It quotes the Journal of the American Medical Association: “In 2005 Americans spent $85.9 billion looking for relief from back and neck pain”. What it doesn’t say (because, like most people, neither the JAMA article nor the Newsweek article authors know about it), is that this suffering and enormous expense is avoidable.

We Alexander teachers have been saying so for years but, until they come and find out for themselves, nobody believes us. Now, however, there’s top quality medical research published by the British Medical Journal that fully backs us up. The research was found to be so important, it’s actually on the cover of the BMJ’s August 2008 issue, as you can see here.

Do you know anybody who needs help for their back problem?

Then show them this gold standard medical research. Show them that real, honest-to-goodness help is available. Here’s a link to the research: British Medical Journal medical trial of Alexander Technique

And do you know why this research happened, why a seasoned, medical researcher decided to undertake it? It was because his wife and his wife’s mother both had Alexander Technique lessons and he saw at first hand what a huge difference it made to both of them.

So please read the evidence — and please show it to your friends and family. Anywhere you post online, please mention it — and link to this post.

Do it now. Do it for their sake.

Most often, knee pain comes from putting too much effort into bending and straightening your knees. Here’s how to remove the strain and therefore the pain as well.

Think of your leg as a tube. The knee is, of course, a bend in that tube. When you put too much effort into moving it, you over-tighten it all around and strain pretty much all your knee muscles.

Normally you would concentrate on trying to ease your bending or straightening knee muscles. Don’t do that. Instead, pay attention to the pull from the back of your knee towards the front. Here’s how to do it.

Do this and you’ll find it helps your knee very quickly

Find your knee-cap and then put your two hands over the knee so that the tips of fore-fingers are on the bottom of your knee-cap and the other finger-tips are on the front of your lower-leg bone. Allow your palms to settle gently on the sides of your knee.

Now just imagine someone gently massaging your knee, gently drawing their two lots of finger tips apart in front — and the bases of their two hands together at the back. Go with it: allow your knee to ease in that direction.

Notice how that simple thought eases the pain straight away.

The next step

When you next feel knee pain, stop what you’re doing for a moment and imagine those two hands doing that gentle drawing backwards. If you need to, sit down and use your hands to get the feel you got when you last did it again. Once you have some ‘feel’ for it, just use that new-found feel to help your knee work more comfortably, as you go back to what you were doing.

See what a difference it makes? Then remember to keep using it: the more you use it, the better your knees will get.

… and the next article

The next article, How to use your feet better to get rid of knee pain, was published in my newsletter, Back in Action on Wednesday 25^th March. You can read the article here.

The article cites the monumental medical study led by Professor Paul Little of the University of Southampton, in England. This study was published by the British Medical Journal last August (2008). Here’s the video that the BMJ produced about the results of the medical trial.

There was just one error in the Oprah article: the article says the study was published by Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). A natural mistake for an American publication.

The trial involved 579 patients in 64 medical practices in Southern England. Here are some excerpts from the abstract of the published trial:—

Objective
To determine the effectiveness of lessons in the Alexander technique, massage therapy, and advice from a doctor to take exercise (exercise prescription) along with nurse delivered behavioural counselling for patients with chronic or recurrent back pain.

Conclusions
One to one lessons in the Alexander technique from registered teachers have long term benefits for patients with chronic back pain. Six lessons followed by exercise prescription were nearly as effective as 24 lessons.

The full published paper is freely available at BMJ.com

Here’s the BMJ video about the study

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GbwzqT9piU

www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXmimtk381U