Curing Chronic Pain

Repetitive Or Overuse Injuries And Body Mechanics

Rothbart — Thu, 23 May 2013 15:41:43 +0000

If you are a sports enthusiast and follow the players in any given sport, be it hockey, soccer or baseball, it becomes obvious that certain players are predisposed to repetitive (overuse) injuries, while other athletes escape these type of repetitive injuries throughout their entire professional career. How is this possible? The answer lies in body mechanics. Improving body mechanics is an important aspect of sports performance enhancement.

Many studies have shown that an athlete who is blessed with linear body mechanics is far less likely to have overuse injuries than an athlete that has torsional body mechanics.

I’ve written a great deal about the differences between torsional and linear mechanics, but there’s an even more important underlying issue, and that is, why do some athletes have linear mechanics while others have torsional mechanics? The body was designed to move linearly, so what forces the body to change into torsional mechanics?

The answer lies in how the foot moves. If your foot moves in a linear fashion, heel to toe, your body will automatically move linearly. If your foot twists (abnormally pronates) heel to toe, your body will automatically move torsionally.

I’ve written a great deal about two inherited abnormal foot structures – the Rothbarts Foot and the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity – that force the foot to twist. When I look at the athletes that are continuously being placed on the sidelines with overuse injuries, or whose professional careers have prematurely ended, almost invariably they have one of these two common foot structures.

How can I make such a statement? When reviewing the videos of these athletes, their feet are twisting and their body is moving torsionally. Since the most common cause of ‘foot twist’ is these two abnormal foot structures, it stands to reason that this is the problem.

Correct Your Body Mechanics And Your Repetitive/Overuse Injuries Will Be A Thing Of The Past

I find it sad to see the careers of so many professional athletes shortened due to their torsional mechanics, especially when there is a readily available therapy – Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy – that will correct this problem and get them back in the game until they are ready to retire (from old age)!

Whether you’re a professional athlete or a weekend warrior, I invite you to use this non invasive therapy to improve your body mechanics by correcting your foot twist. Correcting your foot twist will move your body back into linear mechanics and greatly reduce the probability of repetitive/overuse injuries – so you can once again enjoy doing what you love to do! After all, isn’t that what it’s all about?

If you’re searching for sports performance enhancement, reading the Curing Chronic Pain website will give you more information about the abnormal foot structures I discovered that can hinder you from achieving your full potential in sports performance and help you to determine whether an Initial Phone Consultation with Professor/Dr. Rothbart might be helpful.

For a more complete explanation of the Rothbarts Foot and PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, read:
Abnormal Foot Structures That Cause Chronic Pain
To find out if you may have one of two common inherited, abnormal foot structures that cause chronic muscle and joint pain, take the Rothbarts Foot Questionnaire.

As you learn more about my innovative therapy, you may find that addressing and effectively treating your foot structure may be the missing link to ending your long time battle with unrelenting muscle and joint pain.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.

Professor/Dr. Brian A. Rothbart
Chronic Pain Elimination Specialist
www.CuringChronicPain.com
www.RothbartSite.com
Discovered the Rothbarts Foot and the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity
Developer of Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy
Inventor and Designer of Rothbart Proprioceptive Insoles
Founder of International Academy of Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy
Author of Forever Free From Chronic Pain

Sports Performance Enhancement And Linear Body Mechanics

Rothbart — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:02:29 +0000

As an athlete, you’ve surely heard of sports biomechanics (the application of mechanical laws to living structures) and body mechanics (how the body moves) but most likely you’ve never heard of linear body mechanics. Understanding this concept will greatly help you in your quest for sports performance enhancement.

Let’s start with the definition of ‘anatomical neutral position’. The definition of ‘anatomical neutral position’ is joint congruity, that is, in which the surfaces of a joint are parallel to one another.

Your weight bearing joints (ankles, knees, hips and spine) can move in one of two ways – either symmetrically around their anatomical neutral position or asymmetrically around their anatomical neutral position. I refer to the motion of the joints moving asymmetrically (around their anatomical neutral positon) as torsional body mechanics. I refer to this motion of the joints moving symmetrically (around their anatomical neutral position) as linear body mechanics.

The joints are meant to function symmetrically around their anatomical neutral position. Here they move easily with less energy expenditure, they wear evenly and last longer. In other words, the joints perform at their optimum level.

To a large degree, level of performance in all sports depends on mechanical efficiency and linearity of movement. When all the weight bearing joints in your body function around their anatomical neutral position, your posture will be stable and you’ll be able to generate maximum power.

Having Linear Body Mechanics Is A Boon For Superior Sports Performance

How can you tell when someone has linear body mechanics? It’s easy:

When you see a person whose head sits directly over their spine (not bent to the side or twisted off center to their spine)
their shoulders are back (not rounded) their pelvis is straight (as opposed to an anterior pelvic tilt/lordosis),
their knees are straight (as opposed to knock kneed or bow legged),
their ankles are straight (not rolled inward or outward)

Basically a person who has good posture is a person whose body is functioning around linear body mechanics. A person with linear body mechanics naturally has more power, strength and endurance and moves with grace and fluidity. They are a joy to watch.

In my blog ‘Cross Country Running – Biomechanics Defines The Difference In Performance’ , looking at the photos of Sarah Baxter and Chelsey Totten, you can easily see that Sarah has linear body mechanics, while Chelsey does not. Sarah’s ankles are straight, her knees are over her feet, her head is over her spine and her shoulders are not twisted. And more importantly, at the end of the race, Sarah is not out of breath (unlike so many other runners).

People with linear body mechanics naturally have less aches and pains in their joints and muscles and seem to go through life avoiding the common chronic aches and pains that most other people have. If they have an injury, they usually recover quickly and without complications. Have you ever seen one of these people blessed with what seems to be a super body? In fact, they are blessed with linear body mechanics.

If you are a person considering an athletic career or a professional athlete seeking sports performance enhancement, look first at your body mechanics: If you have linear body mechanics you’re a jump start ahead of everyone else in your game.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.

Sports Performance Enhancement And Torsional Body Mechanics

Rothbart — Thu, 02 May 2013 22:46:05 +0000

As an athlete, you’ve surely heard of biomechanics (the application of mechanical laws to living structures) and body mechanics (how the body moves) but most likely you’ve never heard of torsional body mechanics. Understanding this concept this will definitely help you in your quest for sports performance enhancement.

Your weight bearing joints (ankles, knees, hips and spine) can move in one of two ways – either symmetrically around their anatomical neutral position or asymmetrically around their anatomical neutral position. I refer to this motion of the joints moving symmetrically (around their anatomical neutral position) as linear body mechanics. I refer to the motion of the joints moving asymmetrically (around their anatomical neutral positon) as torsional body mechanics. In this article we will talk about torsional body mechanics.

Torsional Body Mechanics

The joint is meant to function around its anatomical neutral position. Here it moves easily with less energy expenditure, it wears evenly and lasts longer. In other words, the joint performs at its optimum level.

When the joint no longer functions symmetrically around its anatomical neutral position, it starts to twist/turn abnormally. This twisting creates stress, inflammation and resulting deformation (asymmetrical thinning of the cartilage, collapsing of the joint space, spurring and mice) within the joint. If left untreated (or ineffectively treated) this can lead to a total collapse and fusion of the joint – the end stages of osteodegenerative arthritis. For the average person, this is bad news. For an athlete, it means the end of a promising career.

What Creates Torsional Body Mechanics?

Torsional body Mechanics can be the result of injury. For example, a tear of the tensor fascia lata can result in torsional mechanics within the hip joint. In this case only the hip joint is affected and the other weight bearing joints still function in linear mechanics. A partial tear of the anterior cruciate ligment can result in torsional mechanics in the knee joint. In this case, only the knee joint is affected and the other weight bearing joints still function in linear mechanics.

Another cause of torsional mechanics, which is very common, is having one of two inherited abnormal foot structures, the Rothbarts Foot or PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity. Either of these foot structures will force your foot to twist (i.e., torsional mechanics) when you walk or stand.

This foot twist will cascade up your skeletal framework, resulting in torsional mechanics within your ankle, knee, hip, back and jaw. This is a global pattern of torsional body mechanics, which is much more insidious and destructive than the regional torsional mechanics resulting from an injury.

Global torsional body mechanics results in osteodegenerative arthritis in many or all of the weight bearing joints and dramatically reduces sports performance. In fact, global torsional body mechanics is one of the leading causes of a premature ending of a professional sports career.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.

Improving Sports Performance Through Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy

Rothbart — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:36:39 +0000

Whether on the court, in the gym or on the track, if you’re an aspiring or professional athlete, you’re continually seeking to improve your sports performance and most likely using the best trainers available to do so. But no matter how good your training, diet or commitment, you’ll probably reach a certain point in which your performance will hit the wall. So how do you get to that next level? The answer is an innovative technique that your trainer may not be aware of – Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy.

Using many of the same principles that I use on my chronic pain patients, I also achieve fantastic results for professional athletes who are seeking to maximize their sports performance.

How can I do this when even your trainer can not? The answer is that I correct your body mechanics by bringing them from torsional to linear. When you have linear body mechanics, you will then truly be able to perform at your best. Let me explain:

Your postural joints and muscles should move symmetrically around their anatomical and physiological neutral positions. This produces the maximum amount of power output with the least amount of energy expenditure. This is known as linear body mechanics.

If your body has torsional body mechanics, your postural joints and muscles function in an off-centered position (on the inner or outer margins of the joint) in an asymmetrical movement (moving in one direction more than the other). This produces a decrease in power and an increase of energy expenditure.

So, obviously, if you want your body to perform at its maximum innate ability, you must take your body from torsional body mechanics to linear body mechanics. This can only be done when the cause(s) that force the body to move torsionally, are isolated and eliminated.

The most common cause of torsional mechanics is two inherited, abnormal foot structures: the Rothbarts Foot and PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity. In both these foot structures, the foot twists (abnormally pronates) when you stand, walk or run. This abnormal twist in the foot cascades up the postural framework into the knees, hips, back and neck resulting in more motion and less efficiency. The result is that no matter the quality of your training or how many hours you spend doing so, it’s impossible to perform at your best.

So it boils down to the fact that the difference between a good athlete and a great athlete is often their body mechanics. And moving your body towards linear mechanics is accomplished using an intervention called Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy.

Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy Will Greatly Improve Your Sports Performance

Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy is based on a paradigm referred to as the neurophysiological model. This model states that a neurophysiological pathway exists between the bottom of your feet and your cerebellum (the part of your brain that determines how your body moves). The plantar surfaces of your feet are embedded with millions of touch-activated mechanical receptors. While you are standing, walking or running at any given moment, certain areas of your feet that are touching the ground are activated, forming a pattern of stimulation. This pattern of stimulation sends a signal to your cerebellum, which your cerebellum uses to determine how your body will move and how your muscles are used. If you were born with a Rothbarts Foot or a PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, your foot will twist and the patterns of stimulation being sent to your cerebellum will be distorted. Acting on these distorted signals, your cerebellum will shift your body’s posture, resulting in torsional mechanics.

To correct this sequence of events, your body’s posture needs to be shifted into a better position (good posture). The better your posture, the more linear your body mechanics will be. This is done through Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy.

Using proprietary computerized postural analyses, I isolate the postural shifts and resulting torsional mechanics in each of your weight bearing joints. Using this information, I fabricate prescriptive Rothbart Proprioceptive Insoles to improve your postural alignment and diminish your torsional mechanics – moving your body towards more linear mechanics. I repeat this process one or two times over a period of 12 to 18 months, incrementally decreasing your torsional mechanics (which increases your linear mechanics) so that by the end of therapy your body is in a position where it is functioning in a position where your linear mechanics are at a level of efficiency where you now compete at the level you have been aspiring to attain.

If you are a professional athlete, you know that if you want to stay at the top of your sport, you must not only maintain your level of performance, but always seek to improve sports performance. Shifting your body from torsional mechanics to linear mechanics is the answer and Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy is the means to accomplish it.

If you’re searching for a way to improve your sports performance, reading the Curing Chronic Pain website will give you more information about the abnormal foot structures I discovered that cause many forms of chronic muscle and joint pain and help you determine whether an Initial Phone Consultation with me might be helpful.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.

The PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity Is A Leading Cause Of Incapacitating, Debilitating Muscle And Joint Pain

Rothbart — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 00:00:12 +0000

Incapacitating, debilitating muscle and joint pain – have you ever wondered how in the world you ended up with a body that hurts so very badly in so many places?

If you’re living in a body wracked with muscle and joint pain affecting practically every joint in your body plus other painful symptoms which neither you nor your doctor have any clue where they’re coming from – and as time passes your pain only gets worse – you’ve most likely spent quite a bit of time wondering how much longer you can stand being in this condition. If I may be so bold, I’d even bet you’ve often pondered the possibility of putting an end to your life of chronic pain.

Sooner or later, most pain sufferers of severe chronic pain come to a crossroad – they have no choice but to make a decision: Do they want to spend the rest of their life taking pain meds, surviving on disability and watching their life go down the tubes – or – are they ready to step out of their ‘comfort’ zone and search for an answer that can permanently put an end to chronic pain?

You may also find yourself to be at this crossroad.

I’m going to tell you something that most likely you’ve never heard before: If you live in incapacitating, debilitating muscle and joint pain, the reason is that you probably have a severe abnormal foot structure – the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity.

The PreClinical Clubfoot is an inherited, abnormal foot structure, which means that it is present at birth and structurally unstable. When you stand or walk the foot is unable to maintain its shape, but instead collapses, rolling inward and downward whenever your weight is applied over it.

Because all the bones in your body are connected, when your foot collapses inward and downward, so do your knees, hips, pelvis and shoulders. Your body, in an attempt to maintain stability, will overuse your muscles (across your postural joints) to stabilize these joints from the downward, inward collapse originating in your feet. In time these muscles become progressively tighter and inflamed.

At the same time, your weight bearing joints above your feet do not function around their anatomical neutral position (the position they’re meant to function around) because they’ve collapsed inward and downward. These altered joint positions result in excessive compression and friction (in the cartilage which lines your joint surfaces) which in time produce inflammatory changes typically associated with osteodegenerative arthritis.

The bottom line is this : when your postural muscles become tight and inflamed and your weight bearing joints become arthritic, the end result is pain. As this unpleasant condition continues over the years, your pain becomes more severe and consistent and eventually results in incapacitating, debilitating muscle and joint pain.

The Only Way To Eliminate Incapacitating, Debilitating Muscle And Joint Pain Is To Effectively Treat The Underlying Structural Instability In Your Foot

Fortunately, treating the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity does not involve surgery or drugs. The holistic non invasive therapy – Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy – has been proven to effectively stabilize the structural instability in this severe abnormal foot structure.

When the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity has been effectively treated, your muscles will heal and your joint cartilage will regenerate. That is, your body will heal itself. And with this, your incapacitating, debilitating muscle and joint pain will become a bad memory where it belongs – in the past.

Reading the Curing Chronic Pain website will give you more information about the abnormal foot structures I discovered that cause many forms of chronic muscle and joint pain and help you determine whether an Initial Phone Consultation with me might be helpful.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.

Do Bone Spurs Cause Chronic Back Pain?

Rothbart — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:07:28 +0000

I received a letter from a former patient who was concerned about the diagnosis her friend (I’ll call her Julia) had received from a physician regarding the cause of her bone spurs and chronic back pain.

Julia has a job that keeps her in the car, driving on California freeways 5 or 6 hours a day, plus a one-hour commute between home and work. She’s having terrible back pain that’s bad enough to make her consider filing for disability.

Julia’s Workers Compensation doctor ran -xrays and an MRI, then reported that she has some arthritis in her back and a few small osteophytes or “bone spurs.” The doctor told Julia that her problems are not work related, but due to her age. Arthritis and bone spurs, she was told, are typical diseases of old age. Julia is only 54 years old.

My former patient related that she herself has had so many large bone spurs for years that an arthritis specialist once told her, upon looking at her x-rays, “To be honest, I don’t know how you were even able to walk in here today.” And yet, this woman (now in her 60s), after having received Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy, no longer has any chronic pain. How can this be?

Why Bone Spurs Are Probably NOT The Cause Of Your Chronic Back Pain

If the year was 1960, instead of 2013, and I had read the comments of the arthritis specialist about the correlation between aging, arthritis and bone spurs, and resulting pain, I would have most likely simply nodded my head in agreement. But this is not 1960, it’s 53 years later.

Since 1960, a great deal of research has been done on spinal arthritis, bone spurs, senescence (aging) and resulting chronic pain. Many published studies have reported that there’s little, if any, correlation between them.

In fact, many people have spinal arthritis, bone spurs, and yet no back pain. Many other people have no spinal arthritis, no bone spurs, but a lot of back pain. And in my practice, I have personally seen patients in their mid 80s with no back pain, but children as young as 5 and 6 with back pain.

So what does all this mean? It means that bone spurs (in and of themselves) and arthritis do not cause chronic back pain. And if you don’t isolate and determine the real cause of your back pain, nothing will make sense (as in the above examples).

Over the last 40 years in research and clinical practice, I’ve seen thousands of patients with chronic back pain. My continuing question was – What is the common denominator in all these patients? The answer came approximately 15 years ago when I discovered two inherited abnormal foot structures that cause the feet to twist, result in bad posture and predispose many people to chronic foot, knee, hip and back pain.

With this insight, I then devised a therapy to effectively treat these people by correcting their foot twist, reversing their postural distortions and permanently eliminating their chronic pain.

When it comes to bone spurs, arthritis and chronic back pain there’s little or no correlation between the three – regardless of your age – but there’s a high correlation between abnormal foot structures, postural distortions and chronic musculoskeletal pain.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.

Is A Child More Likely To Have An Abnormal Foot Structure If Their Parent Does?

Rothbart — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 18:24:04 +0000

Warning: The abnormal foot structures that cause chronic muscle and joint pain are inherited!

A scared and distraught parent wrote me that her son, in his twenties, lives in severe chronic pain. She was beside herself with worry as he has the same agonizing symptoms that her husband had before he ended his own life. In desperation, she asked me if he could have an abnormal foot structure causing his pain.

Have you ever wondered if this same plight could happen to your child? If you yourself are living with unrelenting muscle and joint pain, not only could it happen to your children, the chances are it will.

The most severe chronic muscle and joint pain is often caused by the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, an inherited, abnormal foot structure that causes the foot to twist and distorts the posture. This causes the body’s weight bearing joints to become inflamed and the muscles to become strained, ultimately resulting in chronic pain – often throughout the entire body.

The PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity is a Mendalian dominant trait. This means that if one parent has a PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, statistically half of their children will also have this severe abnormal foot structure. If both parents have this abnormal foot structure, statistically 75% (3 out of 4) will have this foot structure.

The symptoms of the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity start at an early age, as young as two or three years of age and only get worse as your child grows.

There are two personality types in children who have a PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity. The first is a child who is sedentary and is unable to muster up the determination to overcome the obstacles that this severe abnormal foot structure can present. The second is a child who is active and often actually driven to excel in physical activity (such as sports) even though they have continuous overuse injuries.

Look for these traits in your child:

Symptoms As A Baby:

Difficulty in initially learning to walk
Walking clumsily
Flat feet (no arch) when walking, but not flat when the weight is off them (such as while sitting)

Symptoms As A Child:

When walking, the feet turn excessively inward (or outward)
Lumbering along with a slight hitch or limp
Bad posture
Shoe heels start wearing unevenly
Complaints of soreness and pain in legs
Frequent ankle sprains (if child is active)
Stiff, tight muscles

Symptoms As A Teen:

Heel pain
Knee pain
Stress fractures in the tibia (if the child is active)
Aching and stiffness in low back
Standing with knees straight, has difficulty touching toes
Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis

Maybe you’ve seen similar symptoms in your son or daughter, symptoms that are only becoming worse as they grow. You’ve probably tried everything you know of to help your child, but at some point started realizing that no one seems to know what is causing your child’s pain. And no pain management therapies – neither traditional nor alternative – make any lasting difference.

The problem is that many physicians have no knowledge of the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, nor the chronic pain (and potentially other) symptoms that it creates. For this reason this foot structure goes undetected and your child may needlessly grow up to live a life filled with pain and suffering.

What To Do As A Parent If Your Child Has An Abnormal Foot Structure

First, sit down with your child and take the Rothbarts Foot Questionnaire. If they answer eight or more questions in the affirmative, the cause of their pain is most likely an inherited, abnormal foot structure, probably the PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, as this is the foot structure in which symptoms can be seen early in childhood. I suggest you also use this time to take the questionnaire yourself, as you, too, most likely have an inherited abnormal foot structure causing your chronic pain.

The only effective treatment to eliminate your child’s (and your) chronic pain is to effectively treat their abnormal foot structure and this is done by decreasing their foot twist and permanently correcting their posture. As a result, their joints and muscles will naturally heal themselves. This can only be accomplished through a non invasive (non drug/non surgical) therapy known as Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy.

For a more complete explanation of the Rothbarts Foot and PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, read:
Abnormal Foot Structures That Cause Chronic Pain
To find out if your child may have one of two common inherited, abnormal foot structures that cause chronic muscle and joint pain, take the Rothbarts Foot Questionnaire.

As you learn more about my innovative therapy, you may find that addressing and effectively treating your child’s foot structure may be the missing link to ending their potential lifetime with unrelenting muscle and joint pain. Give your child a chance for a brighter future.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.

Sports Injury Solutions Using Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy

Rothbart — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:31:43 +0000

If you’re an aspiring or professional athlete, you may be experiencing the frustration of an overuse injury. And you’re probably painfully aware that overuse injuries are one of the most common reasons for a premature ending to a brilliant or aspiring career in professional sports. Though you’ve probably found that your sports medicine doctors have no cure for your problem, there may a permanent solution to your repetitive sports injury – it’s called Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy.

Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy greatly reduces or permanently eliminates chronic muscle and joint pain. Using many of the same principles of this therapy that I use on chronic pain patients, professional athletes who suffer with overuse (repetitive) injuries also get the same great results.

Let’s start with what’s most likely at the core of your overuse injury. My research shows that overuse injuries are the result of torsional mechanics. That is, instead of the postural joints and muscles moving symmetrically around their anatomical and physiological neutral positions, they function in an off-centered position (on the inner or outer margins of the joint) in an asymmetrical movement (moving in one direction more than the other).

For example, in an Oblique Patellar Tracking Pattern, the patella (knee cap) moves obliquely (at an angle) across the patellar groove during flexion and extension of the knee (instead of moving linearly within the patellar groove). This results in friction underneath the knee cap as it crosses the ridges of the patellar groove, resulting in inflammation and pain.

Torsional mechanics result in overuse injuries. Repetitive injuries that never completely heal are the most common reason that athletes are forced into premature retirement.

In order to reverse the affects of torsional mechanics on the body, it’s necessary to return the body back into linear mechanics. This can only be done when the cause(s) that force the body to move torsionally, are isolated and eliminated.

The most common cause of torsional mechanics is two inherited, abnormal foot structures: the Rothbarts Foot and PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity. In both these foot structures, the foot twists (abnormally pronates) when you stand, walk or run. This abnormal twist in the foot cascades up the postural framework into the knees, hips, back and neck resulting in inflammation and degeneration within these tendons and joints.

Where the specific overuse injury occurs varies from athlete to athlete, but usually occurs in the weakest joint in the postural chain. For instance, if you had a minor and seemingly insignificant injury to your ankle, this sets up your ankle joint to be the weak link in the postural chain and is most likely where your overuse injury will occur. Over time, your pain can become so consistent that you may no longer be able to compete at the same level of efficiency.

The only way these overuse injuries will heal (and allow you to again compete at a high level of efficiency in your chosen sport) is to return your body back to linear mechanics. Linear mechanics is where your joints and muscles are moving symmetrically around their anatomical and physiological neutral positions. This is accomplished using an intervention called Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy.

Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy Is The Solution For Repetitive Sports Injuries

Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy is based on a paradigm referred to as the neurophysiological model. This model states that a neurophysiological pathway exists between the bottom of your feet and your cerebellum (the part of your brain that determines how your body moves).

The plantar surfaces of your feet are embedded with millions of touch-activated mechanical receptors. While you are standing, walking or running at any given moment, certain areas of your feet that are touching the ground are activated, forming a pattern of stimulation. This pattern of stimulation sends a signal to your cerebellum, which your cerebellum uses to determine how the weight bearing joints in your body will move and how the muscles around those joints are used.

If you were born with a Rothbarts Foot or a PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, your foot will twist and the patterns of stimulation being sent to your cerebellum will be distorted. Acting on these distorted signals, your cerebellum will shift your body’s posture, resulting in torsional mechanics.

Using proprietary computerized postural analyses, I isolate the postural shifts and resulting torsional mechanics in each of your weight bearing joints. Using this information, I fabricate prescriptive Rothbart Proprioceptive Insoles to improve your postural alignment and diminish your torsional mechanics – moving your body towards more linear mechanics. I repeat this process one or two times over a period of 12 to 18 months, incrementally decreasing your torsional mechanics (which increases your linear mechanics) so that by the end of therapy your body is in a position where it is functioning in a position where your linear mechanics are at a level of efficiency where your overuse injuries are resolved by your body’s innate ability to heal itself.

If you aspire to be a professional athlete or are already at the top, you know that if you want to get there and stay there, you must keep your body strong and injury free. The solution to your overuse sports injury is to shift your body from torsional mechanics to linear mechanics. Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy is the means to accomplish this.

If you’re searching for a solution to your repetitive sports injury, reading the Curing Chronic Pain website will give you more information about the abnormal foot structures I discovered that can hinder you from achieving your full potential. Reading this information can help you to determine whether an Initial Phone Consultation with Professor/Dr. Rothbart might be helpful.

To find out if you may have one of two common inherited, abnormal foot structures that prevent you from reaching your optimal level of sports performance, take the Rothbarts Foot Questionnaire.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.

Nature Offers Ways Of Reducing Chronic Pain

Rothbart — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 10:39:31 +0000

Naturally, you want to relieve your pain! And we’ve all been taught that there’s a pill or potion for almost everything that ails us. But every pill or potion also comes with side effects. That’s why so many people today are interested in more natural means of reducing their pain. Here’s some we have used ourselves or recommend to others–but be safe. Many natural plants can have negative interactions with modern medications. Check with your doctor before mixing prescriptions and plants.

Water: You may be thinking, “I drink water every day and I still have pain!” But adequate hydration prevents painful muscle cramps and washes toxins out of the system that can collect in the muscles and cause pain. Many people think they’re drinking plenty of water when their system is actually badly dehydrated. Try increasing the amount of water you drink each day and see if your pain decreases. Can you count the water in drinks like coffee and lemonade? Yes, but remember that many drinks contain ingredients that may dehydrate, so try and focus on increasing your intake of plain water.

Cramp bark : Makes an effective natural muscle relaxant for the skeletal muscles. It can be useful for leg cramps, muscle spasms, stiff neck or back pain brought on by overuse of muscles. The powerful antispasmodic constituents in cramp bark are often recommended used for menstrual cramps or to halt premature labor, so it should not be used by women that may be pregnant. This article at Discovery Health discusses dosage and the safe use of cramp bark.

Valerian Root: Valerian root has been used as a natural pain reliever for centuries. Eases muscle and joint pain and is often used to relieve back pain caused by tension and stress. Be aware, however, that valerian root may cause unwanted side effects for people taking certain medications. This article at Livestrong discusses dosage, side effects and some of the health warnings to consider before using this ancient remedy.

Capsaicin: Capsaicin is what makes chili peppers hot. It’s been proven effective for reducing the pain of arthritis and migraines by desensitizing the nerve pain receptors. You can choose to eat capsaicin by adding hot sauce to soups, stews and other foods, or you can use it in topical creams. In a University of Oxford study, nearly half of the arthritis patients tested reduced their pain by fifty percent after using a topical capsaicin cream for a month. In a similar study at the New England Center for Headache, patients saw a significant decrease in migraine and cluster headache intensity after applying capsaicin cream to the inside of their nostrils.

Devils Claw: Eases back pain and inflammation. Even TV’s Dr. Oz recommends this natural plant for pain relief, saying” The Khoisan tribes of the Kalahari Desert used this herb as a pain remedy for thousands of years before it was introduced to Europe in the early 1900s. One study found that devil’s claw—which contains an anti-inflammatory agent called harpagoside—was just as effective as the prescription NSAID Vioxx, which was immensely popular before it was withdrawn from the market due to its cardiovascular side effects. I recommend taking an extract that provides 50 to 100 milligrams of harpagoside daily for as long as your pain lasts.”

Gentle Stretching: It may be hard to make yourself exercise when every bone and muscle aches, but it has been proven, time after time, that exercise greatly reduces muscle and joint pain. So if you’ve been inactive for a while, ease back into exercise with gentle stretching. If you have access to a tai chi class, you may find that the slow, gentle stretches of this ancient art qucikly bring you pain relief and a new level of energy. If you don’t have access to an exercise class, you’ll find it easier to exercise at home if you work along with an appropriate DVD. They are hundreds available, in every form of exercise you can imagine. Many exercise DVD’s offer segments for viewing on YouTube, so check there before you buy to make sure you like the way the exercise is taught.

Why Settle For Temporary Relief Of Chronic Pain When Permanent Pain Relief Is Available?

The above advice is excellent for temporary pain relief of minor muscle aches and pains, but the key is to find a therapy that is natural and non invasive and also provides permanent pain elimination, not just a temporary reduction of symptoms. However, the only way to end the cycle of chronic pain is to discover the course of your pain and treat it.

In my many years of medical research, I proved that many people suffering from chronic muscle and joint pain have an inherited abnormal foot structure that is the actual source of their pain. This abnormal foot structure is actually very common, yet few people know they have it.

If you have such a common inherited, abnormal foot structure that predisposes you to chronic muscle and joint pain, the above suggestions are not enough to permanently eliminate your chronic pain. The reason is because your inherited, abnormal foot structure will cause bad posture resulting in chronic pain in your joints and muscles. Unless you effectively treat this foot structure, stretching your body, taking herbs and drinking water will be like putting a band aide on a severed arm.

Effectively treating your abnormal foot structure to permanently eliminate your chronic pain can be done naturally, without drugs or surgery. The method I use to do this is called Rothbart Proprioiceptive Therapy.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.

Sports Injury Solutions: Will Alex Rodriguez’ Foot Structure Force Him Out Of Baseball?

Rothbart — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 20:22:17 +0000

Alex Rodriguez’ recent hip surgery is just the latest sports injury in a career littered with medical events. Will this great player find himself forced out of baseball by sports injuries? And might these injuries all be caused by an abnormal foot structure? Let’s look at the evidence.

Alex Rodriguez made his Major League debut playing shortstop with the Seattle Mariners at age 18. He later played for the Texas Rangers and New York Yankees, and in 2007 became the youngest player to hit 500 career home runs.

His career faltered after his 2009 admission that he had used performance-enhancing drugs from 2001-2003, but he still went on to help the Yankees win the 2009 World Series.

But now, all that’s left of Rodriguez’ baseball career is the hope that modern medicine can save him from a body that keeps betraying him. Could his foot structure be forcing Alex Rodriguez out of baseball?

Looking at the history of Rodriguez’ sports injuries; first went his right hip, then his right knee and left shoulder. Now he needs surgery on his left hip. Dr. Bryan Kelly will slice into Rodriguez’ left hip and try to save the career of the $275 million man. This could keep him out of the game for six months (and in pain for up to a year) and leaves the New York Yankees with a $114 million bill over the next five years for a player who can no longer hit a baseball.

Will Rodriguez’ hip surgery be successful? In my opinion: no. In a previous post I wrote about Yao Ming (now retired center for the Houston Rockets) who sustained a chronic foot injury that would not heal despite surgery. The reason is because treating symptoms surgically almost always leads to failure. Instead, you must find and effectively treat the cause of the problem.

As I predicted, because the cause of Ming’s foot injury was not found, he was forced into premature retirement from basketball. I also predict the same outcome for Rodriguez. His hip surgery will fail because his doctors are not resolving the underlying problem which has resulted in the chronic hip disability.

Alex Rodriguez’ Foot Structure May Be Causing His Injuries and Potentially Forcing Him Into A Premature Retirement From Baseball

Rodriguez has used steroid drugs to enhance his performance on the field. Two athletic trainers and a team doctor recently speculated that though they have not treated Rodriguez, they’ve dealt with many cases of steroid users and have seen how their bodies fall apart as a result. They feel that Rodriguez’s steroid usage led to the degeneration of his hip joints. This may well be true, but could there be yet another reason, more intrinsic, for Rodriguez’ injuries? I believe there is.

I believe that Alex Rodriguez was born with an abnormal foot structure that has resulted in his chronic and progressively worsening musculoskeletal disabilities. These foot structures are frequently overlooked, yet they result in typical histories of sports injuries that he (and other athletes) sustain over the years. That is; injuries which are resistant and non responsive to physical therapy, drugs and/or surgical interventions.

I sadly predict that Alex Rodriguez, because of sports injuries caused by an abnormal foot structure, will be retiring from baseball by the end of the next season (2014) unless his team doctors put their egos aside and start looking at the probable reason behind Rodriguez’ chronic pain symptoms.

If you’re searching for sports injury solutions, reading the Curing Chronic Pain website will give you more information about the abnormal foot structures I discovered that can hinder you from achieving your full potential and help you to determine whether an Initial Phone Consultation with Professor/Dr. Rothbart might be helpful.

For a more complete explanation of the Rothbarts Foot and PreClinical Clubfoot Deformity, read:
Abnormal Foot Structures That Cause Chronic Pain

To find out if you may have one of two common inherited, abnormal foot structures that cause chronic muscle and joint pain, take the Rothbarts Foot Questionnaire.

If you have questions about what’s involved in being treated with Rothbart Proprioceptive Therapy by long distance, see our FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page by clicking here.

If you would like to contact me regarding an appointment to resolve your chronic muscle and joint pain, click here.