I Am Preventing Cancer by Treating Back Pain

Reading the title of this new article, you are probably thinking, How is that possible? By treating something as simple as back pain with acupuncture and Chinese medicine, you are taking a preventative measure against cancer. It may sound unlikely, or even impossible; but on the contrary, its quite feasible. It all starts with an injury. Let us say a 25-year-old man gets into a 30-mile-per-hour car accident. He survived the accident and now has minor upper and lower back pain due to the concussive force of the crash. Over time, the pain comes and goes but the concussive force remains, therefore leading to impeded blood flow to the connective tissues and muscles. In a great amount of time, impeded blood flow in this case leads to lack of oxygen to the surrounding tissues, which is known as ischemia. Ischemia leads to another process known as cell death, because no oxygenated blood is going to the tissues. Eventually, the severity of cell death turns into necrosis because cell death has now spread into other tissues surrounding those affected by the concussive force. Over time, the surrounding necrotized tissues go into a cellular process known as cytotoxicity, which is much more severe than necrosis. Toxins build up in the surrounding and localized muscle tissue, which later leads to cancer, which spreads into tissues. How many times have you heard about people dying of cancer, despite the fact that they did not have cancer in their family health history? A perfect real-life example of this theory is the case of Sosai Masutatsu (Mas) Oyama. He was born in 1923 and was the founder of Kyokushin karate. He trained under harsh environments and conditioned his hands, legs and feet by striking rocks and trees. He challenged 300 fighters in Japan and fought all of them in a three-day kumite (which in Japanese means free fight). In short, he pushed himself beyond the limits of human endurance. Yet despite his physical and spiritual strength, he died in 1994 of lung cancer as a non-smoker. Now this is where the theory of concussive force comes into play. As a fighter in his time, martial artists did not have protective equipment to shield their bodies as we do now. When you are fighting the way Masutatsu Oyama did, most of the concussive force coming to your body comes from your opponents strikes to your ribs, among other body parts like the head, groin and stomach. Despite his physical strength, he was taking concussive force to his body (in his case, specifically the rib cage), which resulted in ischemic tissues, which over time resulted in his lung cancer. Chinese medical practices like Gua Sha can help treat musculoskeletal problems before they can eventually turn into potentially life-threatening issues. Gua Sha is a modality that incorporates the use of a Chinese soup spoon, or any other hard device, to scrape the surface of the skin until there is bruising and redness. It can be used as a stand-alone treatment or it can be used with ones acupuncture treatment. The theory behind scraping the surface of the skin until it is very red is to bring up any stagnated blood and toxins to the surface of the skin. The stagnated blood and toxins that have been built up cause pain and eventually lead to other problems at a cellular level. Since there is bruising involved, capillaries are destroyed and allowed to regenerate, thus bringing in a fresh supply of nutrients and oxygenated blood to the

connective tissues of the body that have been affected by injuries involving concussive force. The bruising and redness that occurs fade away within four to five days. If you want to see this technique done in action go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOF9kvjDPsk. Billy Shonez Singh is a licensed acupuncturist and a board certified Chinese herbalist by the NCCAOM. He is currently practicing in Commack, NY. His primary focus with East Asian medicine is stress, pain management, diabetic complications, and treating chemotherapy sideeffects. He is also President & CEO of Zen-Ohs Botanicals, Inc. To make an appointment, call (516) 557-6112 or email at billy@billysingh.com. For more visit: www.zenohs.com