a simpler, more natural way.

To that end, posts in this blog will explore natural remedies, herbal supplements, and organic products. Check the categories for information about each. And if you have a favorite natural solution that you’d like to add, send us an email. One thing we’ve learned through the years is that there’s no one solution that will work for everyone. We’d love to have you contribute.