The Rossiter System eases, relieves and prevents pain because it directly tackles the causes of pain. Tightness, pain, throbbing, aching and limited movement in muscles and joints occur because surrounding connective tissue has shortened and tightened from overuse and repetition. The Rossiter System's stretching techniques loosen entire areas of connective tissue, restore mobility and circulation. The result -- effective pain relief and free movement. In contrast, the solutions offered by traditional medicine for carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain and structural aches/pains often address the symptoms but never get at the causes of pain. Rarely is the relief permanent, forcing people to remain on drugs, wear splints constantly or undergo repeated cortisone shots and surgeries -- all of which have potentially disabling side effects. Medical intervention ignores a basic tenet: PAIN is information. It is the body's way of asking for help. Pain relief is simple using easy-to-learn techniques like the Rossiter stretches. They fix the body by restoring its natural functions, ability to move and space. Here's a look at what traditional medicine offers for pain -- and why many of the approaches are flawed or ineffective.
Pills Splints Shots Surgery
Pills/ Painkillers/ NSAIDs
When tissue is damaged, it naturally swells as blood rushes to the area to nourish it and carry away waste. Swelling is not the cause of pain. It's a symptom of pain, overuse and injury. It's the body's way of trying to heal itself.
Modern-day drugs called non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) are usually prescribed or suggested to stop the swelling and inflammation. These kinds of drugs (prescription and over-the-counter) include Advil, Nuprin, Motrin, Excedrin, Naprosyn, Naproxen, Anaprox, and the like. Sometimes, muscle relaxants are prescribed for muscle sprains, back aches or generalized aches, pains and strains.
Essentially, NSAIDs and other pain-killing, anti-swelling drugs stop the body's natural healing response. The pain is still there. You just can't feel it. The body isn't sure what to do with these synthetic chemicals. Senses become masked or diluted - even with drugs like Tylenol. Because pill-takers can't feel pain, they continue using and overusing the injured area, literally adding insult to injury.
When the body adjusts to the new chemicals, the pain returns and the drug is no longer effective. Usually, people switch to different or more powerful drugs (or take two pills instead of one, and then three instead of two). The pain cycle starts again. Permanent pain relief never arrives.
In addition, NSAIDS and other drugs have side effects. They slow down essential blood to the injured area, causing tissue to deteriorate further (even though you may not feel it). They can cause dizziness, nausea, stomach pain, ulcers, headaches, even a risk of congestive heart failure. Muscle relaxants decrease the sensitivity of injured muscle or tissue, slow the muscle's natural responses and make people not really care whether they hurt. Side effects of muscle relaxants include drowsiness, dizziness, confusion, nausea, anorexia, confusion or fatigue. People taking these kinds of drugs are often a danger to themselves and their colleagues.
Pills violate the first Rossiter Constant --Communication. Your body needs to communicate within itself. Pills violate this by shutting down, muzzling or interfering with the body's internal signals.
Splints/braces/"appliances"
While they may stabilize an area that's hurting or overworked, splints possess a major logical flaw. By restricting movement to a particular area of the body, they tax and overwork nearby muscles, bones and tissues, sending the injury somewhere else. (For example: a few weeks after a splint is applied to a wrist, pain can begin to spread to the fingers, elbow or shoulder).
Splints also restrict blood flow. They're usually placed on a wrist or arm so tightly that they leave red marks on the skin when they're removed. When connective tissue is squeezed or constricted, space is lost. When splints squeeze an injured area, the body's natural healing process is blocked. Decreasing blood flow, restricting movement and reducing the amount of space available to tissue usually means the return of a major symptom: numbness.
Splints do not help injured tissue or sore joints improve. When muscles don't move, they atrophy. They stiffen, shrink and lose their usefulness. And when that happens, another area of the body must come to the rescue and work harder, setting up a vicious cycle of overuse and more pain somewhere else.
Cortisone shots/injections
Cortisone is a steroid hormone that's produced naturally by your adrenal glands. It helps your body store glucose, an energy-food source. It helps your body regulate its use of fats, salts and blood and helps the body deal with stress, among other things. The synthetic form of cortisone is called prednisone.
Doctors use cortisone/prednisone because it is a very powerful drug for reducing swelling. It can be taken as a pill or injected directly into joints. Xylocaine, Lanacane and other numbing agents are sometimes used separately or in conjunction with cortisone to numb the skin or underlying tissue before a cortisone shot is given.
Used too frequently, cortisone begins wearing away and eroding the naturally smooth bone surfaces that glide against each other at joints. Nearby muscles, when subjected to cortisone shots, begin to weaken, discolor, thin and lose strength.
Side effects from long-term cortisone/prednisone use can include muscle weakness, swollen and puffy tissues, osteoporosis, slow wound healing, thinning of skin, elevated blood pressure, weakened immune system and emotional distress. If you have diabetes, it can worsen the disease. Other cortisone side effects are glaucoma, cataracts and a tendency for the drug to mask existing and new infections -- and those are infections anywhere in the body.
Today, cortisone is not meant to be used as a long-term treatment for joint pain or muscle injuries, and ethical doctors limit how many shots they'll administer to any specific area or joint (usually 3-6 injections is the maximum -- in a life).
The corticosteroid used in any injection has a corrosive effect on the body's tissue. It literally rots the tissue. In short, the tissue falls apart into its constituent parts and looks dead. Sometimes it leaves tiny crystals of the drug in the tissue like gritty pieces of pieces of irritating sand. Cortisone-subjected tissue has to rebuild from scratch. It's a very long process, one that may take years. Sometimes, the tissue never heals and in older people, scarring can last for life. The worst part is that when pain returns, it comes back with a vengeance. And it rarely goes away. You just have to live with it.
Surgery
Many people with carpal tunnel syndrome resort to surgery that cuts the transverse carpal ligament in the wrist. The surgery automatically reduces strength in the hand 20-30 percent. That loss is permanent, and it's why many employers don't like to hire people who have had carpal tunnel surgery.
Women tend to scar more easily than men, so women often lose more of their grip after surgery. People who have undergone carpal tunnel surgery often say they have very tired hands ("I can't lift another thing" is a frequent complaint). They may experience constant or sharp hand pain. They may appear lazy or slow if their hands are in pain.
Whenever surgery is performed, a certain amount of scar tissue forms. Scar tissue is dead tissue, just like the atrophied tissue created by cortisone shots. Scarring shortens or tightens surrounding tissue. Nearby skin feels as if it's being pulled. Movement in the immediate area feels restricted. Sometimes an elbow , wrist, finger or hand is not able to flex or bend the way it could before surgery. Range of motion becomes narrower. Nearby tissue sometimes has the sensation of feeling cool, numb or painful. All these are indicators of a loss of space in the tissue.
Surgery cannot replace lost space. It should always be a last resort option, and I steer people away from it as much as possible.
As with any surgery, please look at all your options and ask hard, serious questions before making a decision. Ask about benefits, drawbacks, side effects, short- and long- term results, recovery, options and the doctor's experience and success rate with this particular kind of surgery. And don't forget to ask about being able to return to your work and hobbies. Ask to talk to other patients (of this particular surgeon) before agreeing to any kind of surgery. Get a second opinion, or a third. What kind of a guarantee is the surgeon willing to give?
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