“Sorry,” said the doctor. “There’s nothing I can do.”
“Thanks for trying,” said the man with a sigh. “How much do I owe you?”
“Three hundred and fifty dollars,” replied the doctor.
“Three hundred and fifty dollars! Just to tell me my dog is dead?”
“Well,” said the doctor, “it was $50 for the office visit. The other $300 is for the CAT scan.”

Whether the above joke made you laugh or groan, it lightened your mood. And if you had been in pain, many scientists agree, it would have eased the hurt—at least temporarily.

A fresh take on an old idea

The notion that laughter is good for the body has been around for thousands of years—certainly as far back as the Old Testament. Proverbs 17:22 says, “A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.”

Seventeenth century English physician Dr. Thomas Sydenham remarked, “The arrival of a good clown exercises more beneficial influence upon the health of a town than of twenty asses laden with drugs.” Or as Groucho Marx put it, “A clown is like aspirin, only he works twice as fast.”

How do you get a sweet 80-year-old lady to say the F word? Get another sweet little 80-year-old lady to yell *BINGO*!

The value of laughter in helping to relieve pain began to attract significant attention in the 1980s when Dr. Norman Cousins in his book Anatomy of an Illness described how watching Marx Brother movies and reading humorous books and articles helped him recover from a life-threatening tissue disease.

Cousins made it a point to enjoy a hearty belly laugh several times a day. He claimed that a few minutes of laughter gave him an hour or more of pain-free sleep. As a result, many pain centers around the country began to use humor therapy to reduce the level of pain medication needed by patients.

There was even a movie made about real-life doctor Patch Adams, a physician who was totally committed to making his patients laugh as an essential part of his treatment.

How does laughter reduce pain?

Clinical staff consistently note that the primary benefit of humor therapy is that it serves as a diversionary tactic—that is, it takes a patient’s mind off the pain.

A study published in the Journal of Holistic Nursing reported that patients who were told one-liners after surgery and before painful medication was administered perceived less pain when compared to patients who didn’t get a dose of humor as part of their therapy.

Why don’t bunnies make noise when they have sex? Because they have cotton balls.

Another study, this one published in the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, found that young girls with burns who were shown cartoons during very painful hydrotherapy said they felt less pain than similar patients who were not exposed to cartoons during the same procedure.

A second theory of how laughter helps relieve pain is that it triggers the release of endorphins, the chemicals in the brain that can make us feel good.

Natural healing

Around the same time that the Cousins book appeared, the departing editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Franz Ingelfinger, noted that 85 percent of all human illnesses are curable by the body’s own healing system. Building a positive focus in your life—which includes a regular dose of laughter—can play a key role in supporting the body’s ability to do just that.

Laughing, in fact, has been shown to increase the body’s natural killer cells and T-cells, which are types of cells that attack foreign material in our bodies. Laughter also keeps away negative emotions such as anxiety and depression, which tend to weaken the immune system.

Why are they called “hemorrhoids”. They should be called “asteroids”?

Research on stress-related hormones and humor has shown that laughter reduces at least four of the hormones associated with the stress response, including epinephrine, cortisol, dopac, and growth hormone.

Some studies have indicated that laughter improves lung capacity and with improved lung capacity come improved oxygen levels in the blood, thereby alleviating ischemic pain or pain do to lack of oxygen-rich blood.

Internal jogging

According to Dr. William Fry from Stanford University, one minute of laughter is equal to 10 minutes on the rowing machine. Laughter is a kind of “internal jogging” that exercises our heart and reduces blood pressure in the same way as does standard aerobic exercise. This kind of laughter exercise is well suited to sedentary people and those who are confined to a bed or wheelchair.

What did One saggy boob say to the other saggy boob? If we drop any lower people are gonna think we are nuts!

If you keep the Huh Huh Huh - going for long periods of time and increase the number of times you do it while at the same time shrugging your upper body you will keep the oxygen flowing to the cells that need it and you will be giving what you body need to begin to reduce your pain and speed healing.

And here’s a final fascinating fact: Researchers at St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center in Minnesota say that tears of laughter remove toxic substances that normally build up during periods of emotional stress…So, whether you prefer Dirty jokes, Redneck jokes or Funny Photos the Internet has provide us with an unlimited number of resources not to mention the ton of emails that you get from your friends that they think are funny and they just have to send to you for some reason thinking that you have the time to read it and that you have nothing else to do. Maybe just read on a week and see how you feel.

If you do read a joke or see a funny photo and it does put a smile on your face learn to keep that smile going longer and feel how good you feel when you keep your head up and a smile on your face.

Life will always be full of challenges but we should always be driven to seek those thing that give us Joy and Piece, so if a joke can give you 30 seconds of joy, read a joke and keep smiling.

If you enjoyed this article, and would like more information in alternative back pain treatments sign up for our Back Pain Advisory and you will join the nearly 1 million people that have received this life changing information. Please visit our new web site at http://www.losethebackpain.com/ for more free informative articles, videos and open forums.

It all started about a year after we got married. During our first year of marriage, like most couples, our focus was on starting a family, which meant we did our best to make that happen. So far, so good.

But after almost a year of trying without success, we began to wonder if something might be wrong. Off we went to see the fertility specialist, who first asked how old my wife was, then took a blood sample to measure her level of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH), which is the main hormone involved in producing mature eggs. Then he did an ultrasound test to check out her uterus.

When they gave us the results, it would have felt better if they had used a shotgun. At age 39, my wife had an FSH score of 12 (the odds of conception at anything over 10 is virtually zero). Not only that, but they also found three uterine fibroids in three different areas, or levels, in the lining of her uterus.

How bad news spurred us into action

I’ll spare you the grief and heartache we went through that day—the day we were told we would never have a child. I can tell you that when I get bad news, I feel the same emotions of hopelessness, grief, and frustration as anyone else would in the same circumstances. I also have to admit that I expressed my rage in a torrent of choice words (mostly R-rated). For me, it was the release I needed, and it was the first step on our road to recovery.

For as quickly as the bad news had created a sense of hopelessness, my wife and I were somehow able to put aside the negative and begin to focus on what we could do rather than what we couldn’t. Within 12 months of that terrible day, we finalized the adoption of our daughter, Jessica Taylor.

In fact, from the first day we signed any paperwork to the time we were standing in front of a judge, it took only 10 months—a land speed record in the world of domestic infant adoption. Jessica will be 5 next month, and if my wife and I had simply sat by and gotten negative and depressed, she surely would not be in our lives today.

What you need to know

While not truly understanding what a uterine fibroid tumor was at the time and only hearing the word “tumor,” I immediately went to work to learn everything I could about them. And, like anything else, the answer is out there—you just have to ask the right questions, find the right people, and knock on the right doors.

Of course, the doctor we had only wanted to sell us a $20,000 Egg donor fertility package. He could not have cared one bit about the fibroids and the emotions my wife was experiencing when she learned she had them—let alone offer us a solution.

The first bit of good news I found was that fibroids are rarely cancerous. In fact, some are even asymptomatic, meaning they don’t have any symptoms. Many women, however, will experience symptoms such as abnormal bleeding, pelvic pain, bowel and bladder irregularity, and painful or uncomfortable intercourse. In some case, fibroids can cause a distended abdomen.

What exactly are fibroids?

Uterine fibroid tumors are small, solid collections of smooth muscle cells and fibrous connective tissue that can develop in various parts of the uterus.

What causes them?

No one really knows why they develop, but there is a well-established correlation between fibroids and hormonal imbalances—specifically, higher estrogen levels and lower progesterone levels.

Being in an estrogen-dominant state should not come as a surprise to women these days—even up to premenopausal ages—because of the widespread use of birth control pills and even the large amounts of soy we all eat. Yes, I said soy.

The best way to overcome a challenge is to overwhelm it

If you suspect (or know) that you have a uterine fibroid, please seek proper medical attention. In our case, we were not offered any treatment, which is common. The typical recommendation is to do nothing but wait and see what happens.

Well, we weren’t going to wait until these fibroids got to be the size of bowling balls before we took any action. (Personal observation: sometimes when we are faced with a medical situation that is not life-threatening, we tend sit back and hope that things will get better on their own. Seldom do we decide to attack the problem from as many different angles as possible—all at once, in an effort to overwhelm it, stop it, or at least control it as quickly as possible.)

My wife found her solution in enzymes

My wife had been off any birth control for a while before she found out she had fibroids. But the hormonal imbalances were already evident. We did look into hormone replacement therapy (HRT), but this was right around the time when this approach was getting bad press and some of these products were even being pulled from the market. She did try some natural progesterone cream for a while, until she discovered something called “proteolytic enzymes.”

Can Proteolytic enzymes reverse fibroids?

Proteolytic enzymes are a remarkable substance, and they are responsible for a host of bodily functions. When it comes to uterine fibroids, proteolytic enzymes help break down and remove excess fibrous tissue, which is what fibroids are mostly made of. That’s why these enzymes work so well.

Let me tell you what happened in our case. We both started to take them. Why both of us? Well, for one thing, my wife had never heard of these enzymes, and she felt that it was something we should do together. In less than a week, we both started to feel better—and I’m talking all over. Simple aches and pains began to disappear, and we found we had greater flexibility in our hands (We were both massage therapists at the time and our hands are everything to us).

By week two, my wife started to have what the scientists and the developers of the enzymes call a “side activity.” Why they can’t just call it a side benefit is beyond me. Anyway, she started to get this vaginal discharge that she called “the goo.” I called it “money” because it was a signal that remnants of the fibroids were passing through her.

This continued over the next four to six weeks. My wife did not complain of any vaginal pain during this period. She simply said, “Things just worked better if you know what I mean.”

The one interesting thing about enzymes is that they work at several different dosing levels, in the beginning there is an Activation dose, the Activation dose is different for everyone so you will need to experiment with your dose by incrementally adding one or two capsule per day.

The Activation dose can be continued as long as your are experiencing the side activity, once the side activity starts to subside you can start on what is called a maintenance dose.

That was five years ago. Today, we still take the enzymes for the numerous health benefits they provide, including cardiovascular support not to mention helping to control the levels of systemic inflammation in our bodies the root cause of virtually every disease known to man. It goes without saying that when your enzyme levels drop or stay too low for too long, you will eventually find yourself planted on the other side of the grass.

To learn more about proteolytic enzymes and the roll they play in help us stay healthy, I suggest you read this article: http://www.losethebackpain.com/inflammation6.html

Trigger points, a type of muscle stiffness, are the result of tiny contraction knots that develop in muscle and tissue when an area of the body is injured or overworked. Trigger points are something traditional doctors ignore, but they could be the one thing that has been overlooked in your case for years, if not decades.

A hallmark of trigger points is something called “referred” pain. This means that trigger points typically send their pain to some other place in the body, which is why conventional treatments for pain so often fail. Many health care practitioners wrongly assume that the problem is located where the pain is and therefore fail to assess the body correctly to find the cause of your pain.

I’m going to give you some valuable information about trigger points that I hope will encourage you to consider the possibility that trigger points may be the missing link in your quest for relief.

What triggers a trigger point?

Trigger points can occur as a result of muscle trauma (from car accidents, falls, sports- and work-related injuries, etc.), muscle strain from repetitive movements at work or play, postural strain from standing or sitting improperly for long periods at the computer, emotional stress, anxiety, allergies, nutritional deficiencies, inflammation, and toxins in the environment. A single event can initiate a trigger point, and you can suffer the effects for the rest of your life if that trigger point is not addressed properly.

Why trigger points cause trouble

Your body’s instinctive reaction to a harmful “event” is to protect itself. It does that by altering the way you move, sit, or stand, which puts abnormal stress on your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints. This produces strength and flexibility imbalances in your muscles, as well as postural dysfunctions throughout your body.

If that were not bad enough, your blood flow can become restricted and when that happens both your peripheral and central nervous systems will start to send out those “referred” pain signals, making assessment and treatment even trickier. That’s why some experts believe that trigger points are the beginning stage of fibromyalgia. Can things get even worse? Keep reading.

Here’s why you may be suffering

To better illustrate the process, here’s an example of how one trigger point in one muscle can cause back pain, sciatica, or a herniated disc. The most common place for a trigger point is in the muscle of the lower back called the quadratus lumborum (QL), which is located just above your hips. Regardless of what kind of event sparks the trigger point, your QL will gradually become dysfunctional—that is, the QL will tighten and shorten. And as you limit its use, it will weaken.

As the QL becomes increasingly dysfunctional, it will alter the position of the pelvis. As the pelvis becomes dysfunctional, it will force the spine into an abnormal curvature that will put abnormal pressure on the disc. Over time, the disc will begin to bulge. This situation will get progressively worse, affecting your overall quality of life. Depression often follows. All of this from a single event that occurred in one moment in time.

How do you know if you have trigger points?

Everyone has trigger points; the question is degree. If you have lingering pain, tightness, or restriction of certain movements, it is a good bet that you are experiencing the effects of a trigger point. Trigger points may produce symptoms as diverse as dizziness, earaches, sinusitis, nausea, heartburn, false heart pain, heart arrhythmia, genital pain, and numbness in the hands and feet.

Trigger points can bring on headaches, neck and jaw pain, low back pain, sciatica, tennis elbow, and carpal tunnel syndrome—you name it. They are the source of joint pain in the shoulder, wrist, hip, knee, and ankle that is often mistaken for arthritis, tendonitis, bursitis, or ligament injury. If you think this is overkill, I suggest you read the book “Why We Hurt: A Complete Physical & Spiritual Guide to Healing Your Chronic Pain,” by Dr. Greg Fors, in which he explains precisely why so many different conditions are rooted in trigger points.

Here are a few more symptoms you should know about: If you have restless leg syndrome, you have TPs; if your teeth hurt, you have TPs; if your workouts have plateaued, you have TPs; if you have painful menses or irritable bowel syndrome, you have TPs.

How does Trigger Point Therapy work?

Simply rubbing the surface of the skin with a massage lotion, a vibrating massager—or using heat—will not change the tissue of a single trigger point. What it needs is sufficient deep sustained pressure to the “knotted-up area.” As you work the Trigger Point, your body will undergo soft tissue release, allowing for increased blood flow, a reduction in muscle spasm, and the break-up of scar tissue. It will also help remove any build-up of toxic metabolic waste.

Your body will also undergo a neurological release, reducing the pain signals to the brain and resetting your neuromuscular system to restore its proper function. In other words, everything will again work the way it should.

How long does it take to get relief?

The length of time it takes to release a trigger point depends on several factors, one of which is how long you have had your trigger point. Other factors include the number of trigger points you have, how effective your current treatment is, and how consistently you can administer or receive treatment.

Even if you are lucky enough to find a clinician who can properly assess your condition—let alone treat trigger points—it can be time-consuming and costly to pay someone to completely release all the primary, latent, and myofascial trigger points you may have in your body. You can try going to a massage therapist, but trigger points are very fickle; they need to be addressed daily using a technique that will apply the pinpoint pressure that is needed. Most likely it will be impractical to see a massage therapist frequently enough to get a trigger point to release.

An approach that makes sense

The basic idea is simple. First of all, a trigger point is only about the size of a mustard seed, which is one of the tiniest of all seeds. The idea is to put sustained pressure on the area for a set period of time on a regular basis. There are a number of techniques out there that you can employ to do this. The bottom line is that you need to take the initiative.

“There is no substitute for learning to control your own musculoskeletal pain,” says Dr. Simons. “Treating myofascial trigger points yourself addresses the source of that kind of common pain and is not just a way of temporarily relieving it.” In other words, you can fix your own trigger points better than anyone else—once and for all. Dr. Simons has it exactly right: You must educate yourself about your condition and then apply what you’ve learned. This runs counter to today’s conventional wisdom, which says that whenever we have a health issue, we should find someone to take care of the problem for us.

What I’m saying here is that you need to take responsibility for managing your own care. From time to time, of course, you may find you need help from medical professionals. But even so, the more you know, the better care you’re going to receive. This is naturally going to require some time and effort on your part, but the payoff will be faster with far better results.

If you enjoyed this article, and would like more information in alternative back pain treatments sign up for our Back Pain Advisory and you will join the nearly 1 million people that have received this life changing information. Please visit our new web site at http://www.losethebackpain.com/ for more free informative articles, videos and open forums.

I also know that people who are suffering can develop feelings of fear, anger, betrayal, and even hopelessness when their treatments don’t deliver as promised. The trust they once had with their health care provider starts to diminish, and they don’t know where to turn. Here is an e-mail I got from a young girl that illustrates my point:

I’ve tried every homeopathic remedy and every remedy with all these anecdotal positive results. I will never again be duped. I’m sorry, but I am jaded with this type of thing. I’m not spending a dime on anything with promises. Mostly they are false.

It is my belief that if our health care providers helped to educate us a little more, we consumers would have a better chance of understanding our condition, and we could make better decisions about what is best for us.

A must-read book

To help you look at your back pain from a different angle, I want to tell you about the best book I have ever read. It’s called “Think Inside the Box,” by David Deutsch. Actually, I recommend that you listen to the audio CDs to get the full impact of how he learned to think in new ways and how he can teach you to do the same. The book is primarily about thinking creatively, but all the lessons can be carried over into your everyday life.

One of the most fascinating topics he presents is called “doing the opposite.” I know the concept is as old as man, but what I’m about to tell you is so simple that you are going to have to try it for yourself.

Stop doing what people tell you

Let me give you two examples of what I’m talking about. There is a good chance that you have read an article about trying yoga or Pilates as a way of keeping your back healthy. Well, yoga may be just fine for someone who doesn’t have a back condition. But here is what you must know.

No matter what condition you are suffering from, your back pain is a physical problem that was created by imbalances in your body. Therefore, it will require a physical solution—that’s what rehabilitation is all about. Unfortunately, it is often the case that what is taught or done in your rehab does not work toward bringing your body back to a more balanced state.

Consider the yoga example: We know that yoga is a well-balanced program—and that’s the problem. You need an “unbalanced” workout to get your body back into balance. With yoga, you will be strengthening all of your muscles. And if you strengthen a muscle—or a group of muscles—that is already too strong, you’ll make your imbalance even greater and your condition will get worse.

The unbalanced workout has to be a very targeted action plan based on your specific imbalances. That’s why you should never start an exercise program such as yoga or Pilates without first knowing where your body is out of balance.

The unbalanced workout is also referred to as “muscle-balancing therapy.” It will only strengthen muscles that need to be strengthened and stretch muscles that need to be stretched. When you employ a therapy that has a very set program, it is easy to follow and results are easy to recognize.

Are you doing the same thing every day?

What you must also understand is that your imbalances are the result of what you do in your everyday life—your workouts, sitting, the activities of your job, and your own personal habits. I’m not going to tell you to stop doing what you need to do. But what if you slightly changed the way you do them, or even tried to do the opposite.

- Instead of sitting at your desk, try kneeling. I kneel at least 30 percent of the time I spend at my desk. I have a small foam pad that puts me just high enough to type.

- When I do sit, I sit on a therapy ball. And guess what? I don’t sit still like my momma told me to. I move my hips in every direction, which means I’m working on my core balance all day long.

- When most people are standing in line at the store or talking to someone, they tend to stand on one leg and kick the other leg out to the side, with their hands on their hips. Instead, I try to stand at attention, with both of my feet exerting equal pressure on the floor and my hands behind me.

One more thing to try

Have you heard the phrase, “You don’t know what it’s like until you walk a mile in my shoes”? Well, if you’re going to try that one, you’re going to have to walk backwards. Yes, every morning I walk backwards for at least 20 minutes, varying the speed and the length of my steps. I’ve gotten so good at it that I don’t even have to look back—even when someone is coming.

I know you are all going to go out and try this, so let me give you some quick tips: Start slow. Hold on to someone for support in the beginning. Walk on the edge of a path so you can use the edge as a guide. Know that the path you’re walking on is smooth, like a high school track.

You’re on your own

My hope is that you will read the book I recommended and learn to think a little differently. My hope is that you can change your daily activities just a bit. My hope is that you get my point that doing the same thing over and over again may not be the answer, and it may be one of the reasons you have struggled for so long.

You may not have to do the complete opposite to find the one thing that will give you relief. But whatever you do, be sure it makes sense for you and your condition.

To learn more about how you can get lasting relief from your Back Pain by using the Muscle Balance Therapy™, we suggest you read the latest copy of our Back Pain Relief Guide. You can get your copy here: http://www.losethebackpain.com

What if I told you there was a way to step back in time and reflect on your past and create a future that insures you don’t make the same mistakes again, would you like to try it? It will take as little as 5 minutes and on the other hand you can do it for as long as you like.

Have you tried Walking Backwards, That’s right simple by walking backwards you can physically walk your mind back in time. Now of course walking backward is not that easy and ho by the way it’s a killer workout, it works your balance, agility and stability, and it targets your Glute and Hamstrings, which are trouble areas and very weak for a lot of people in fact weak Glutes and Hamstrings are in part a contributing factor for back pain.

Have you seen Steven Hefferon the “Backward Walking Man of Central Park”? Those that have, get up pretty early, Steve likes to walk first thing in the morning before heading into his office, most of the time before 6 AM not to beat the heat but to beat the distractions, it freaks people out a little bit when they see me walking backwards and while Steve does not mind explaining what he is doing it does make it hard to keep focused on stepping back in time.

If you would like to learn how to walk your mind back in time, the first thing you need to do is to practice walking backwards. Any path that is paved and has an edge is great for practicing. If you are still hesitant try holding someone’s hand and doing it together.

The hard part is training your mind to think backwards, so one technique is to think back on birthdays, holidays or special events than as you get better at thinking back concentrate on details of the events and sooner of latter you will think of the blunder, embarrassing moment and yes even the mistake…

Don’t get me wrong this is not just about walking back into mistakes but feel free to walk your self back when you have moment of greatness and genius. Backup your life to a time when you could do no wrong, when you felt the best, the safest and the felt like you could do anything, feel free to walk your self in to a feel good moment and stay there for a while and than use that feeling to create achievement in your life today…

Look you can sit on the couch and watch reruns or Hogan’s Heroes, or Get Smart or Gilligan’s Island and have the same type of memories but If you want to create change in your life, get you butt off the couch and walk your mind back in time and learn from your mistakes and hold on to the times that made you feel good or even the times of greatness.

Let me add final summation to the experience, as the final step in creating change and to live the changes you want to live, there is a simple formula to any situation you find yourself in and it goes like this…

STOP, you’re self from reacting like you would have…

THINK, for a moment what is the best way to handle this situation…

ANTICIPATE, How the outcome is going to be so you become in control of the situation and not always have to put out fires…

You see I heighten my success by learning from both from the highs and lows, understanding what I did, why I did it and what my thought and beliefs were at the time.

I know now, that I need to live my life Expectedly and Pro-actively. I start each day with thoughts of achievement; knowing what I need to get done will get done. The words I choose to use throughout the day are also critical in reinforcing the outcome of my day. And of course my actions fulfill my expectations.

Holly cow why did it take me 40 years to learn that, why did my mother not explain it to me or why did I not learn this in the 20 plus years I was in school. Or did I, and just needed to grow up to appreciate it.

While growing old may suck, it does help you appreciate the good the bad and the ugly in life.

I like to thank Matthew Furey for teaching me these techniques, you see I went from being computer geek to co-founding losethebackpain.com and becoming and Internationally Known Back Pain Expert, it took a while but I did it.

See you in the park…

Article courtesy of Steve Hefferon, CMT of The Healthy Back Institute. You can take advantage of the many available free resources on their website by visiting http://www.losethebackpain.com

When taken on an empty stomach, proteolytic enzymes will pass through the stomach or intestine lining and enter the circulatory system. This is why they are called “systemic”—once they enter the circulatory system, they circulate throughout the body.

Why are systemic proteolytic enzymes important?

The most important thing that systemic proteolytic enzymes do is to break down excess fibrin in your circulatory system and in other connective tissue, such as your muscles. These enzymes bring nutrients and oxygen-rich blood that remove the metabolic waste produced by inflammation and excess fibrin.

For example, If you have an injury or are recovering from a painful condition of any kind and your blood flow is restricted, you will have a longer recovery process. In addition, the exchange of nutrients and oxygen in your body will be limited, and there will be an will have a longer recovery but an increase in pain and inflammation.

I searched long and hard to find this incredible image (left) of red blood cells caught in a web of excess fibrin. The fibrin is causing a physical restriction of blood flow. If you look closely, you can see that the cells are actually stuck. Ultimately, those red blood cells cannot get into the capillaries to oxygenate and nourish your muscles and remove the metabolic waste that is causing your pain.

One more important thing to understand: Whenever you’re recovering from a muscle irritation, injury, or surgery, the body uses fibrin to help heal itself. This is normal and healthy. The only problem is that with poor blood flow and a lack of enzyme activity, that fibrin will start to accumulate. If the area in question is slow to heal, an excess of fibrin will appear as clumps of scar tissue in the muscle or at the surgical site. Once this happens, you acute condition becomes chronic.

Now that you know that excess fibrin throughout your circulatory system will severely limit the amount of blood flow to areas that need it the most, you may be wondering how the body tries to compensate for this restriction. The answer is simple: by forcing the heart to work harder and increasing your blood pressure.

How do you know if you have too much fibrin?

As I have noted, the body will do what it needs to do to keep us alive—sometimes at great cost to your overall health. Some possible indicators of excess fibrin in your system include: chronic fatigue, slow healing, inflammation and pain, and elevated blood pressure. There is also a medical test to measure something called “blood monomers.”

The dangers of too much fibrin…

The medical community has long known that excess fibrin presents a cardiac and stroke risk. Finally, they have acknowledged a link between excess fibrin and chronic systemic inflammation, the true root cause of virtually every disease and painful condition know to man.

Which conditions do proteolytic enzymes help and how?

The list below is only a sample of the types of conditions that can be addressed with systemic proteolytic enzymes. If you are still wondering how one little substance can support all of these conditions, remember that they all have one thing in common—excess fibrin, which causes a reduction in blood flow.

Arthritis - Herniated Disc
Atherosclerosis - Hyper-coagulation
Back Pain - Sciatica
Chronic Fatigue - Spinal Stenosis
Chronic Pain - Strains and Sprains
Fibrocystic Breast - Post-operative Scar Tissue
Fibromyalgia - Traumatic Inflammation
High Blood Pressure - Uterine Fibroids

Which would you rather take—a pain killer or a healing enzyme?

Truth is, very few pain killers help heal the body, and in most cases the side effects are rather unpleasant. On the other hand, systemic proteolytic enzymes support the body’s ability to heal itself, and they reduce the signs and symptoms of a chronic condition.

Can proteolytic enzymes be used with other pain meds?

I knew you were going to ask. Yes, enzymes can used if you are taking low-dose non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), as long as they are taken 60 minutes apart.

How about clinical research?

Where is the proof? There are untold numbers of clinical studies that have been done on proteolytic enzymes, and we have 76 of the most relevant studies listed on our site. Let’s not forget that these enzymes have been in use in Europe for more than 50 years. And in Japan, some proteolytic enzymes are classified as prescription drugs.

Where do proteolytic enzymes come form?

Some are animal-bases, some are plant-based—such as Bromelain and Papain—and some are fungus-based, such as Serrazimes®.

Which types are best and why?

I recommend plant- and fungus-based enzymes because they tolerate the gastric environment better, so more of the enzymes make their way into the circulatory system.

How long does it take to start to work?
Enzymes go to work immediately. The big difference between enzymes and vitamins is the way they are measured. Enzymes are not measured by weight; they are measured in Units of Fibrolytic Activity, which means how much fibrin they break down in a set amount of time.

The questions you really want answered are: “How long will it take to get pain relief and reduce my inflammation?” and “How fast will my healing happen?” Truth is, there is no simple answer because the healing process and outcome will be different for everyone.

There are a number of factors that bear on how fast the enzymes will work for you, including dosage, quality of sleep, diet, and physical activity. Even the very treatments you are undergoing to try to get better could be holding you back.

Are proteolytic enzymes safe for continued use?

Yes, proteolytic enzymes should be considered safe for continued use. There are three suggested usage protocols: one is a rotation of 12 weeks on and 4 weeks off; two is to take them continuously; and three is to take them on as-needed basis.

Who should not take proteolytic enzymes?
- Individuals taking prescription blood thinners (Coumadin, Heparin, Plavix)
- Anyone who will be having surgery in less than two weeks
- Individuals with known ulcers of the stomach
- Individuals with Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease.(GERD)
- Pregnant or lactating women
- Individuals currently taking antibiotics
- Individuals with an allergic reaction to pineapples or papayas

Are there any side effects?

Proteolytic enzymes have an excellent safety record, with no significant side effects reported. With any supplement, however, there is always the risk of developing an allergy to one or more ingredients. If this happens, you should discontinue use.

Choosing to try systemic proteolytic enzymes.

Remember, the enzymes are supporting the healing process, so recovery from any condition is going to take time. You don’t just take the enzymes and expect to get better immediately. By using these enzymes as part of a well-planned recovery process, you’re making a commitment to doing what it takes to make improvements in your life.

Everything I’ve told you so far I learned from people who are far more knowledgeable than I am about the role enzymes play in helping us achieve optimal health.

So, when I say that I had a hand in creating Lifezyme—albeit a small hand—I nevertheless did my part, which was to find the world’s best enzyme formulators. Once I had done that, I told them to make me the best product in the world—and that’s exactly what they did.

Without question, the Lifezyme Plus formula has the highest fibrolytic activity of any product in the world per dose. Our formulators blended 11 ingredients that would have a cascading effect, which means that they help support the work of the enzymes and deliver even more beneficial results.

I’m not a big fan of taking a lot of supplements. I drink my multivitamin and pop my enzymes—that’s it. I know that trying to figure out which supplements to take can be overwhelming and that taking supplements can get expensive. Still, I look at supplements as a long-term investment toward achieving optimal health.

So, if working toward optimal health is your goal and you think that your life and your body would benefit form having less fibrin and better blood flow, then you should seriously consider enzymes.

If you do decide to try enzymes, do me one favor: Never—ever—buy an enzyme that lists the dose in milligrams (mg) or has “Proprietary Enzyme Blend” on the label.

Enzymes are not measured in mg and should not be sold in mg. “Proprietary Enzyme Blend” is a shady way of not telling you the consumer how much enzyme is in the product, so don’t support a company that cannot be honest with you. Demand full disclosure on the label.

To learn more about proteolytic enzymes and the roll they play in help us stay healthy, I suggest you read this article: http://www.losethebackpain.com/inflammation.html

When dealing with serious back pain, you have to realize that your condition is going to have an impact on everyone around you and that it will be toughest on the one you love.

I got an e-mail this morning and could not stand to go another day without telling you my thoughts. Believe me, this question is not unique. Please read the following e-mail, and then I’ll give you my response:

Steve,
My husband recently had a severe flare-up caused by a herniated disc. He’s had it for five years. Now it’s in both sides of his body, from his back to his toes. He is using a scooter to get around. He cannot walk and is hunched over at the waist with severe pain. He is currently taking three meds: Motrin, Vicodin, and Flexeril. They help very little! He has been seen by his doctor, and he will have an MRI plus physical therapy. Can you help him?

What this poor lady must be going through

As you see, the e-mail starts with “My husband”—and that’s the first problem. Why is this man’s wife the one who’s searching for a solution? When I said that a health problem is sometimes harder on the partner, I’m sure I was telling many of you something you already knew. Those who care for a person with a health problem go through the same fear, anger, and frustration—they just don’t have the pain.

One reason is that when people have been suffering for a long time, they tend to give up. Or the system just wears them down. Unfortunately, the more depressed the person with the health problem gets, the harder the loved one must work to find the Holy Grail–that one miraculous thing that will help.

What usually happens is that the loved one learns to adapt to the changes and accepts that things will never get better. That’s why success is so rare.

Knowing but not doing

The second sentence of the e-mail lets us know that this has been an issue in this couple’s life for five years. The fourth sentence confirms that the husband has adapted to change and has allowed the system to accommodate his needs. The use of the scooter is a clear example of this. This man most likely did not just wake up one morning and discover that he could not walk. My bet is that this was a steady decline over a five-year period.

Do you think that if the husband had taken any initiative, he could have kept himself out of a scooter? I do. I’ve been in the health care profession for 16 years, and I have seen only a handful of back pain sufferers resort to a scooter for mobility.

In fact, the worst case I have ever seen was a 100-year-old woman who was bent in half from her rib cage. Her entire upper body was parallel to the floor, and she could not see more than three feet ahead of where she was walking. But she was walking. And she remained active until she died.

Have you heard me say, ‘Don’t just treat the symptoms’?

Again, it’s my bet that when the pain first started, the husband was not on three different pain medications at the same time. Chances are, he went back to his physician and demanded more and stronger pain killers. News flash—medications don’t help the condition get any better.

The worst part about suffering with a condition for so long is that the husband has come to believe that his condition is so bad now that the only one who can help him is a medical professional. He has turned a deaf ear to everything the wife might suggest, which may be causing harm to their relationship.

Help others by helping yourself

The truth is, there are a lot of people who could help him. But it’s not going to happen until he first decides to help himself. Did his wife do anything wrong? No. Could she have done anything differently? Maybe, but it probably wouldn’t have changed things.

It is also important to understand that it’s natural for both parties to feel some frustration. The problem is that neither of them is trying to see things from the other’s point of view. In these situations, it is critical to communicate your feelings to each other.

That’s why I’m going to approach this from a different perspective—one that people inside the situation often find harder to see. If this advice means more coming from an outsider, that’s great. You may want to print out this article and kindly hand it to your loved one. Even if you don’t, be sure to at least ask them these two questions:

- Can you live the rest of your life expecting to get better?
- Are you willing do what it takes to get better?

Change your mind—change the outcome

The direct answer to this woman’s e-mail is, “No, I can’t help your husband because he hasn’t taken responsibility for making improvements in his life.” I would much rather have gotten an e-mail directly from him, telling me about all the things he has tried and celebrating even the smallest gains he was able to achieve through his efforts.

Both of them—and maybe even you and your loved one—will continue to struggle until they find that one trigger that motivates or inspires them. Exactly what it is or where it will come from I don’t know. What I do know is that the sooner they start looking, the sooner they’ll find it.

A different way to think

Regardless of the severity of your condition and the amount of progress you are making, it is up to you and you alone to find the inner strength to continue. You must abandon the “What can YOU do for ME” attitude. Try to think differently, keeping the following two principles in mind:

1) There’s a difference between knowing and believing.
It’s really a difference of degree. Believing in something, say, being 100 percent free of back pain, is fine. But if you simply believe it will happen and then have a setback or flare-up, you’ll find yourself doubting or questioning that belief on some level. On the other hand, knowing that you’re going to get 100 percent relief will help you get through the inevitable ups and downs. So live knowing.

2) Live with expectancy.
You should go through each day confident that you are going to get better and stay healthy. It starts with your thoughts and the words you use. These will affect your actions. For example, if you haven’t been able to do something you love for a very long time, tell yourself you’re going to be doing it on a specific date in the future. Talk to everyone about it. Read books and watch videos about it. Fill your mind with the joy of it. Then begin to prepare for it. Dust off that fishing pole. Clean that bike. Go buy that new pair of running shoes and have them sitting where you can see them every day to remind you that you expect to run again.

Immediate steps to take
- Change the way you think and feel about your situation.
- Allow others to help you, even if they are not professionals.
- Do not give in or let the system beat you down.
- Recognize small gains as progress and hope that you are getting better.
- Treat both the symptoms and the cause of your condition.

Please don’t let five years pass without taking responsibility for your recovery. If you are suffering now, you will only continue to suffer unless you educate yourself and take action.

Regardless of the answers you get to the two questions above, your partner will now understand the pain you’ve been feeling without your having to say it. Sometimes, being honest with each other is the most powerful demonstration of love. I don’t mean to minimize your situation. It may be extremely difficult for this man to live his life, but as long as both of you live expectantly, you can never fail.

Lecture’s over, as my dad would say

No matter how bad you problem is, there is a solution. So live knowing you will get better. Live expecting to get better. Live by taking action and not settling until you have achieved your goals…

To learn more about how you can get lasting relief from your Back Pain by using the Muscle Balance Therapy™, we suggest you read the latest copy of our Back Pain Relief Guide. You can get your copy here: http://www.losethebackpain.com

A:Well Sue let me help you understand what you see…Everyone uses the very common term posture but I don’t think people really understand what posture truly means, you see your self as you are today but your posture is the result of how your were in the past, I’m talking years ago even decades ago.

What does that mean, well Good or Bad Posture is the result of your lifestyle in other words the way I like to put it is , your posture is the result of your Habits, Pattern, Positions and the things your do everyday, day in and day out.

You see our bodies are very good at adapting to the environment we place it in and if we look back on our life’s, the first 18 years we sit in school and if you go to collage you sit some more, and that if you work at a computer you sit even more, so by the time you are 40 your body has gotten so used to sitting and your muscle are most comfortable in the sitting position but that sitting has caused some physical changes that in turn can cause some postural dysfunctions and if left alone will intern cause structural changes that will be for the most part uncorrectable, so lets get started…

One of our subscribers said it best, “Our bones only go where our muscle put them” That is a great statement, and I hope you understand it…if not keep reading.

We have just talked about how our bodies adapt to what we give them and how our bodies can be pulled into abnormal positions based on the many factors in our lives…I know what you are thinking just get to the part about what to do…Hang in there, just a little longer you see understanding this concept is more than half the battle, because you can now work to prevent and also correct problems in your posture if you understand the equation.

Ok I will spill the beans now…your rounded back and rounded shoulders are the result of what are called Muscle imbalances that are causing this physical dysfunction you see in your posture, you area not the only one with this problem and you are not the first to have it, it has been know for years what it is and what caused it and even though your Doctor did not tell you how to address it does not mean that it can’t be done.

Here is are the nuts and bolts of the problem, if you are wondering how our muscles are responsible for the posture you have now, you must understand that our muscles can be either tight or flexible and/or also strong or weak and not to make the situation even more complex but our muscle can be in any combination of these four states from front to back and side to side.

If we look at your rounded back and rounded shoulders you will see that your head and shoulders are being pulled forward, that would indicate that the muscle in the front of your body are overly strong and/or overly tight compared to the muscle in your upper back which are weak and have more flexibility. That is how we describe the imbalance between your muscles and that’s what we call the root of the problem…

Please realize that your body is and has been undergoing these physical changes for a long time and there is no quick fix, it is a physical problem it will require a physical solution, there is not pill, injection or massage that can make your muscle come back to balance, it take work…

Now just because you know that there is an imbalance and you even know the direction of the imbalances does not mean you can just start doing an general exercise program, that is not how you do, in order to correct a know imbalance you will need to know very specific and very targeted stretches and exercises in order to correct the imbalances and if you choose to do nothing your imbalances will over time start the process of developing into a condition that will cause you pain.

We strongly recommend that you start a proactive approach to your current situation, you are lucky that you do not have pain, it is a shame and I feel with all my heart the pain that the millions of people that are suffering from conditions that could have been prevented or corrected years ago if only more people understood the effects of muscle imbalances and how they effect our bodies.

Sue I hope I have shown you that it’s more than just bad posture and I hope you seek a qualified expert in muscle imbalances and live to prevent any further progression of your condition.

To learn more about how you can get lasting relief from your Back Pain by using the Muscle Balance Therapy™, we suggest you read the latest copy of our Back Pain Relief Guide. You can get your copy here: http://www.losethebackpain.com

If ever there was a significant emotional event in my life, that was it. I gave up bodybuilding that day and set my sights on being an extreme sports athlete. Over the past 26 years, I have climbed mountains, jumped out of perfectly good airplanes, surfed every tropical storm to hit the East Coast (until I got married), and wrecked my mountain bike at speeds faster than most dare to think about. Today, at age 40, I’m working on my blue belt in Brazilian Jujutsu with legendary professor Pedro Sauer.

26 years of abuse and still strong

Why am I telling you this? Because years ago I learned something that has helped me in every aspect of my physical performance and, more importantly, my ability to recover from the abuse I put my body through for all those years. If ever there was a sport that needed to hear what I’m saying, it’s the sport of bodybuilding.

So let me ask you: Do you think you know enough about bodybuilding to continue to make steady gains, stay healthy, and recover from tendonitis? Because I can tell you by the time you reach 40 you’re going to wish you had listened to me. I’m about to break a 26-year silence and share with you three very powerful tactics every bodybuilder not only needs to know but employ on a regular basis.

I’m not going to tell you what to do

One thing I have learned working with elite athletes is that you can’t tell them to stop doing their sport. Try telling a runner to stop running or a bodybuilder to stop working out. Yeah, right. But I can tell you how unexpected limitations develop that will hinder your ability to make gains and recover from injuries.

One of the main reasons why most bodybuilders hit a wall and develop injuries is that they don’t allow their muscles to recover 100 percent before they work those same muscles again. Ideally, as the body goes through the recovery process, it should lay down nice elastin and collagen tissue. Instead, with insufficient recovery time, it starts to use fibrin, which is bad—very bad.

Here’s how it works: If your body is overstressed, it instinctively tries to protect itself by using fibrin, which is very strong, to achieve that added element of stability you need. In the beginning, that extra fibrin helps your muscles recover. But over time—and I’m talking months and years—that same fibrin will stop you in your tracks.

Strength gains and recovery have one enemy

When your body adds fibrin, it’s like adding rebar to concrete; it makes something that is already strong much stronger. The downside is that you lose mobility and start to develop postural imbalances. You also lose “contractibility,” which is another way of saying strength. And that’s where many of your problems start. You see, fibrin is scar tissue similar to what you will see on a scab, and you do not want a scab on any of your connective tissue. Here’s why:

1. Excess fibrin in your muscle tissue will limit your contractibility and, ultimately, your strength through that range of motion.
2. Excess fibrin will limit your overall range of motion.
3. Excess fibrin in any of your connective tissue will create postural dysfunctions, such as rounding of the shoulders and tipping of the pelvis.
4. Excess fibrin will be responsible for many of the acute and chronic injuries you will suffer.
5. Excess fibrin will create fibrous restrictions in all of your muscles that will keep you from getting a better pump or prevent the blood from entering that muscle.
6. Excess fibrin in your blood vessels and muscle tissue will severally hinder your recovery time—how fast you get back to 100 percent during your days off.

Of the six reasons why you do not want excess fibrin in your body, number six is the most critical as it relates to your ability to get bigger and stronger. Blood flow is key. It affects every aspect of your recovery—not just from injury but from each workout.

Proof in the form of an incredible image

Let me help you understand what I’m talking about when I say we have fibrin in our blood vessels that can slow, hinder, or even prevent the blood from getting where it needs to go.

I searched long and hard to find this incredible image (left) of red blood cells caught in a web of excess fibrin. The fibrin is causing a physical restriction. If you look closely, you can see that they’re stuck. Ultimately, those red blood cells cannot get into the capillaries to oxygenate and nourish your muscles so they will do the work you want them to do. Without that little bit of extra blood, you can say good-bye to that last rep.

I hope you can you now understand how excess fibrin can restrict blood flow, prevent you from achieving your best, and prevent you from recovering as fast as you want. The problem is, the excess fibrin is systemic, meaning it extends throughout your body and in and around all connective tissue. To get more blood flow, your heart has to work harder to get more blood where it’s needed. This is bad. It’s called high blood pressure.

Unfortunately, I do not have an image of how excess fibrin becomes scar tissue in muscle, tendons, or ligaments—but, believe me, it’s there. And you’ll feel it.

Immediate steps to take

Again, I will never tell you not to workout, but I want you to understand that there are steps you can take to help prevent or minimize the effects of excess fibrin and impaired blood flow. If you are suffering from tendonitis anywhere, it’s not going to get better by working it. You need to improve the blood flow so the pain and inflammation can be flushed out and minimal fibrin will be laid down. That way, the fibrin that is used during recovery is gradually reabsorbed.

Whether you’re looking to get a better workout, a bigger pump, or increase your size, you need to have better blood flow. Likewise, if you suffer from chronic recurring injuries that just will not get better. Here are three easy steps to improve blood flow:

1) Heat things up to get it moving
Get your ass into a hot tub or sauna at least two or more times per week. You see, heat does two things: one, it relaxes the muscle, which allows the blood to flow easier; and, two, it causes the blood to come to the surface of the skin to try to cool the body. When this happens, more blood travels through the smallest vessels you have, thereby improving your body’s overall circulation.

2) Unbind you muscles
This technique became popular back in the 1980s. A guy named John Parrillo came up with something called “fascia stretching,” which allowed some bodybuilders to add more than an inch in diameter per muscle group just minutes before the competition. Nowadays, the big boys do on a weekly basis for consistent gains and rapid recovery.

Fascia gives our muscles form, and when our fascia is too restricted, it limits the ability of the muscle to expand and fill with blood, limiting the amount of blood for the pump and recovery.

My suggestion is to find a qualified massage therapist who can perform cross-friction massage and myofascial release techniques on you. One thing to remember is that if you are fascialy bound down, these techniques will hurt like hell and you’ll be sore for up to four days after. The good news is that once you’re free, you’re free. Trust me, the results will be profound.

3) Let nature clean your pipes
The third technique is to use systemic-proteolytic enzyme, an enzyme that breaks down excess fibrin throughout your body, including your blood vessels and your muscles. Nothing else in the world can naturally break down the excess fibrin in your blood vessels and remove the scar tissue in your muscles.

The fact is, your body is constantly regulating fibrin. But as you get older (late 20s), your body will have fewer and fewer enzymes available to do the job. And when we train hard, there are simply not enough enzymes to keep up with the demand to regulate fibrin. That’s how the build-up of fibrin start and how the limitations begin.

Like most injuries or diseases, the accumulation of excess fibrin in our bodies is a process, and the removal of that fibrin is also a process. One thing that makes enzymes unique among all other supplements is that we know they work.

These enzymes are not measured in milligrams but in what are called “fibrinolytic units,” which is the amount of fibrin they break down in a set amount of time.

So, if you know the fibrinolytic units of a product, you know how much clearing or removal you will get. This will help you compare products.

But, don’t be surprised if you’ve never heard of systemic enzymes, because there are very few companies in the world that sell them. They are somewhat expensive, but they possess exactly what you’re looking for: the ability to naturally increase blood flow.

To learn more about proteolytic enzymes and the roll they play in help us stay healthy, I suggest you read this article: http://www.losethebackpain.com/inflammation.html