52 South Bay Accent COURTESY OF ESTHER GOKHALE WELLNESS CENTER She’s studied men and women in remote villages in Brazil and Africa and throughout India. She’s observed that despite the taxing demands of their physical work, day in and day out, they seldom suffer from back pain—and she’s asked the key question: Why not? That question, and answer, has led her to introduce clients at the Esther Gokhale Wellness Center to what she calls “primal posture.” Simply put, it’s an approach that gives the term “homo erectus” new meaning by presenting a new lease on life to thousands of stooped, curved-spine cubicle warriors. What the Gokhale Method delivers is a relatively straight J-shaped back that replaces the unaligned Sshape, which is a more contoured vertebra that people develop from the posture-poor way they sit and keyboard. How much difference can one She’s studied men and women in remote villages in Brazil and Africa and throughout India. She’s observed that despite the taxing demands of their physical work day in and day out, they seldom suffer from back pain— and she’s asked the key question: letter of the alphabet make? All the difference, Gokhale says. A lengthened J spine is a happy spine, she insists, while an S spine spells suffering. As a measure of her success and celebrity, it’s worth noting that over the years Gokhale and her Gokhale Method have been profiled by the New York Times, ABC News, NPR, the Financial Times, Prevention Magazine, Woman’s Day, Men’s Journal and many more. Regionally, her techniques have been covered by the San Francisco Chronicle, KRON-TV, ABC’s San Francisco affiliate and others. She’s even done a TED talk on her posture techniques. That widespread coverage is also a measure of how universal a problem back pain has become. If prayer alone worked, we’d all be worshiping at Our Lady of The Perfect Spine. Or, some might argue, that’s precisely what many of Esther’s myriad students already do. As millions of sufferers know only too well, spinal trouble turns everyday activities like sitting, standing, moving or Why not? sleeping into agonizing or impossible acts. Even bending over to brush your teeth can become a painful challenge. Back pain is one of the most common reasons for missing work, the leading cause of work-related disability, the No. 2 reason for doctor visits and a vast black hole for our economy. One study reported that the direct and indirect costs of spinal distress amount to greater than $100 billion annually in the United States. According to another study, eight out of 10 Americans will suffer from some sort of back episode during their lives. In the thriving South Bay, where so many of us hunch over computers many hours a day, back pain is taking a big chunk out of productivity. We flock to chiropractors, acupuncturists, physical therapists, psychiatrists, neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons or anyone who promises relief; we spend thousands on pain meds, braces, pricey ergonomic chairs and similar aids. But what’s the all-too-frequent outcome? Continuing pain and depression over how it seems to take control of our lives with profoundly limiting our options. Gokhale’s approach questions fundamental beliefs: What if these standard approaches are all wrong? What if surgery and special chairs and lumbar cushions and treatments that encourage an S-shaped spine—considered correct by today’s professionals—are hurting rather than helping? What if relief all boils down to emulating how more primitive people move? After all, back problems are scarce among these people. She developed her Gokhale Method—now taught to students around the world—from personal experience. But that came only testing and rejecting after another career path. Gokhale ESTHER GOKHALE TEACHING A GROUP CLA SS
South Bay Accent - Jun/Jul 2016
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