In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), all matter (body, food, etc.) is a combination, interaction of energetic opposites: yin (cold, cleansing) and yang (hot, building), with one opposite, always in excess. There is nothing neutral, nor stagnant, only varying degrees of hot and cold. One opposite grows, dominates while the other declines, recedes, until the pattern reverses, thus completing the cycle of all life, existence: creation, preservation and destruction. The best example is the seasons produced by the earth’s orbit around the sun. As the earth moves closer to the sun, the sun’s energetic influences increase, causing the earth (matter) to grow, expand, become hotter, drier, thicker, faster, spring and summer. As the earth moves away, it starts to break down, become colder, damper, thinner, slower, fall and winter.

Every time energy changes, so do its material reflections, manifestations (gas, solid, liquid) change, build up and break down. The body is no different as it also changes, reacts to external and internal changes in hot and cold.

The body becomes hotter, faster, drier and more productive during the spring, summer, and via an increase in building foods, nutrients (build, thicken fuel, stimulate, heat, redden, etc.) and colder, slower, damper and less productive during the fall, winter, and via an increase in cleansing foods, nutrients (reduce, thin, cool, moisten, etc.).

Too much building, especially animal food tends to cause overbuilt, thick, ‘hot” symptoms, diseases:

Blood clots, high cholesterol, atherosclerosis, arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, arthritis, gout, kidney and gall stones, fixed pain, insomnia, acne, psoriasis, warts, tumors, cancer

Too little building tends to cause under built, thin, weak, “cold” symptoms, diseases:

Anemia, pallor, fatigue, pain, thin, dry hair, skin, nails, bones, osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases, amenorrhea, infertility, short-term pregnancy, etc

Too many cold, cleansing foods tend to cause “cold”, damp, yin diseases:

Loose stools, edema, cellulite, mucous, phlegm, cysts, vaginal discharge, yeast infections, etc.

Hot and cold is a simple diagnosis and treatment plan. Balancing opposites: building and cleansing foods, herbs, etc, is the key to controlling health and disease. For hot, overbuilt diseases, the colder middle diet (page 19) is recommended. Decrease animal, increase cleansing. For cold, damp, deficient, under built diseases, the hotter middle diet (page 20) is recommended. Increase building (animal), cooked foods and spices, decrease cold.

In Hinduism, Ayurvedic medicine, the union of Purusha (Primal Spirit, energy) and Prakruti (Mother Nature, matter) produces the three gunas stages of transformation of Spirit, God into energy and matter.

Sattva is spirit (shen), light, intelligence, perception, clarity, etc. It is the highest, preferred quality of mind, lifestyle. Meditation, kindness and the vegan diet, especially raw fruits and vegetables increase sattva.
Rajas is energy (chi), thought, mind directed up (sattva) or down (tamas) the brain, spine
Tamas is matter, body (jing), darkness, resistance, degeneration. It is the lowest quality. Animal foods, alcohol, drugs, anger increase tamas, degrade the body mind

The 3 Gunas produce the 5 elementsstages of matter

Five Elements – Ayurveda – West – China

· Ether (metal) Sattva Spirit Shen

· Air (tree) Sattva and Rajas

· Fire Rajas Mind Chi

· Water Rajas and Tamas

· Earth Tamas Body Jing

Five elements: five major organ systems and associated tastes (TCM)

Metal (ether) lungs and large intestine (spicy)
Earth spleen, pancreas and stomach (sweet)
Fire heart and small intestine (bitter)
Tree, wood, liverand gall bladder (sour)
Water kidneys and urinary bladder(salty)

The five elements produce the three Doshas constitutions:

Vata – Ether and air: moves
Pitta – Fire and an aspect of water: digests
Kapha – Water and earth: holds

Vata is air, wind that moves things. It is often associated with dryness, weakness and deficiency, but can be caused by excess heat. Chronic blood, protein and fat deficiency tends to cause dryness and wind (shaking). Blood (nutrients) builds, fuels, moistens and holds. Too little protein, fat and or too many cold, cleansing foods also weaken, dry and shake the body, muscles, tendons, ligaments, etc.

Too many hot foods (spices, caffeine, alcohol, smoking, etc.) and or too much sex (jing, sexual fluids are moistening) also cause internal wind (shaking, trembling or paralysis) via excess dryness and heat.

Pitta is a fire (yang), sometimes translated as bile (digests fat). Long-term high animal protein, fat (red meat, chicken, turkey, fried foods, etc.), alcohol (damp heat), coffee, etc. tend to aggravate pitta (hot, yang) causing damp heat (TCM) in the liver and gall bladder manifesting as oily, greasy skin, rashes (dry and wet), gallstones, acne, boils, yellow discharges.

Kapha is water (holds things together), dampness. Dampness (mucous, phlegm. watery stools, edema, cellulite, cysts, etc.) can be hot (pitta) or cold (yin). Too much animal protein, fat and alcohol tends to cause damp heat (groin, armpits), as can overexposure to hot, damp climates.

Digestion, three meals per day, naturally heats and dries (dissipates excess fluids) the body. Long-term cold, damp, low protein, low fat diets (milk, yogurt, soft cheese, ice cream, salads, tropical fruits, juices, shakes, smoothies, sodas, cold drinks, sugar, bitter herbs, etc.) cool, dilute and weaken digestion, nutrient absorption and elimination.

Chronically (long-term) weak digestion decreases body temperature, which cools and hardens water in the lungs, throat, sinus, ears, uterus, vagina into mucous, phlegm, cysts, discharges and yeast infections in the same way, the cold temperatures of night and winter harden water in the air into the morning dew, rain, snow and ice.

Overexposure to extreme cold, damp climates can also cool and dampen the body with excess fluids (kapha): mucous, phlegm, etc. Cold, damp symptoms (clear, white mucous, phlegm) overtime can heat, change into damp heat (yellow color) as the body is naturally hot (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Hot, damp climates can also cause damp heat.

Digestion naturally declines after age thirty, more so in women (menstruation) than men. Men tend to have hotter, stronger digestion, due in large part to testosterone, which is a hot, building hormone, more so than estrogen (hot) and progesterone (cold).

Spices stoke, fan digestive fire (Agni). Ayurvedic medicine often advises the use of six to eight spices per meal (breakfast and lunch) to treat cold, damp conditions (good cold preventative and or treatment). Spicy dinners or late night snacks may adversely affect the ability to relax, sleep.

Hot (yang), cold (yin), vata, kapha and pitta, sattva, rajas and tamas identification of the body, symptoms, diet, herbs, thoughts, etc. is a simple, basic diagnosis and treatment plan for most physical diseases. Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine are similar in nature, in identifying the four energetic extremes of disease.

Traditional Chinese Medicine (Ayurveda)

Excess yang, hot, dry or damp (Pitta)
Deficient yang, weak, cold, dry, windy (Vata)
Excess yin, cold, damp (Kapha)
Deficient yin, dry and windy (Vata kapha)

All disease is a product of cause (input) and effect (output). You reap what you eat. Happiness and sadness is also a product of cause and effect. You reap what you think, do. Mental and spiritual diseases require spiritual practices (kindness, generosity, even-mindedness, unconditional love, forgiveness, virtue, scriptural studies, prayer, meditation, etc.) as well as spiritual guides and good friends to raise one’s thinking, consciousness to the level of God, as opposed to bad friends and evil people who lower, degrade. Spirituality requires action not talk.

In reality, while the man may portray the symptoms of premature ejaculation, both partners suffer because of it. In some cases, if PE is left untreated, it can destroy relationships.

Men

Men who suffer from premature ejaculation or rapid ejaculation often feel a sense of shame. One study showed that 88% of men thought it was of the upmost importance that they satisfy their partners during sex. This pressure to perform well can often be an important contributor to PE itself.

The embarrassment of early ejaculating for some men can lead to feelings of unworthiness. They may find themselves panicking about having sex with their partners and withdraw from initiating sexual contact. After a prolonged period of acting in this way, many men may start to fear infidelity on their partner’s part. This can quickly grow to paranoia and deteriorate a relationship rapidly.

Feelings of guilt and shame will easily overspill into other aspects of a PE sufferer’s life. If they feel devalued in their relationship, they may feel the same way at work or socially and neglect to take part fully in events. Of course this can lead underachieving, adding further fuel to the thought process that the man is worthless. Once this cycle begins, all problems quickly become heightened.

Women

For a woman whose partner has symptoms of premature ejaculation, there are many different reactions. Some women will admit to being unhappy with their sex lives as a result of premature ejaculation but will find it hard to communicate with their partners on the matter. Many women state that they are worried about making the situation worse by openly admitting that PE is causing them to feel unsatisfied.

This lack of communication can eventually lead to an unexpected end of a relationship. If the couple are unable to talk about the problem, it is quite easy for the woman to misinterpret the man’s silence on the subject because of his shame or embarrassment to mean that in fact it does not bother him at all. Women who are of this view will often display emotions of anger and frustration. In most cases like this, the man will undoubtedly recognise his partner’s anger and, because of the lack of communication, he will misunderstand the reasoning behind it and simply assume that she is angry about the premature ejaculation itself and not his seemingly unwillingness to resolve the problem. When this happens, it is very probable that the dysfunction will worsen due to even higher levels of anxiety.

Other women with partner’s who have ceased to initiate sex because of their fear of PE, will often misinterpret this again and assume that the man does not find them sexually attractive anymore. This in turn will have negative effects on the woman’s self-esteem and again, the relationship will deteriorate rapidly due to both parties dealing with incredibly low self-confidence. If the relationship ends, it is likely that these low confidence levels may manifest themselves in future relationships, as neither person will appreciate where the feelings of the other stemmed from and they may continue to blame themselves for what has happened.

Both men and women who are in relationships where premature ejaculation is apparent, say that they feel low intimacy levels, and that this is one of the main effects which they feel has the most negative impact.

Help

In actual fact there are many premature ejaculation treatments that are used successfully by millions of men across the globe. Men who suffer from premature ejaculation due to high levels of anxiety may find that simply talking to their partner openly about their concerns will actually decrease their anxiety considerably and enable them to last longer. This will in turn, give them confidence and start them on the path to a happier sex life.

With regular use of heroin, tolerance develops. A user needs more and more of the substance to reach the same level of euphoria. One particularly interesting, and deadly, aspect of heroin use is that the tolerance of a person who stops using heroin quickly declines. If a person used heroin for months and then stopped for a short period of time, even a few days in some cases, their tolerance quickly decreases. If the user then takes a dose that was “normal” for them only a few days earlier, they can die because their tolerance has decreased so quickly. This is one of the reasons that heroin takes so many lives. Those who use it usually do not realize how quickly one’s tolerance to this substance can change and they accidentally overdose on their usual dose.

Heroin appears to result in addiction quite rapidly. According to http://www.drugabuse.gov/, “23 percent of individuals who use heroin become dependent on it”. It is also noted in many studies that today’s heroin is much more potent than the heroin used by previous generations. If a person develops a dependence on heroin, they usually experience very severe withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms can include muscle cramps, restlessness and agitation, diarrhea, vomiting, insomnia and feeling cold. There are also severe cravings to use the drug again and to relieve the withdrawal symptoms. Although some of the most severe cravings subside within a few days, many users report significant cravings for months or even years. Many drug treatment programs are short term, lasting from days to weeks. A heroin dependent patient may complete treatment, only to return home and find that the cravings to use heroin are still very intense. The relapse rate for heroin addicts is quite high.

So why does it seem that heroin is making a comeback? It appears that heroin use among young people is increasing dramatically. This may be related to an increase in use of many kinds of opiate medications. Heroin, once considered a drug used by those who had already tried everything else, is now a drug seen as more approachable for a relatively new user. Many young substance users are abusing prescription medications, such as opiates (many forms of pain killers). For these young people, heroin may simply be another form of opiate. Prescription opiate abuse may open the door for heroin use. Interestingly, heroin is often much cheaper to buy “on the street” than prescription opiates. So a person may start by taking prescription opiates but find that they can achieve a similar effect with a lower cost by using heroin. Heroin has also become more accessible, sometimes being more readily available than marijuana or even alcohol for those below the age of 21. It has also become more socially acceptable, so that youth from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds are seeing heroin as an affordable, and even trendy, alternative to other substances.

The disease of addiction definitely has a severe impact on life circumstances. Many of the behaviors of the addict are fundamentally narcissistic due to the nature of the disease. In fact, some of the most obvious signs of addiction are related to the addict’s behaviors that do not conform to the norms of society. It is commonplace for the addict to lie, cheat, steal, and commit crimes in order to satisfy the self-serving short term needs of getting high. These actions are taken without thought to how these behaviors impact others; the thought process is focused solely on the immediate gratification of a perceived self-survival need. In short, the addict is not interested in mid-term or long-term results, nor is he/she interested in maintaining or developing any lasting relationships: these types of thought processes do not enter the mind of the addict. The addict is only interested in their selfish needs of the moment. This story may help to describe the impact of addictive behaviors and how loyalty is involved.

Jane is a 54 year old divorced woman with two children. She has been an alcoholic and addict since she had her last child 28 years ago. When her last child was six years old, Jane was desperate to obtain another prescription of opioids; however the normal doctors she was seeing to get the prescriptions would not provide her with another script. Jane found herself travelling into an area of the city that was known for drugs and violence: she had her six year old with her. She found a man on the street who said he knew where to get the drugs. Jane left her six year old in the car and followed the man into a rundown building. There Jane was shown how to shoot up heroin for the first time, and she found the euphoria to be intense. Jane was then raped by multiple men, and she found herself not caring that much. While Jane was inside the drug den, her vehicle where her six year old child was waiting was stolen for parts. The child was placed on the sidewalk in front of the drug den. It was hours before Jane’s high dissipated enough to where she was able to make sense of the situation and went to check on her child: her child was nowhere to be found. Jane found her way back home and told her husband what had happened, he called the police. Fortunately, Jane’s son was at the police station in the care of Child Protective Services after being turned in by a citizen. Jane’s husband covered for her derelict behavior, and Jane agreed to see a therapist for her problems. Jane’s husband also stopped allowing Jane access to any money. It was not long until Jane would prostitute herself, while her older child was in school, to raise money to buy her heroin. On several occasions, Jane would have to bring her younger child along because she had no money for a baby sitter. When at home, Jane was usually high on heroin and was entirely incompetent as a parent. Often her six year old child would go all day without food, drink or supervision. Eventually Jane was arrested for solicitation and possession of narcotics. Child Protective Services launched a full investigation and the husband left with the children to stay with the children’s grandparents. The six year old child desperately wanted to stay with Jane, despite how neglectful she was. Jane was sentenced to an addiction rehabilitation program where she desperately attempted to find the answer to live a sober life. After she returned to her home with her husband and children she quickly relapsed and sold her jewelry and some electronics to pay for heroin. Her husband filed for divorce, and insisted she maintain joint custody with their children as she was their Mother. When the children were staying with their Mother, the oldest child, who was twelve years of age, began to be the parent, taking care of Jane and the youngest child and reporting to Father everything was fine. On occasion, when Jane was sick with withdrawal symptoms, the oldest child would ride a bicycle to pick up drugs for Jane. One day Jane overdosed while her children were in the house. She was sent to addiction rehabilitation once again, and her children were awarded to her husband’s sole custody by the courts. While in rehab, Jane attempted to take her life, leaving a note stating she could not bear the pain of the hurt she has caused her family.

This sad story of turmoil and dysfunction represents many elements of loyalty gone awry. There is the husband who covers for his wife’s addict behaviors and insists that a Mother needs to raise her children despite the danger of the relationship. There is the child who wants to be with Mother no matter the treatment received or the dangerous consequences. There is the child who feels it necessary to protect and take care of the family despite the child’s age of twelve. And there is Jane, who’s only loyalty was to herself: even when attempting to take her life her intentions were purely selfish and without thought of the impact such an action would have on her children.

In another example, John was a twenty year old addict with eleven months of sobriety and in residence at a sober living facility. John had many bouts with relapses and addiction treatment program since using primarily methamphetamine at age sixteen. He met a girl at a self-help meeting who helped him to feel excited and wanted. John became enamored with this girl who had a long history of relapses and bouncing in and out of treatment programs. The girl was sober for one week when John first met her and they had sexual relations for the first time. John was surrounded by people who attempted to talk to him about his choices, but John felt an intense loyalty to the girl and shunned his support system. One evening, the girl asked John to do drugs with her while they were having sex. John attempted to say no, but the temptation ate at his compulsive nature. John quickly convinced himself that the girl would not do anything that could hurt him because she said she loved him. John used heroin and cocaine with the girl that evening. John lost his job within a week, lost the support of his family and friends within two weeks, and was out of money soon after that. John started to burglarize cars and homes to support their lifestyle of drugging and living in motel rooms. John was inevitably arrested for home invasion and robbery. After being released from jail thirty days later, the girl had already found a replacement for John; someone who could provide the money for drugs and a sense of security. John was heartbroken but did not go back to using drugs. He worked on his sobriety very hard for the next three months. Then John saw the girl at a self-help meeting once again. She had been in the hospital and was sober for a few days, she told John she loved him and it was just her addiction that got in the way of her love. John decided she needed help with her recovery effort and began to see her every day. It was only a matter of weeks until both of them were back to using drugs and burglarizing homes to support their habit. The girl eventually left John for another man who had more money and a nice home. John found his way back to jail for three years.

This story exemplifies the type of loyalty that seems to be focused on another person, but is actually entirely self-centered. John’s loyalty toward the girl was founded in his own desire to feel needed and to be the provider for another. Despite the girl’s obvious use of John’s intentions, he remained loyal to her. The girl’s loyalty toward John was also self-serving as she only remained loyal as long as John was able to act as a financial provider for her.

As these stories exemplify, loyalty in an addict family system is often distorted. It is common for individuals to site loyalty towards another as a reason for acting out in unhealthy ways. Because this type of loyalty is often modeled within a family system with addiction, it is considered a normal part of life. An accepted sentiment in a family system with addiction is that every member of the family must come to the rescue of the one who is in trouble. This type of loyalty is damaging because it can lead to unhealthy behaviors by all members within the family system. Another habitual form of loyalty occurs when one or two parties in the family take charge of the addict’s life in order to attempt to fix the addict. This type of loyalty ignores the fundamental needs of the addict to take responsibility for themselves and replaces it with a self-righteous form of control, often with the addict’s full approval.

Healthy forms of loyalty are always identified with a clear set of behavioral boundaries. Healthy loyalty exists in a relationship with mutual reward, and the reward is not solely self-serving. Harold Laski stated, “A healthy loyalty is not passive and complacent, but active and critical.” Loyalties are shades of grey, not black and white. And loyalty is earned.

Working in a transitional sober living environment, I witness these characteristics often. I have given much thought as to why it is that someone who, I believe genuinely does want recovery, cannot stay sober more than a couple of months. Based on this experience, I wish to pass along some of my impressions and opinions as to what I believe is a major contributing factor to the relapsing behaviors of the person described above.

Let me be clear, these opinions pertain only to the individual who genuinely wants a lifestyle of sobriety and recovery. So often the addict will tell people they want sobriety, but they really only want to avoid the negative consequences of addiction. I am not referring to the negative consequence avoidant individual in this article. I am referring to the individual who knows they must be sober and in recovery in order to live a quality of life that will provide them with joy and serenity; they just do not know how to get there yet.

There are so many variables from individual to individual that it is difficult to point out one factor that has the most significant impact on everyone. However, there is one factor that seems to have a significant impact on the success of the recovering individual most of the time: the individual’s will.

There seems to be two types of will that manifest themselves within an individual with the disease of addiction: one that is willful, and one that is willing. The difference between the two is staggering.

For many of us sciatic pain comes and goes. Here are some quick tips to addressing the onset of your lower back pain:

Avoid sitting (or standing depending on which causes more pain)
Alternating between hot and cold on the effected area
Get a message
Sleep on your side
Wear Low-heeled shoes
Practice good posture while walking, standing and sitting
Start your supplements
Before we get into the natural solutions, I want to explain what is usually happening with the body. Aside from trauma causing this condition, I usually associate the pain with the lower spine being out of alignment-but WHY? This problem is usually simple. A muscle group above the area of discomfort (usually on your buttocks on the side you have pain) is in spasm (contracting) and a muscle group below the area of discomfort (usually in the bladder region on the opposite side of the body from your pain) is in spasm. It is this tug-of-war that causes your spine to come out of alignment and pinch the nerve as it leaves your spine and in turn cause your sciatic pain.

Example: You have pain in your right hip and maybe even down your right leg. Usually a muscle high on your buttocks-I call a hotspot-will be sensitive to moderate pressure with your thumb. This is on of the areas that need to be relaxed or messaged. On the front side of your body on the left side down in the pelvic region you will find another hotspot. For most, this area is very low and somewhere near the bladder. This muscle group also requires message. When these two muscle groups finally relax, the spine will go back into alignment and the pain will be resolved.

What causes these muscle spasms?

This is a great question and the answer is-It depends. I have learned that most people suffer from this issue due to an underlying bladder or bowel issue. Too many times when I ask a sciatic pain sufferer if they have problems with one of these two areas the answer is yes. Examples of problems are:

Constipation
Diarrhea
IBS-and related health challenges
Bladder Infections (usually chronic or more than 2 per year)
Overactive Bladder
Incontinence
Pregnancy (supplements mentioned in this article are not intended for use during pregnancy)
There are obviously other causes of sciatic pain (Trauma, degenerative issues etc), but these are where I usually begin. For those with trauma, my suggestions are the same; it just will take much longer to heal the body. If you get rid of the root of your problem, the body will heal itself.

The modern medicine approach is usually to address the inflammation and suppress the pain. My approach isn’t much different accept my treating inflammation is a temporary fix until my other support supplements take over. Let’s take a look at how to fix your aching back.

I. Inflammation and Pain: Using supplements that fight inflammation and pain are at the top of most peoples list for having an immediate impact on your discomfort. Supplements like Celadrin, Zyflamend, and FlexNow are a good start. The benefit of Celadrin is that you can use both the oral form and a topical form for a 1-2 punch. I have also used yucca root as a way of dealing with this issue as well. Dosing is sort of strange in that I have people start out on 5-6 grams per day and slowly decrease by a gram per day until they get to a 1 gram per day dose. As strange as this may seem, the tapered dosing of 6,5,4,3,2,1 works great. I also like the addition of fish oil when fighting inflammation. 2-3 grams of omega-3 fatty acids from fish can also give you the added support you need.

II. Relax the muscles: My herb of choice is Passion Flower (not standardized). Passion Flower possesses muscle relaxing properties. I recommend anywhere from 250-1500mg at bedtime. The higher dose is used to make sure you sleep well and relax the muscles. I follow this nighttime dose with a smaller dose (250-500mg) mid-morning and mid-afternoon (whatever that is based on your day). The lower dose will hopefully maintain some of the relaxation effect, but without the drowsiness associated with a higher (bedtime) dosage.

III. Message: This is the key to a quick recovery. Supplements can do the trick, but to get the relief you want, going for message at least once a week will speed your recovery. Make sure to stress the importance of the two muscle areas I mentioned above. A quality message therapist will already know what I am writing about.

Neck sprains can be identified by some common symptoms listed below:

Pain in the back or sides of the neck which becomes worse with movement.
Headache in the back of the head.
Sore and achy shoulders often accompanied by muscle spasms.
Pain and muscle spasms in the upper back.
Discomfort, irritability, trouble sleeping, and possibly even a sore throat.
Numbness in arm or hand often accompanied by weakness and/or a tingling sensation.
The symptoms may not be detected for as much as 24 to 48 hours after an injury occurs. However, when the symptoms are detected, it is a good idea to go consult a physician for an evaluation. A qualified physician can quickly diagnose a neck sprain by performing a comprehensive physical examination. In this examination, they will try to determine the cause of injury as well as assess the range of motion in your neck and feel for any tender spots.

In some cases, a neck sprain may be a symptom of other underlying medical conditions. Your physician may recommend x-rays to determine whether or not the neck sprain is actually a symptom of a larger problem.

Like all sprains, a neck sprain can be treated with the “RICE Therapy” method, which includes: rest, ice, compression and elevation. They heal gradually, and you may have to wear a soft collar to help support your neck and relieve your shoulders of pressure while your muscles and ligaments heal.

Muscle relaxants as well as anti inflammatory medication can help to ease the pain and reduce inflammation and muscle spasms. Neck sprains can be treated with activities like massages, aerobics, and isometric exercises. Many of these strains can be rehabilitated in 4 to 6 weeks, while severe cases will require more time for full recovery.

Don’t be alarmed if your doctor diagnoses you with a neck sprain; like most sprains, they do not typically cause irreparable damage.

Muscular Pain

When you cough, a number of muscles in your body contract. These are the normal respiratory and the accessory respiratory muscles. The muscles of the stomach and ribs are normal respiratory muscles. Accessory muscles are found in the back and chest.

You are most likely to suffer a muscle strain from coughing if your cough is prolonged or violent. The constant tensing of a muscle causes it to fatigue, at which point it is not receiving fresh blood flow or ridding waste properly. An overworked muscle can suffer small tears that normally heal within a couple of days, but only if allowed to rest. If you continue to cough, the tears may accumulate and the strain becomes a prolonged situation.

Muscular pain from a cough tends to be sharp. It can be felt especially when coughing, but the muscle will also be tender and sore when you aren’t coughing. In order to repair the muscle, you need to get a handle on your cough. This may require prescription medications, over-the-counter medications or home remedies like apple cider vinegar and honey or steam-bathing your head over a pot of hot water infused with eucalyptus oil.

Ice is the best way to manage painful inflammation in and around the injured muscle. With your cough under control and frequent icing for 15 minutes at a time during the first two days of injury, your muscle strain should heal. If the strain has become exacerbated by an inability to stop coughing, talk to a doctor about your options.

Nerve and Disc Pain

When you cough, the pressure in your chest and abdomen increases. This is caused by the relaxation of the diaphragm combined with the tightening of your rib and stomach muscles when you cough. As pressure increases inside the body, it pushes outward on surrounding structures, including the spine.

If you have a bulging or herniated disc in your lower or upper back, coughing will likely be especially painful. A disc is comprised of a fluid center and a tough exterior ring. If the ring weakens, the fluid is pushed to the weaker side and a bulge forms. If the ring breaks and the fluid leaks out, the disc has herniated. Both of these situations can cause nerve impingement; spinal nerves run through a column in the spine positioned behind the discs. When a disc bulge or herniated fluid irritates a spinal nerve, sharp localized pain is felt as well as pain, numbness and/or tingling along the affected nerve’s pathway.

The increase in pressure experienced during a cough affects the lower and upper back. If a bulging or herniated disc is present, the push it experiences from the stomach or chest will cause more fluid to be pushed into the bulge or out of the herniation, leading to the symptoms above. In rare cases, a chronic cough could cause disc damage due to the near-constant pressure on the spine, but it is more likely that the disc problem existed already and coughing has merely exacerbated it.