Table Of ContentHarry elements is an osteopath 01
more than forty years' experience.
and so the sufferer from any form
of backache or disc trouble may
have every confidence that the
treatment outlined in this book is
aimed at removing the primary
causes 01 these troubles and so
effecting a lasting cure.
65. net (30p)
Banishing Backache
and
Disc Troubles
Harry elements,
N.D.,D.O.
Author of
SAVE YOUR TONSILS
NATIJRE Cutm POll PllOSTATE DISOllDEllS
SELP-T1lEATMENI' POll HEllNIA
SELP-TllEATMENI' POll SION TROUBLES
MAGIC, MYnI AND MEDICINE
HEADACHES ANDMIGRAINE--eAUSES ANDTREATMENT
NATURE Cu1lB POR ARTHRITIS
NATURECu1lBPORCONSTIPATION,APPENDICITIS
AND OTHEIl BOWEL DISORDERS
REALlH FOR ALL PUBLISHING COMPANY
GATEWAYHOUSE,BEDFORDPARK, CROYDONCR9 2AT,
SURREY
First Impression 1952
Second Impression 1955
Third Impression 1959
Fourth Impression 1963
Fifth Impression 1967
Sixth Impression 1970
ISBN 0 85269 021 5
© HARRY eLEMENTS 1952
Made and Printed in Great Britain for the Health for All Publishing Company.
Croydon. Surrey. by The Lewes Press Wighlman &< Co. Ltd., Friars Walk.
Lewes, Sussex.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
1. BACKACHE: A WIDESPREAD COMPLAINT 7
Backache: a Common Symptom-Definition of Back
ache-Backache Associated with Many Forms of Disease
-Little Relief from Taking Medicine-A Fertile Field
for Physical Treatments-Systems of Spinal Treatment
-The Erect Position of the Body-Recognising
Mechanical Efficiency in the Body-The Use of the
Body.
2. THE CAUSESOF BACKACHE .. 16
The Causes of Backache-Rheumatism and Fibrositis
as Causes of Backache-Arthritis and Backache
Ailments of the Digestive Tract as a Cause of Backache
-Backache and Women's Troubles-Posture and
Backache.
3. SYMPTOMS OF BACKACHE 28
The Symptoms of Backache-Effects of Differing
Positions of the Body-Lumbago and Sciatica
Backache in Children.
4. DISC TROUBLES AND BACKACHE 35
The Spinal Disc as a Problem in Backache-Some
Mistaken Notions about the Problem-Causative
Factors in Disc Troubles-The Symptoms of Disc
Troubles-Treatment: Some Essential Points.
5. TREATMENT (1) 42
Improving the General Health of the Body-Attacking
Specific Weaknesses that may Exist-The Question of
Diet-Planning a Sensible Normal Diet-The Impor
tance of Proper Food Combinations-The Importance
of Relaxation-The Essentials of Relaxation-Aids to
Relaxation.
6. TREATMENT (2) 57
Understanding Causes and Symptcms-s-The Importance
of Self.Analysis-Reconstructing Body Habits.
RESUME 64
FOREWORD
V ERY FEW PE0 PLE live their lives without
experiencing backache in one form or another. It may
be just a temporary inconvenience that comes and goes;
quickly relieved, perhaps, with a little extra care and
rest. On the other hand there are those for whom the
problem is of far greater dimensions, occupying, as it
were,a dominant place in the whole of their lives. The
sufferer is never without his ..back," which interferes
relentlessly with his work and his pleasures. It intrudes
itself at all times during the daily tasks and may even
interfere with rest and sleep.
In the past such sufferers appear to have received very
little help from medicine, sothat many of them regarded
it as something that had to be patiently borne. While
on every side their fellow-creatures might tell of the
marvellous progress of medical science, no one seemed
able to lift the burden of aches and pains that weighed
upon their backs. They were relegated to the class of
suffererstooordinaryto be noticed.
It may be said that since the advent of osteopathy
there has been a brighter gleam of hope for these people,
because it carried with it a new conception of the
relationship between structure and function, and stressed
the possibility that mechanical derangement could be a
real causative factor, particularly in complaints like
backache. From this standpoint body mechanics took on
a new form and meaning; posture, balance and corre
lation became terms of great physiological significance,
and were recognised as the bodily factors out of which
most of the cases of intractable backache were created.
5
6 BANISHING BACKACHE AND DISC TROUBLES
Out of this idea has grown a new conception of the
inherent power of adjustability of the structure of the
body, similar, indeed, to the inherent quality within us
that heals our wounds, sealsour cuts and reconstructs the
broken bone. It is this concept that is important to
the individual, because it emphasises the importance of
self-help both in the preventive and in the curative sense.
The habits by which we have built up the structural
pattern of our bodies (the bad ones of which have made
manifest the ailments like backache and similar troubles)
are modifiable by the exercise of Will-power and self
training. It is with this point of view in mind that this
book has been written.
CHAPTER ONE
BACKACHE: A WIDESPREAD COMPLAINT
Backache: a Common Symptom.-With perhaps the
exception of headache, backache is the most common of
all the symptoms of ill-health. There are very few
people who have not suffered from it, and 50 little has
been done in the ordinary way to meet this complaint
that most people feel they have to putup with it. It may
be because it is so common a symptom that so little has
been done to meet it as a problem; there are many
people who will say that they never mention the trouble
to a doctor because they feel that medicine has so little
to offer in the way of an effective remedy. It may be,
they are wont to say, all right to take medicine for
indigestion or constipation or someothersuch complaint,
but there seems to be very little logic in taking it for a
symptom like backache. In consequence, it becomes one
of the commonest and one of the least regarded of all
the burdens that the human has to bear.
Generally speaking backache is regarded more as a
nuisance than anything else, and very little sympathy
is expended on its victims. It can be-and is-borne
without too much outward manifestation, so that back
ache is usually suffered in silence, mostly on the assump
tion that it is a common trouble and a common lot.
Definition of Backache.-It is often very difficult to
get the sufferer to give a clear definition of what ismeant
by this term. It seemsto vary with almost every patient.
One will complain that it is a sharp, painful symptom;
another will refer to it as a dull ache; while another may
describe it as a kind of weakness. It is often hard,
therefore, to give it a definition that will apply to all
7
8 BANISHING BACKACHE AND DISC TROUBLES
the sufferers, and so we must content ourselves with a
general one. Backache may be described as any aching
pain affecting the structures of the body from the
shoulders to the buttocks. Many people may think this
too wide a region to be covered by the term, and usually
confine it to a pain felt in the lower part of the back.
But, as the pain is usually a radiating one, involving
most of the large muscles of the back, it is wiser to think
ofitin afairly wide sense.
Backache Associated with Many Forms of Disease.
Backache is associated with various disease conditions,
both acute and chronic. In acute diseases, like 'flu, and
in the various infectious complaints, an aching back is
almost an invariable accompaniment. Why this should
be is not easy to explain, but some people do suffer very
much in this way, and in rare cases the trouble may
persist into what one may call an ordinary backache.
Generally, however, with the passing of the acute illness
the pain in the back clears also. Thiskind of a backache
is, therefore, so far as we are concerned, not considered
as a condition requiring special attention.
In some casesof so-called chronic disease there may be
persistent backache. Many of the conditions that
producegreatdebilitylead to this symptom, and ofcourse
nothing save the successful treatment of the underlying
disease will be of lasting value in clearing it up. The
popular idea that backache is always associated with
kidney trouble is not always true. It is true that in cases
of established kidney disease there may be backache, but
it is a fallacy to think that every backache indicates
disturbance of the kidney and bladder functions, assome
cleverly worded advertisements would have us believe.
Many internal troubles give rise to backache.
Afflictions of the bowel, like colitis, for example, are
BACKACHE: A WIDESPREAD COMPLAINT 9
almost invariably associated with this trouble, and the
so-called fallen stomach also produces it. Pelvic
disorders can cause it too, and haemorrhoids, or piles,
may be an unsuspected cause. Without going into too
much detail about these forms of backache, we want to
make it quite clear that backache can exist, as it were,
not within its own right, but merely as a manifestation
of some disease condition. It should not, therefore, be
overlooked merely as an isolated symptom.
Little Relief from Taking Medlcine.-Many sufferers
are aware that very little relief is obtained from taking
medicine. While this is never an advisable practice,
there is no doubt that many other symptoms can be
reli-eved in this way; but the weakness and persistence of
backache seems to be not even temporarily amenable to
these measures, and, as we shall explain later on, we
believe that it is due to the fact that mechanical factors
are involved. Now if proper measures are used in the
alleviationofsuch mechanicalfactors no harmwill acrue,
no matter what the underlying condition may be; on
the other hand, the takingofsuppressivedrugs may easily
mask a situation that will go from bad to worse.
We desire to stress very strongly that the only way to
giverelief from backache safely is always to bear in mind
that the structure of the body is under strain, and that
whatever measure ofrelief isundertaken should be based
on this premise. We should say to ourselves: what is it
that disturbs the balance of the structure and thus
produces the feeling of aching weariness of the back?
We should remember at all times that we are dealing
with a mechanical problem, and if we are able to solve
the trouble along those lines we shall make a useful
contribution to the health of the whole system.
