Can a broken spine be repaired?

[Youngjun Ham's mind PT] How Fixed the Broken Spine Without Surgery(chosun.com)

# If you were hit by a car traveling at 90 kilometers per hour and suffered a fractured vertebrae, would you believe that you healed naturally through meditation without the help of modern medicine?

It actually happened, and she wrote about it, became a best-selling author, and an educator and entrepreneur sharing her natural healing methods with the public.

Joe Dispenza (1962-) was 23 years old in 1986 when he was riding his bike in a triathlon and was hit by an SUV and thrown to the pavement. Multiple spinal compression fractures. Six vertebrae were broken and twisted, and if she didn't have surgery within three days, she would be paralyzed for life. The surgery involves placing a 20- to 50-centimeter-long steel rod (Harrington rod) in her spine, and even if she heals, she will have a hard time living a normal life.

After much deliberation, he decided against the doctors' suggestion and decided to take matters into his own hands. In fact, Dr. Dispenza was already running a clinic in Southern California as a chiropractic specialist who uses spinal manipulation to heal without drugs.

A form of sports medicine, chiropractic is a manual treatment of abnormalities in the nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems, based on the premise that all disease stems from compression of the spinal nerves due to vertebral misalignment. In other words, Dispenser was an expert when it came to his back. What's more, he had been practicing martial arts and yoga for a long time.

Eam Taekyoung : Chiropractic believes that all diseases stem from pressure on the spinal nerves due to vertebral deviation. I believe that posture, stress, and food are the roots of all diseases, including cancer, except those caused by viruses. I also believe that almost all degenerative diseases, such as lung disease, cardiovascular disease, brain disease, and neurological disease, are caused by long-term accumulation of forward head protrusion and V-shape footed walking. 

He was a firm believer in the body's natural ability to recover. The ability of the body to heal itself is the philosophy of chiropractic and the theoretical foundation of holistic practitioners.

The power that created the body heals the body." He was discharged from the hospital and began his rehabilitation in a bright room at a friend's house.

At first, he ate little raw food. This was so that much of the energy used for digestion could be better used for wound healing.

I meditated and self-hypnotized for an hour three times a day, morning, noon, and night. In my mind's eye, I pictured each vertebra in my spine and envisioned a perfect spine. He also practiced reiki, a common practice in Eastern medicine. She would place the hands of visiting relatives on her wounds to channel their unconscious energy.

Finally, I applied physical stimulation to the wound to replenish the calcium in the broken bones. An inclined table was placed next to the bed, and he carefully rolled over, constantly stimulating his spine.

After six weeks, I started swimming, feeling my body recovering quickly. At first, I floated on top of the water while lying on a chaise longue, wearing thick clothes that immobilized my body. Later, he learned to float in the water and then stand, and later he was able to swim with his whole body.

By week 8, he was able to crawl on bare ground and progressed to walking, sitting, and bathing on his own. By week 12, he was able to lift dumbbells and finally walked for an hour on his own, no longer needing therapy.

# The key here is his meditation and self-hypnosis. He spent three hours a day visualizing his bones fusing and healing in his head. This is the kind of "mental rehearsal" that athletes often do. It takes a lot of mental focus and energy. Eventually, he overcame his illness and became a "meditation evangelist".

Eam Taekyoung : I think the above spinal imagery, mental rehearsal, or mental vision can be explained more scientifically as 'neurosensory perception' and 'attentional concentration effect'. 

Postural Science: Perceiving body specificity through neurosensory isokinetic tornado flight

His book, [You Are the Placebo] became a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into Korean. He travels the U.S. and around the world giving lectures, courses, and testimonials of people who have been healed of mental and physical illnesses by him. His $2,299 retreats sell out in a matter of days.

While he has many supporters, critics call him a "pseudoscientist who sells meditation as a cure-all," and the mainstream U.S. media hasn't taken him seriously.

# But when you take a closer look at his theories, they don't seem too far-fetched.

Perhaps the reason he is criticized is that he claims many of the theories already published in neuroscience, brain science, epigenetics, and quantum physics as if they were his own scientific theories, and sometimes he seems to make money by "cosplaying" as a spiritual guru.

In any case, the idea that we can create a new life by changing our minds and brains with our own consciousness, beyond our genes and environment, is hopeful in today's complex world.

In the end, his story is in line with the old saying, "If you have an intellect, you have a heart. It also reminds me of the saying that the "Iron Lady," former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013), lived by since she was a child.

"Thoughts become words, words become actions, actions become habits, habits become character, and character becomes destiny."

Relationship between Step count, Arm shape, and NFSM

Natural Foot Steps per Minute (NFSM) is the number of steps per minute that you walk naturally without bending your elbow. It's a simple pendulum, like a wall clock or a Viking ride.

This number depends on the length from the center of your palm to your shoulder joint. A first-grade child with an average arm length of about 0.4 meters would have an NFSM of 95, while an adult with an arm length of about 0.55 meters would have an NFSM of about 81.

When the number of steps taken is greater than the NFSM, the elbow begins to bend as the arm moves forward, and the faster you walk, the more the elbow bends.

When you run, your elbows are typically bent at about 90 degrees or less, and the faster you run, the smaller the angle.

When walking slower than the NFSM, the elbow does not bend, but a rotational component is added to the linear motion of the hand. The slower you walk, the greater the rotational component.

Diaphragm and Posture

* The anteroposterior distance (L) of the diaphragm decreases as the angle of posterior tilt of the thoracic spine relative to the lumbar spine increases.

* The shorter the anteroposterior distance (L) of the diaphragm, the greater the upward and downward travel of the diaphragm during breathing, which can increase the volume of thoracic breathing.

* A posterior tilt of the thoracic spine, similar to that of a runner, activates thoracic inspiration by lifting the ribs upward and then downward.

* Moving the thoracic spine backward relative to the lumbar spine reduces the abdominal space, somewhat restricting abdominal breathing.   

Arm Strokes and Posture

1. Principles of Pendulum Oscillation 

  - The time it takes for a pendulum to travel one cycle is only affected by the distance(L_p) between the origin and the pendulum. The weight of the pendulum has no effect.

  - The maximum stroke speed of the pendulum (V_c) is determined by the maximum height of the pendulum motion (h_max).

2. Arm motion

  - The total length of the arm and the angle at which the elbow is bent determine the natural duration of the arm's one-cycle pendulum motion. This can be altered by intentionally applying force to the arm muscles. 

  - The maximum height of the arm as it retracts determines the maximum speed of the arm's stroke.

  - When running, the distance(L_p) between the origin and the pendulum is reduced by bending the elbows a lot to shorten the one-cycle oscillation time.

3. Postural deformity involving the arm strokes

  - Differences in the force applied to the muscles of the two arms, the maximum retraction height (h_max), and the elbow bend angle cause differences in the left and right stroke distance of the arms.

  - Persistent and excessive differences in these forces, heights, and (or) angles are manifested as a tilt of the shoulder line and a difference in left/right arm stroke distances .

What Is a Full Recovery Workout?

 

When I go for a walk, I often see people dressed up in workout clothes and running. However, there are aspects of their workouts that seem to me to make their bodies worse as much as they make them healthier.   

A surprising number of people run while looking at the ground, or with an unbalanced left/right foot or arm stroke. 

I believe that people need to change their definitions of labor, exercise, and rest in order to not leave their happiness to fate. 

* Definition of work: any activity that keeps the thoracic space constricted or can cause it to constrict in the long term.

* Exercise: activities that maintain an expanded chest space or contribute to a long-term expansion of the chest space.

* Definition of rest: activities that maintain or contribute to a state of relaxed muscular and emotional tension.

Runners who run with their eyes on the ground, or who run with an unbalanced left/right foot or arm stroke, are clearly getting a workout, but the workout is not contributing fully and positively to their body and mind. Running in this posture qualifies as an activity that is both exercise and labor, based on my redefinition of exercise and labor. It's certainly better than not exercising at all, but the long-term negative effects are likely to be significant.

In order to be fully restorative, you need to pay attention to your running form so that it doesn't include any active aspect that could reduce your chest space or constrict it in the long run.

The need for postural awareness training

Is aging a disease?

The International Health Organization (WHO) has included aging as a preventable and treatable disease in its 2018 International Classification of Diseases-11 (ICD-11) statistical classification of diseases, giving it a disease code. 

Aging is not a disease. Aging is a swamp that begins at birth. If you don't flounder in the swamp, you slowly sink, so you just extend the time that you have a life. If you keep your arms and legs open when you're in the swamp, you'll go down slowly.

To live longer in the swamp of aging, we need to reduce our sluggishness in the areas of posture, stress, and food. Secondarily, we can consider taking anti-aging drugs. 

However, we unintentionally determine the length of our lives primarily through slouching, eating too much food, and exposing ourselves to low-intensity but persistent stress. Slouching puts pressure on the respiratory and cardiovascular systems, excessive food intake makes the entire body system lazy, and stress makes the body overly rigid.

Aging is not a disease that can be cured, but a swamp whose end can be controlled. No one can escape it, so there's nothing to fear.

The need for postural awareness training

People are generally unaware of their postural deformity until it reaches a serious state. They find it difficult to objectively observe their relatively mild postural deformities. People are also generally unaware of the effects of postural deformities on their bodies and minds. 

It usually develops slowly, almost imperceptibly, and gains momentum in the second half of life. From there, they become more and more aggressive, so It's as if you know or as if you don't know. But after all, you don't know.

To avoid this fate, postural awareness training is essential. Knowing which parts of your body you can detect the difference in feeling when you're upright, slouching forward, leaning to the side, walking with your back muscles disengaged, and so on, allows you to take preventive and restorative measures. However, there is virtually no information out there about this.

I can't say for sure when that time will come, but sooner or later (?) I will definitely educate the public. 

If you can distinguish the sensations caused by your posture, it will be relatively easy to detect the changes that food causes in your body and the changes that stress causes in your body and mind. So, I think we need posture awareness education first. It is an education on how to take control of your own physical and mental health, how to take control of your own happiness instead of leaving it to fate.

Perceiving body specificity through neurosensory isokinetic tornado flight

Overview

When a specific body part is in an abnormal state (blood circulation, muscle stiffness/relaxation/damage, etc.), neurosensory sensations are perceived differently in the brain. By perceiving your own individual body parts with your eyes closed, you can identify the specificity of neurosensory perception of parts that are in abnormal states in the short and long term.

In this method, you first close your eyes and imagine a virtual body that exists in the same size and position as your real body. Then, your visual focus flies inside your body in an isokinetic spiral path. During this process, areas of the body that are in an abnormal physical state will experience neurosensory resistance to the movement of this visual focus, which is detected by the brain. The areas where this neural resistance is perceived are judged to be in an abnormal state in terms of blood circulation, muscle stiffness/relaxation/damage, etc.  

This neural resistance can detect not only when the body is in an abnormal state in the short term, but also the activity of neural structures with different degrees of development according to the principle of neuroplasticity in the long term. Repeated efforts to penetrate the visual focus into the abnormal part of the body where the resistance is occurring can also trigger a healing effect by creating an attentional focusing effect, which to some extent improves blood circulation and increases neural activity.

Specificity Detection Procedure

1. while sitting or standing upright, close my eyes and visualize an imaginary body of the same shape as the real one, with my consciousness envisioning my entire body in the same position where it actually exists. 

2. the imaginary visual focus flies at a constant rotational speed from the bottom to the top inside the body conjured from above.

3. During this process, you may encounter areas of resistance where you feel the visual focus slowing down or bouncing back. This is the area where the nerve cells are in an abnormal state due to muscle contraction or poor circulation, which is what we are looking for. Muscle contraction means that the muscle cannot relax and remains tense.

4. While continuing to try to bring your visual focus to the area of resistance, deliberately contract/relax the muscles around this area in small increments. Change your posture slightly. At some point, the resistance will weaken or disappear and you will be able to regain your airspeed (this is similar to what happens when a big social issue breaks out and the media focuses attention on it, resulting in a significant improvement). 

5. Continue flying to the next area while maintaining the attitude that caused the drag to disappear. 

6. repeat steps 4 and 5 above to fly to the crown of the head, eliminating subsequent areas of resistance. Most people will feel their spine extend at some point during this process.

7. Afterward, open your eyes and look at the position you are in. If you've followed the instructions above, you should find that your head is at a gaze angle of about 40 degrees or more. 

8. You can judge the degree of poor posture in that area by the strength of the resistance you felt during the above process.

Healing Activity Procedure

1. while sitting or standing upright, close your eyes and visualize an imaginary body of the same shape as the real one in the same location as the specific body part where resistance was perceived above in your consciousness. 

2. If the imaginary visual focus attempts to fly at a constant speed of rotation from the bottom to the top inside the specific body part imagined above, resistance is again perceived. As you continue your visualization of this area, deliberately contract/relax the muscles around this area in small increments. Change your posture slightly. At some point, the resistance will weaken or disappear, and you will be able to regain airspeed (this is similar to what happens when a big social issue breaks out and the media focuses attention on it, resulting in a significant improvement). 

3. Take a break.

4. repeat steps 1-3 a few times (If the body is in a very bad condition, it may take several months (several times a day) of practicing the above steps 1-3 to have a meaningful effect)).