Dear LPG,

The other day I saw a news article that made my eyes water somewhat, but as a relatively young pensioner who suffers with back pain it got me thinking.   I know that backache is not exclusively suffered by the elderly these days and having watched and read the information I found in the links I have left below, I can understand why it is becoming a problem that plagues more and more younger people too. 

The Daily Mail’s article tells that the Chinese have developed a new way of dealing with back and neck pain which involves hanging themselves by the neck to get their spines back into alignment.  It sounds ‘terminal’ but having read a little about it I can see how it could work.  I have not been retired for that long and my job involved me being in an office in front of a computer for most of my working life, and though this seems like a drastic method of compensating for the posture misalignment that results, I am working up to giving it a go.

From what I have read I have learned that many experts think that work, for so many, involves prolonged periods of focussing down in order to do things which means that we force our backs into being bent in all the wrong ways for too long each day. 

I can hear you thinking that it could only have happened in the Far East, but the West is catching on as YouTube has shown.  A dentist has developed a more sophisticated method of getting the same result and while I would like readers to see it, please don’t think that I am advocating that we all go out and buy one.

I also found a doctor who has developed an exercise which is much less drastic but is a variation on the same theme, which might be somewhere for the more sceptical to start.

 I think that I am young enough to try a bit of neck-hanging, although I am still gathering up the courage to get started.  I will let you know how it goes.

KR. Bell Green.

LPG would like readers to take note of the usual warning that comes with any new therapy when we say don’t try it at home before asking your GP’s advice.

KR offers the news article that got him writing…

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A less worrying, American version of the same therapy…  

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And an extremely watered down version that may help

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