We often think of Pain as a result of a one-time trauma or an incident but rarely associate it with a lifetime of issues based on our movement. Ananda’s physiotherapists and yogis explain why 60% of the world’s population suffer unexplained physical pains.
Our unique movement patterns are initially gathered from our imitations as a toddler. We recall the surprised delight of aunts and uncles, commenting on how we walked just like our father or nodded our heads like our mother. Our style of walking gets adjusted and starts to show as a unique pattern for the first time by age 3. From there onward we go through orthopaedic and neurological changes due to social influences at different stages of our life that affect our standing-walking pattern. Over time we begin to imbibe a unique sense of ‘style’ in our movements which later gets categorised as our body language. What wasn’t spoken as sound, but through a non-verbal cue, intentionally or unintentionally is our body language. It is unique to every person and over time has been widely used by many healing pathologies to observe, diagnose and conclude the cause of unexplained pains.
Biomechanical factors such as mal-alignment of joints, changes in muscle lengths, muscular and postural imbalances, and compression in the articular structures are the leading cause of non-specific pain in 60% of the population.
The Yogic Perspective
Yoga, the ancient system of self-management, closely observes an individual’s standing posture, supine position and gait (walking pattern) to ‘read-the-body’ and to conclude the reasons of unexplained pains and other problems. Yoga further states that postural misalignments affect our thoughts, perceptions and responses, while in return all these mental patterns collectively impact the body, either creating or deepening an existing misalignment. For example walking with an unconscious forward tilt in the shoulder or incessantly shaking or moving a limb could be signs of defence and nervousness, a psychological and physiological self-mirroring. If left unattended for long, a compromised posture and walking pattern doesn’t manifest only as pain in the body. It begins to change the chemical compositions within specific systems creating respiratory problems, migraines, diabetes and several other issues.
Ananda’s wellness experts constantly advise our guests of never avoiding a recurring pain pattern, no matter how small and negligible it feels. An unattended misalignment is bound to spread to adjoining bones and muscle groups. The only difference could be its arrival in terms of time. It rises on the conscious surface as pain, either as a slow release or a sudden one. Timely interventions from Ananda experts correct this whirlpool of incorrect patterns and help create a simple personal routine for transformation to a new pain free life.
Our physical patterns speak volumes about us. Our perception of the world forms our mental patterns, which in turn influences the way we decide to use our bodies. Common examples of this mind-body interaction are feelings like depression and sadness being accompanied by a collapsed thoracic area and drooping shoulders.
Physiotherapy and Pain Management
The word Physiotherapy is derived from the words physical and therapy and is concerned with optimising quality of life and movement potential through prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. This branch of medicine uses physical agents such as light, force, pressure, velocity, sound, electricity, and thermal energy as methods of intervention.
Majority of pain related conditions such as spondylitis, radiculopathy (symptoms produced by the pinching of a nerve root in the spinal column), osteoarthritis etc. occur due to overuse of postural muscles at wrong angles for a long period of time accelerating the degeneration of the bones and muscles. Physiotherapists at Ananda now evaluate posture in anterior, posterior and lateral view aided by diagnostic tools which calculate each and every angle of the body. This Gait analysis device helps assess any deviations or abnormalities whilst walking and is extremely helpful in understanding and preventing possible causes of muscular and neural related pain.
A GAIT cycle begins from a heel strike of a foot and lasts till the next heel strike of the same foot. Ananda’s Physiotherapy Doctors aided by diagnostic tools calculate the hip, knee and ankle angles of all 8 events occurring in one complete cycle.
Says Dr.Palak Jain, senior physiotherapist at Ananda, “Physiotherapy is a preventive science. We suggest a body analysis for all individuals whether in youth, middle age or for a senior citizen. The objectives are to assess origins and root cause of pain, or as an advanced diagnostic view for a preventive approach. This can also be very useful before picking a new physical routine like learning a form of dance, sport or any other movement.”
Read More on Ananda's healing story with a guest suffering from chronic pain
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