IMPACT OF REFLEXOLOGY ON MECHANICAL LOW BACK PAIN

Background: Low-back pain (LBP) is one of the highest common and costly musculoskeletal conditions in current society. Seventy to 85% of the populations will exhibits LBP at some time in their lives. There is little known about specific manual therapy techniques used to treat chronic LBP. Reflexology is a treatment that involves using gentle pressure to reflex points located on all of the outsides of the feet and hands. The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of reflexology technique in subjects with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Methods: Twenty patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain were included in the study and were assessed regarding range of motion via goniometer and pain threshold (via modified Oswestery scale and visual analogue scale), the 20 patients were allocated into two groups 10 patients in each group. Group A received reflexology sittings at rate of 3 days per week, and the duration of each sitting was 30 minutes. While group B were control. The study was continued for 3 weeks Results: According to VAS, the results revealed a non-significant variance between the study group and control group before intervention (p= 0.43). While after intervention, there was a significant decline of pain in the study group compared to that of the control group (p=0.000). Moreover, there was a very highly significant decrease in pain within the study group after treatment (p= 0.005). Conclusion: The present study indicated that the reflexology technique was effective and safe to be applied for cases of mechanical low back pain. It results in a significant decrease in pain within the study group after treatment

IMPACT OF REFLEXOLOGY ON MECHANICAL LOW BACK PAIN

Background: Low-back pain (LBP) is one of the highest common and costly musculoskeletal conditions in current society. Seventy to 85% of the populations will exhibits LBP at some time in their lives. There is little known about specific manual therapy techniques used to treat chronic LBP. Reflexology is a treatment that involves using gentle pressure to reflex points located on all of the outsides of the feet and hands. The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of reflexology technique in subjects with chronic low back pain (CLBP). Methods: Twenty patients with nonspecific chronic low back pain were included in the study and were assessed regarding range of motion via goniometer and pain threshold (via modified Oswestery scale and visual analogue scale), the 20 patients were allocated into two groups 10 patients in each group. Group A received reflexology sittings at rate of 3 days per week, and the duration of each sitting was 30 minutes. While group B were control. The study was continued for 3 weeks Results: According to VAS, the results revealed a non-significant variance between the study group and control group before intervention (p= 0.43). While after intervention, there was a significant decline of pain in the study group compared to that of the control group (p=0.000). Moreover, there was a very highly significant decrease in pain within the study group after treatment (p= 0.005). Conclusion: The present study indicated that the reflexology technique was effective and safe to be applied for cases of mechanical low back pain. It results in a significant decrease in pain within the study group after treatment

Ameliorative effects of l-carnitine on rats raised on a diet supplemented with lead acetate

Lead intoxication has been a major health hazard in humans. It affects people at all ages. Its toxicity is associated with various organs of the body and affects different metabolic pathways. Based on histological data, l-carnitine reduced the severity of tissue damage produced as a result of exposure of rats to lead acetate. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the underlying mechanism of protection offered by l-carnitine against lead acetate intoxication using male Sprague–Dawley rats.Forty male Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly divided into four groups with ten rats in each. The first group (G1) served as the control group and animals received standard diet only. The second group (G2) received lead acetate in their diet. The third group (G3) was the l-carnitine treated group and received the normal standard diet supplemented with l-carnitine. While the fourth group (G4) had a diet supplemented with both lead acetate and l-carnitine. At the end of each experiment, blood (serum and whole blood) were collected from each animal and analyzed for the following parameters: serum testosterone levels, serum nitric oxide and serum malondialdehyde. This is in addition to looking at the enzymatic activities of two important enzymes (superoxide dismutase and catalase) and on (glutathione reductase) which are indicative of the antioxidant activities in the whole blood. The results indicated that l-carnitine will counteract the undesirable effects of lead intoxication. It exerted its antioxidant potential by reducing the production of ROS and scavenging free radicals by maintaining and protecting the level of the of antioxidant enzymes SOD, CAT and glutathione peroxidase.Conclusion:l-Carnitine may play an important role in reversing the undesirable effects of lead intoxication. Future studies should be conducted to see whether such an effect is applicable in humans exposed to lead poising. Keywords: l-Carnitine, Sprague–Dawley rats, Lead toxicity, Antioxidants, Lead acetat