HIP Osteoarthritis CAN be Cured: Treating OA with Physical Therapy

Outstanding book on how you can lesson your OA by learning what you may be doing or how you may using your body that is causing pain and spasms. Physical Therapy often teaches people to function with pain but fails to teach them how to avoid pain by using their bodies in a different manner. Usually the OA starts with muscle imbalance that is chronic and which lessens blood supply in these areas, As time passes and these imbalances become chronic you find that one hip is higher than the other or the sacrum is tilting or rotating instead of being in balance. Pain in the hip does not necessarily mean that is where the problems are, it could be in inner front core muscles. How do you sit when driving ? Slightly tilted to one side or even with equal pressure on both sit bones? All of us have these habitual body use patterns that feel normal to us and this is what causes the beginning of chronic pain and OA. I have spent over $100.00 on books claiming to help you manage and prevent OA pain and all they said was: do water exercises, take NASIDS, have surgery, and use devices to move around. This book gives you the power to be your own best body manager but the Author also says this, "99% of the people reading this book are too lazy and inactive to help themselves and would rather have instant rather than a process to help themselves." I have OA in left hip and very, painful Bursitis in left hip. After figuring out what my bad body mechanics were, and starting on the exercises I no longer have any morning stiffness or swelling and am only using my cane (this caused a limp) occasionally and almost not at all when home. I do the exercises every morning before getting out of bed and at night before bed. I had severe core inactivation and weakness, left sided twist in my hips and pelvic area and when I drove or sat in a recliner I always was sightly tilted rather than straight. I got this improvement in about two weeks after I noticed I had no morning stiffness and could get up from a chair and this walk without pain. Buy this book, you won't be sorry, save your money on the rest as they are the SOS: OA is incurable and gets worse, OA is inevitable as you age, surgery and steroids are your only hope. Don't believe it--something started the decline in health and unfortunately it was us and our lack of body awareness.

The book is a lifesaver! Five years ago I had a sport trauma and damaged my right hip. Acute pain was gone but the hip kept bothering and the leg always felt strange and weak. Physical therapy for strengthening hips did not help. Eventually, I started having problems to walk and move. Received debilitating diagnosis of severe hip osteoarthritis. I bought this book and after trying first 2 exercises the pain and discomfort was GONE (!), within minutes. And everything started to feel RIGHT. Now I can move and lift my legs like I was not able to do for 5 years. Such a great idea: to strengthen and align the core first, THEN - hip exercises. I am finishing my second week of exercises and very happy with the results so far. In addition, I started an anti-inflammatory diet and using anti-inflammatory supplements. I am very thankful to the author for writing this book!

After only 3 weeks of following this program my hip pain is down so much that I can actually sleep at nights and I can walk my dog around the block without muscle spasms and pain. I look forward to continuing the program and feeling even better! I am SO happy I bought this book as I have tried so many other things that did not help. Thank you, Susan for sharing this program - it has certainly made a positive difference in my life!

Response to Book: I was encouraged when I found this book and its positive reviews. Reading the book was a whole other matter and a review I read regarding the difficulty of following the exercises came to mind. I was hopeful reading until the exercise program. Very hard to follow exercises, esp. the core exercises for week 1. The string concept to demonstrate the exercising was maddeningly frustrating. I gave up and continued to the second week, with the cautionary mental note that the author emphasized how important week 1 was to the rest of her program! I was further discouraged by the depressing presentation, esp. the dull, gray pictures. Just depressing. I simply could not imagine myself going through the full 6-week program and doing the wash/rinse/repeat. 6 weeks of the author’s depressing presentation and routine, then start with week 1 again, …, and again? Following this book’s exercise program would make me dread, if not resent, exercising. The book now sits suspended with a marker on week 2. I will review the exercises in the rest of the chapters at some point, having already discovered that the exercises for week 2 are used in many demonstrations in dealing with hip and lower back pain.My Journey: A few months ago, I started researching my hip and lower back pain, which started a few years ago, has been persistent and become acute recently. After exhaustive research, visits to my chiro, XRays and trying to digest the dreaded diagnosis of osteoarthritis, I discovered that what is at the root cause of my pain is hip flexor shortening/tightness and general muscle imbalance in my body. I had also developed anterior pelvic tilt (APT), to compensate for bad habits. This causes a great deal of stress on my lower back; hence the lower back pain. I suspect this is largely from decades of working behind a desk. Despite being very active and exercising, as well as concentrated awareness of my daily movements/activities, this sitting habit has taken its toll. I have also learned that the osteoarthritis diagnosis is a catch-all phrase when doctors don't really know the root cause of the pain. Muscles and muscle imbalances do not show up on XRays and are largely ignored by Western medicine practitioners. I refused to accept the osteoarthritis diagnosis!I started swimming a mile 3 times a week using different swimming strokes and walking in the water. Then warm down time in a hot spa with stretching and focus warm-down exercises using the hot jets. I am able to perform many exercises for muscle strengthening/balancing, APT and hip flexibility in the water. I also pay close attention to all my daily activities and movements, how I sit, sleep, move, perform activities/chores. And, diet and supplements. While I believe I have some arthritis, as this runs in my family, through a complete focus (lifestyle at all levels, diet, supplements, swimming, focus exercises), I am now virtually pain free!I am very motivated to work towards good health, just that the path needs to be a positive one, and that includes looking forward to exercising. My swimming routine works for me. I would recommend anyone who has a similar response to this book to find your way to good health doing what motivates and encourages you.

When I purchased this book I was skeptic as I could not understand how muscle imbalances can influence the hip osteoarthritis. I read the book and started the exercises. I was diagnosed with severe osteoarthritis in November. I just completed the first three weeks and I don't have the pain anymore. I will continue and finish the set but I am really grateful to Susan and her dedication to find a way to actually cure osteoarthritis.

Hip osteoarthritis is a symptom - this was a light bulb moment for me and contrasts with the generally accepted idea that it is natural wear and tear that comes with age. I have had many years of seeing medical professionals who were only interested in the osteoarthritis and not my apparent leg length differential - this includes 2 surgeons who were quite ready to do my hip replacement (which would not have addressed the leg length problem). Finally my current Osteopath diagnosed an anterior pelvic tilt on the right hand side. However I wasn't having any success in fixing the problem. I am in my sixties and fit and active with regular swimming and walking.I was getting close to deciding to have the operation - and was feeling pretty down about this - when I came across this book. Although I was sceptical, it is absolutely brilliant! I seem to have the same issue as the author had and I now have all the information and understanding to fix it. I am on Week 2 of a 6 week program (to be repeated over again and again) and I am already seeing the benefits. Be warned though, this is not an easy fix - it requires a lot of concentration and effort. The first week's exercises in particular seem very difficult in that you are locating and engaging core muscles - this is key to the next sections and so it is imperative to stick with it and hopefully find that the descriptions start to make sense after a few attempts (I am still finding nuances that I hadn't initially grasped so it worth reading the instructions each time).I am now very confident that I can avoid the hip operation and get back into alignment.

Excellent product, excellent seller, excellent service

After a year of increasing pain, a short right leg (due I was told to the wear on the joint), regular private physiotherapy and finally being told that a right hip op was inevitable, My wife told me about this book. I am not a sporty person but enjoy diy and brisk long dog walks each day. So this was a major blow to me. At 55 I didn't think I was old enough for this! As an IT person, the whole writing style appealed as it gave me facts that specialists "avoided ( or just wouldn't) give me. I didn't just want to know I had cartilage reduction and that resulted in pain, I wanted to understand how the pain occurred, what really was happening, and why could I not walk "normally" when dosed up with pain killers? Reading the book solidly on day one resulted in me diagnosing a Right on Left sacral torsion. That slightly "spooked" me as Susan does advise "I don't understand this imbalance as well as my own". However, I started the week one core alignment and discovered after running through it that a) I had an inner core (didn't know that as my physio just concentrated on the outer core) b) my inner core didn't do anything on the right side and so I was using all my major muscles for stability and simple things such as standing. When I gently engaged the inner core and relaxed the major muscles, immediately the pain went! For a few days everytime I moved and had pain, I would consciously engage the inner core and relax the major muscles and could move much more easily and pain free. I am just starting week 2 and have found muscles that are seriously atrophied but 2 days ago I spent 3 solid hours on my feet doing diy and going up and down a step ladder - a task that a week ago I couldn't seriously have dreamed off doing. I know I have a long way to go to sort out the imbalance permanently but so far I have two legs now the "same length", can walk pain free around the house, am now starting my usual dog walks again, and can stand without pain. I don't take any medication any more. Looking forward to my check up with the surgeon at the end of the month as he is now one patient down for a hip op :) Great book, thank you Susan, you really have changed my life

Bought this book to try and avoid a hip replacement in the future! I have had an on and off pain in my groin since is was in my late teens, in my fifties it suddenly got worse and I have been doing exercises for it for the last 10 years. It ebbs and flows but suddenly recently took a turn for the worse and an X-ray showed a "slight" bit of arthritis. For the last 3 weeks I have been really focussing on these exercises; and you do really have to focus and concentrate on them, they are not easy but I have noticed a great deal of improvement in my pain and most days I am pain free BUT also a massive improvement in back pain which is absolutely wonderful. I was a little bit cynical that it would work but cautiously I am optimistic that it's working for me. I will certainly be keeping on doing them and trying hard to get better control of my core, so much depends on it. This is a genuine review, I am certainly seeing the benefits.