If you are suffering from ankylosing spondylitis, you definitely know the pain and crippling feeling it brings with it. Most of the doctors tell you that now you have to live with this pain and nothing permanent solution can be achieved. Most patients that come to us (homeopaths) usually come to us as the last resort. But when we assure them about the positive outcome that can be achieved with the homeopathic medicines, they are happy. But when we tracked the records of our patients of ankylosing spondylitis, we found that there are differences in the pace of positive response from our patients. Some respond faster than others and those who take years to respond have some real flaws in their routines that need be followed by a patient of AS.
This article is to bring to your notice certain pointers that should be known by the patient of ankylosing spondylitis in order to achieve faster and desirable effects with homeopathic constitutional medicine—
- Exercise- Firstly let me clarify that unless you make up your mind to exercise the right way, you have very little chance of rectifying your AS. Exercising is crucial. Also I said, “Exercising in the right way!” When we treat our patients at our consultancy services, we give stipulated personalized exercises for AS patients. It is important to note that the deformities or disabled body movements vary from patient to patient. A single set of exercise for all many times fails to yield beneficial results. Therefore, if a patient needs just a brisk walk to revert the AS changes along with the medicine; another patient might need some special yoga exercise along with the walk. Here I also would like to mention the fact that we have seen remarkable improvement in these patients when they follow the “Pranayama” regime inclusive of Kapalbhati and Anulom-vilom. It actually boosts the effect of homeopathic medicine on all planes- physical, mental, and emotional!
- Avoid lifting heavy weights- This can be said as a generalized statement in all the patients of ankylosing spondylitis. Maximum cases of aggravation in pain and further deformed body movements have been observed in patients who accidentally life some heavy weights. That’s why I strongly condemn the use of heavy weight gym exercises too in these patients. However, once your AS is rectified to a certain extent with the homeopathic medicines and exercise, you can do moderate weight exercises to tone up and strengthen your muscles.
- Turn up to one side when you get up from your bed in the morning- we have observed that in many patients of ankylosing spondylitis, morning stiffness is common. If you stretch your back muscles unduly during these wee hours, you worsen your chances of developing acute pain. This is especially true of patients with moderate to severe AS. Therefore, turn to one-side preferably left (unless your pain is aggravated by turning to left side) and then get up while avoiding any kind of jerky movement.
- Avoid food that aggravates your flatulence- This is our personal observation while dealing with the patients of AS though there is no direct connection between the two. People, who suffer from flatulent dyspepsia more often, develop acuter pains of ankylosing spondylitis more frequently. Therefore such patients often complain of pain in their back when their tummy is full of gaseous distension.
- Pay attention to your posture- People especially those who work on computers for long hours have to have correct postures. Also it is important to pay attention to how you bend while bending down. In patients who have pain when bending, we recommend practicing sitting down by bending knees instead of bending at the waist.
- Bed quality- Your bed shouldn’t be too hard or too soft (fluffy) to avoid further spinal damage. Go for good quality beds that provide you apt comfort and adaptable spinal protection. This definitely lessens your chances of early morning stiffness.