During yet another bout of low back and left thigh pain around 15 years ago, I noticed the signs of a functional scoliosis (eg elevated right shoulder blade, increased right waist angle etc) in myself. Having always been strongly righthand dominant, I quickly realised that could be part of the cause of my symptoms and after trial and error, devised a self-help protocol which gave me relief from my symptoms. After detecting similar  functional scoliosis signs in patient after patient, I formed the following hypothesis: repeated left trunk rotation during daily living eg  during sports such as golf or overuse of the righthand when pushing/reaching, could create left pelvic rotation. The compensatory functional scoliosis which apparently results in response to this pelvic rotation, appears to make the nervous system stretch over a greater distance.

In order to test this theory, I developed a 2 part protocol :

1. 4 simple exercises repeated twice a day and
2. Modification of daily habits

When I applied this approach to my patients, a gradual improvement in chronic pain over a 14 day period was noted in virtually every case, along with increased symmetry on observation and greater flexibility. Not only that, my patients found the exercises easy to do and were pleasantly surprised how little time they took out of their daily life. The most challenging part of the protocol for many back pain sufferers is changing their habits by being more mindful how they do things such as vacuuming and washing the dishes. However most found that with persistence, they were able to successfully modify their habits in 2-3 weeks. Changing lifelong habits won’t be easy but, as I have seen time again, well worth the effort. Hang in there and persevere!  For more information, see my book ‘Banishing Back Pain: Relief is Within Reach’, available from Mostly Books, Amazon and banishingbackpain.com.au. In addition to the hard copy version, e-book and audiobook versions will be available soon.