Cage Fighter with Sciatic Pain

I have a new client who has come to me with extremely bad sciatica. He  is cage fighter with the flatest lumbar curve Ive ever seen, and until  we started working together he wore a weight belt all the time – from  fighting through to walking around on a daily basis. He had restricted  mobility all over, particularly trunk rotation.I have started by putting a hold on his fighting and working on his  core – getting his brain to communicate with his muscles. However,  some days he cannot even do 2 reps of horse stance vertical due to the  pain in his buttock – shooting down his leg. Other days can be much  better. I have stopped stretching his hamstrings as it brings on his  sciatica. He has also found that drawing his navel into his spine whilst standing can also bring on his sciatica. Is this a case of
improving his core and posture will get to the root of the problem -  and we should keep going as long as he has good form and the pain  doesnt get worse? Overall he has made some massive improvement. Is there anything you can recommend?

My first rec would be to refer out to a CHEK Level 1 or higher, as they are tuned into assisting healing with this. You could make the issue worse if you let more time pass by. There are many reasons why one might have sciatic like symptoms. Here is what might be going on: 

1. I could be just piriformis syndrome. Some reg corrective exercise and NMT typically does the trick.
2. According to the Lovett Reactor, what ever happens above, happens below and vice versa. There might be something going on up in the cervical region, which will create tension in the spinal cord. The body does not like this, so it will cause other vertebrae in the lumbar spine to rotate the same way to relieve some tension. This can cause nerve root compressions, facet joint inflammation, disc pathologies leading to nerve impingements, etc.
3. We naturally breathe, which assist the CSF flow. This is called the cerebral spinal pump, when we inhale and exhale correctly. When we don’t, you will see people rock back and forth when they breathe. You will see this in the frontal plane when you assess static posture or on the weighted scales for front to back weight measurement. When the body becomes even more dysfunctional over time from doing this, the body will start to pick the transverse plane to move in. According to Dejarnette, this will cause disc protrusions and nerve pathologies
4. The sciatic nerve is long. You need to know where it is referring, when, in what positions, their postural distortion, what repetitive movements he does during the day, myotomal and dermatomal patterns, weight shift, which way the shoulders are over the hips, etc. This will tell you at what level of the lumbar spine and what nerve root is causing this issue. Typically, the more shift there is and the lower the “sciatic” pain, the higher derangement it is. There are 7 that you will learn about in Level 1.
5. He most likely gets sciatic pain when he does a so called drawing in maneuver because it is faulty. He is most likely creating a posterior tilt, using glutes and RA. He needs to use TVA, IO and EO for this, which will not create sciatic pain.
6. The Relation of the Kidney System in TCM and Low Back Pain: The low back is the “mansion of the Kidneys” meaning that the low back is most closely related, but not limited to, the health of the Kidney system. It is without question, in low back pain, that the Kidney system be treated in Chinese medicine.
7. Back on the subject of Qi, it is said in Chinese Medicine: If there is free flow, there is no pain;
   If there is no free flow, there is pain. Basically, what this means is if the Qi and/or blood stagnate in the channel(s), specifically through the region of the low back, there will be pain. Imagine a river flowing unimpeded and suddenly a tree falls across the river, we see in our imagination the water no longer flowing freely, but getting blocked by the log, pushing into the banks of the river. The basic concept of acupuncture is to re-open the river, create a circulation so that the log lifts and normal flow is restored. How does the free flow of Qi and blood in the body become impeded, so as to cause pain?  An external invasion of wind, cold, dampness, or heat may invade the lower back region causing pain. If our defensive Qi or immune system is weak we become more susceptible to external invasions through the pores of our skin. The Qi and blood can stagnate due to trauma (i.e. lifting, repetitive strain over time, an accident or similar sprain).There may be an insufficiency of Qi or blood creating a sluggishness or stagnation of flow throughout the channel(s). This is an internal cause or weakness with a number of possible etiologies such as: Poor diet, insufficient rest coupled with too much activity or overwork (i.e. busy lives, excessive sex*), overuse of drugs, chronic illness, heredity weakness, an excess of the emotions fear and anxiety, and general aging as our Qi is naturally declining.

The Chinese believe that a healthy, moderate amount of sex supports a good flow of Qi and too much sex (specifically ejaculation for men and childbirth for women), depletes the Qi, blood and essence of the Kidneys

Type and Treatment

1. Type of Cold-DampnessSymptoms: Localized pain below the loins and in the lower limbs which is relieved by heat and aggravated by cold and moving, thin white tongue coating, and taut tense pulse.Therapeutic Method: Warming up the channels to dispel cold, removing dampness to clear the network-channels.

2. Type of Damp-HeatSymptoms: Burning and tic pain or heaviness and numbness or red-swelling and hot-pain of joints in the loins and lower limbs, reddened tongue with thin yellow coating, and slippery rapid pulse.Therapeutic Method: clearing away heat and dampness, promoting the circulation of blood to activate the collaterals.

3. Type of Blood-Stasis

Symptoms: Persistent stabbing pain aggravated by moving in the loins and lower limbs, difficulty in moving, dark red tongue with petechiae and thin white coating, and deep uneven pulse.

Therapeutic Method: Promoting the circulation of blood to remove blood stasis, clearing the collaterals to arrest pain.

Joshua Rubin

www.eastwesthealing.com

Memory Problems at 84 y/o

A very dear and close friend of my family is experiencing memory
problems.During conversations he’ll occasionally struggle to remember dates,
places and people he’s talking about.

Not to be a pessimist, but 84 years old is a ripe age. Nature takes its course and we need to flow with nature, instead of fighting it. The more we flow, the more we are. He has 84 years of most likely poor eating, thinking and living. It is hard to unwind that with so many engrams in the brain. But, here are some things that you might look into to help him flow better with life. With someone this age, you need to take it slow as there are tons of physical, toxic, mental, emotional, etc programmed patterns within each body. If you treat to fast, you could have what is called separation of yin and yang = death. Probably not a negative thing for some, but it seems like this guy wants to be in his physical body for some time longer.  

1. All the NLC foundational principles. I would focus more on eating like a protein type, with higher amounts of fat. The myelin sheath is a proteolipid bilayer.
2. Increase the dose of cod liver oil to 4-8K mg
3. I would eliminate all MSG, aspartame, natural products or anything with excitotoxins. This has been shown to cause neurological burnout of neurons.
4. Regular qi gong or acupuncture to re-establish the flow of qi up and down within the bodies.
5. There are tons of mind exercises that would be helpful. I have found doing R brained activities with clients, such as mandala’s, having them draw a representation of their days at the end of the day, etc helps to stimulate the brain.
6. Sound healings or Healing Touch Therapy really helps to open me up all the way to the soul level. It creates clarity within each layer of my being.
7. I would also just focus on quality of life at this point with him. What makes him happy and gives him purpose right now?

 Joshua Rubin

www.eastwesthealing.com