Relief from Sciatica
By Geoffrey Morell, ND, JP
After years of watching the intense agony of sciatica experienced by men and women across the world, including myself, I would like to post the following for your information.
I have given a lot of soul searching to the matter of sciatica because I have suffered from it myself. For me, it began years ago forty years ago on the occasion when I drove my Red David Brown tractor with a forage harvester attachment into Auckland. This equipment was excellent for cutting and chewing up gorse, brambles, heather and the likes, which were growing on my mother-in-law's recently purchased property. It was about thirty-five miles into that part of the city from my farm in Ararimu, so it was a bouncy.
On the return journey I drove past our East Tamaki dairy factory at Manurewa, New Zealand, where I took the opportunity to call in to the factory store and buy a pair of lace-up boots for farm use.
I decided to wear them home about twenty miles away, while driving the tractor. These were new boots, and the laces were tight. I was seated in the tractor seat with my feet in the same position, as there was a hand throttle. The last five miles were an absolute agony. I did not want to stop as I needed to return to milk all the cows. So I bore the pain, but I could hardly walk when I alighted from the tractor seat, and it took several days before I was without a slight limp.
The pressure on the top of the instep had been so excruciating--what a relief to have the boots off! It just so happens it was the right hip that first developed the sciatic pain; and it was that foot where the laces were done up tighter. So my advice to all and sundry: be sure there is not too much pressure on the top of the instep when wearing one's shoes.
Another contributing factor was the fact that I wore my wallet in my hip pocket, so one is bouncing around on it during tractor work, as the beautiful air cushioned tractor seats were yet to be universally standard equipment.
The result of the tractor ride, the tight boots and sitting on the wallet was that an excruciating pain developed in my hip, resulting in a visit to the general practitioner in Papakura, New Zealand. He, in turn, sent me off to see a specialist in Auckland, with the result that I was equipped with a corset about half the width of the kind of corset that women wore many years ago. The corset completely encircled the waist, with string ties that made it close fitting on the body. The medical adviser directed me to wear this garment for the rest of my life. That was all very well for him--he did not have to wear it. Sure the pain was eased, but at what a price? Anytime I wished to relieve myself I found it was impossible to perform the task without removing the whole contraption. And then I had to replace it and tie all the string.
What humbug!
This sort of behavior did not last too long, before I firmly discarded the contraption.
A short time afterwards, I met with Dr. Bill Wong, a Chinese acupuncturist who was part of the Whole Health Trust, of which I was an executive member. Dr. Wong invited me to his clinic. His method of dealing with the sciatic condition was to use “kung fu,” as he called it. He put the patient face down on the table, and he set to with his knuckles to soundly belt the whole region around the hips. He also tested the uric acid in the urine. His comments on that subject amounted to, " Geoffrey, you're piddling all your nutrition down the drain. Cut out all the acid type of foods, like tomatoes, oranges and nuts."
At the time I was in the throes of a national election campaign, which involved many skipped meals and fast food that was not very nutritious. However, with Dr. Wong’s attentions, and avoiding the offending foods, the aches and pains disappeared over the ten visits I had with him. For many years after, I had no further problems with the sciatic nerve.
While I had a health clinic in Australia, I visited United States to check the quality control of a brand of encapsulated Herbs--Nature's Sunshine Products--and also to visit health expos, such as the one put on by the National Health Federation, in Pasadena, California. It was there that I met with a registered reflectologist, Mr. Jim Ingrim, whom I observed working on a person with a hip problem. This was one of the few things I learned to assist the body that I did not learn through meditation.
METHOD ONE
Jim Ingrim had the client lie on his back on a slant board, feet towards the highest point. He then knelt down and lifted the knee of the affected hip, and in a sweeping motion rubbed the sinews at the back of the thigh and calf muscles.
Here is the method I developed from my observations of Jim. I do this on a flat massage table, not on a slant board.
First, to confirm that one is dealing with the correct leg, a good idea is to apply the fingers at the top of the hip, while client is facing upwards, then ask him to stretch the leg, keep it stiff, and lift it over the head. Ask the client to repeat the exercise with the other leg. From this one can ascertain which leg is more painful when it is raised. Whether one lifts the leg only a few inches, or all the way up to 90 degrees, one leg will usually be much more painful to lift. That is the leg to work on.
To fix the sciatic pain, put both hands under the knee while it is bent, one on either side, so that the fingers of both hands come together at the fingertips. Then apply some pressure with the fingers, and slide them together from under the back of the knee tdown o the Achilles’ tendon, five or six times. Then, with the client’s permission, repeat the process, sliding the hands and fingers along the underside of the thigh, all the way to the top of the leg. The therapist should visualize or concentrate on massaging the sinews and muscles on the back of the lower leg and the thigh.
Once having completed this procedure, then with the right hand, fingers outstretched, slide the hands across the surface of the muscles, in an upward movement to the inner bend of the knee about twenty-five times, knocking into the back of the knee. First do this sliding the hand from the inner thigh into the knee, and then from the calf into the knee.
One needs to apply quite a a bit of energy when conducting this exercise in general.
A good idea is to the client’s foot flexed at right angles to the leg during the whole action. This can be achieved by placing a pillow, or one's own knee, against the bottom of the foot, so that it remains flexed.
When all of the above has been carried out, request the client to stretch the leg so treated, and they will likely express surprise and say, “Gosh, that's different !”
When I am working on a person and realize that they have a sciatic problem, this is usually the last thing I attend to, using this procedure. Then, if they are on a massage table, I invite them to sit up and put their legs over the side.
I had a client, a lady from Australia, who had her knee raised while reading a book. She fell asleep in that position, resulting in the sinews parting from the Pelvis. She virtually could not walk. The above procedure was followed to repair the damage, so she could walk again. During the procedure, I applied total concentration to the thought of re-affixing the tendons back to the pelvis, as the finger pressure was applied, when moving the hands from the back of the knee to the lower groin five or six times. The mind can achieve great things.
METHOD TWO
This is an interesting technique that the client can even do for himself.
The therapist can be seated on a low stool; the client has the ankle and lower section of the leg uncovered. Take the client’s foot in your hand and note where the shin bone runs up the leg. With the index finger, press on the point about two and one half inches above the ankle on the shin, and then move outwards a couple of inches from the shin bone, applying a certain amount of pressure. At a certain point, you will hit a meridian point that causes the client to wince. As the pressure is further applied, the client may cry out in pain. This is the very reaction one could expect, and then it can be explained that that spot is called the Geoffrey's Spot. The outside of the other leg has the same spot. Putting pressure on these two spots will often clear up sciatic pain.
You may want to mark an X on the two spots, so that the client can easily apply his own finger pressure if the pain recurs. Finding this relief point has been a godsend to a large number of people, often saving them from surgery.
As best I can recall, this method was shown to me in meditation. I have used it on countless occasions. For example, one evening when I was attending a meeting, a man arrived using a walking stick—he could not walk properly. I asked him to be seated and applied the pressure to the two points. The man grimaced but the pressure fixed the pain and he has not needed to use a walking stick since then.
For those who may question the effectiveness of working on Geoffrey's Spot for the relief of the sciatic pain, my old friend Tommy Strawther, age 92. Last winter, after I'd extracted his car from twenty inches of snow, drove himself to Marshall, Texas from Washington DC, a couple of thousand miles. After a few days he rang to say he was in absolute pain in his hip joints, bedridden with sciatica.
Over the phone I gave him the instructions as set out above. Two days later he telephoned and said he was right as rain. Several others, when using walking sticks have been able to discard them also just by putting pressure on Geoffrey’s Spot.
One more piece of advice: don’t wear a wallet in the hip pocket.
As for the diet, follow the advice of the Weston A. Price Foundation (www.westonaprice.org). Nuts will not have an “acid” effect on the body if you make them into “crispy nuts,” according to the recipe in the book Nourishing Traditions. And some people are helped by eliminating tomatoes and oranges from the diet. Certainly fruit juices, such as orange juice, are not good for the body.
Happy golfing, sporting or just walking without hip issues!
I Am, Geoffrey
The information contained on this website is provided for your general information only. I do not give medical advice nor engage in the practice of medicine. Under no circumstances do I recommend a particular treatment for specific individuals and in all cases recommend that you consult your doctor before pursuing any course of treatment. The term "healing" is only used as popularly understood and does not imply a cure.
Testimonials used on this website are the words, experiences and opinions of my clients and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Geoffrey Morell.
Where requested I have withheld my client's full names in the interests of privacy.
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