West Valley Family Clinic Blog

Chiropractic is not a “miracle cure”. There is and has been for years a sort of mysticism associated with chiropractic. It’s almost as though some people think that it is faith healing. This is why we get statements from people like, “Oh I don’t believe in chiropractic.” That is like saying, I don’t believe in gravity. I will try with this message to de-mystify chiropractic. Hopefully this will help you to understand what chiropractors do, and why it is important for everyone.

Let me begin with a story. This is a true story of one of my patients. His name is Tom. It was July 4th 2006; I was out of town with my family for the holiday. I received a call on my cell phone from a woman whose husband was on the floor and couldn’t move. His back was hurting so badly that he could not get up. I suggested that she call an ambulance, and get him to the emergency room. If he was unable to get up to come into the office, there is nothing that I can do for him.

However, if he could get some temporary pain relief, that would allow him to come into my office then I could assess him. On July 6th, two days later, this man came slowly shuffling into my office. He was hunched over, and could hardly even turn his head without excruciating pain in his low back. He had tingling sensations in both legs also. I performed an examination and X-rays on Tom and found that he had a loss of the normal curve of the low back, and that the discs in between the second, third, and fourth lumbar vertebrae were in a phase two degenerative state. I also found that the first, second, and third vertebrae in his low back were tilted to the left.

So what does all of this mean? Doctors of chiropractic treat one thing and one thing only. That one thing is called “vertebral subluxation.” The spine is made up of 24 movable vertebrae (bones). These bones form joints with one another, which allow us to bend and twist and move the way we do. Between each pair of bones is a disc, which acts as a shock absorber, and also increases the mobility of the spine. When each pair of bones is properly aligned, then there is proper movement. A “vertebral subluxation”, is when one or more pairs of these bones get out of alignment. This is not a complete dislocation. The joint surfaces remain in contact; however, they are not lined up properly. There are a couple of things that this will lead to.

First let’s talk about the disc. Imagine that you are looking down on a doughnut. In the hole you place a blob of jelly. Now this doughnut with its blob of jelly represents the disc between two vertebrae. The outer (doughnut) part is a tough fibrous material made up of concentric rings of fibers running in a diagonal direction perpendicular to the fibers in the adjacent ring. The inner (jelly) part is a capsule of jelly like material, which moves according to pressure. If you push on the front of the doughnut, the center will move back, and so forth. This disc is intricately connected to the bone above it and below it. It is impossible for this disc to “slip.” What it can and does do however is to become desiccated (dried out) and shrink, and rupture. The disc has the ability to absorb fluid, and when we lay down and take pressure off of the disc it does just that. Through movement, the disc has fluid pumped in and out of it, and this is how it gets rid of old fluid and receives new healthy fluid and nutrients. Misalignments in the joints of the bones above and below a disc cause a lack of or improper movement. This will prevent the movement of fluids in and out of the disc, and even when lying down, due to the locked nature of a subluxated joint, the disc cannot absorb as much fluid. This will cause the rings that make up the outer part of the disc to weaken, and eventually tear. As they tear the middle or jelly part begins to push through those tears. The outer rings of the disc will start to bulge out and often will put pressure on adjacent nerves causing pain and tingling. If the outer rings of the disc also tear, then the jell will ooze out. The disc is tightly connected to the bone above it and below it, so if it shrinks, then it pulls on the bone where it connects to it. This pulling will cause the body to add calcium to the bone to strengthen it, and you start to form bony ridges along the rims of the vertebrae called “bone spurs.” Now, in the back part of the bones, are two other joints called facet joints, one on each side. So if you are looking at two vertebrae, you will see that they have three joints, or areas where they connect with each other. The one is the body, or where the disc is, and the other two are the facet joints in the back and to the sides. These facet joints are like other joints in the body, they have a lining, and are enclosed in a capsule. They also have a lot of nerve endings in them. There are two types of nerve endings. Those that sense movement, and those that sense pain. If the nerve endings that sense movement are firing, then the nerve endings that sense pain are blocked. If we have a joint that is subluxated (miss-aligned), then there will not be proper movement in that joint and the nerve endings that sense pain will fire. Between the disc and the facet joints, there is an opening through which passes the nerve roots. These nerve roots come off of the spinal cord, and carry information to and from all parts of the body and the brain. This is how your body functions. If there is pressure on these nerves, then the information is interfered with. When there is a subluxation, it puts pressure on these nerves. Not all nerves sense pain so even though there is pressure on these nerves you may not feel anything. The danger is in the fact that the organs and tissues that those nerves go to are not getting the proper information, and will not function, as they should. This may not be manifested with any type of symptoms for a while however.

This is how chiropractic is able to help people with so many different health problems. A chiropractic adjustment properly applied to a subluxated joint will re-align that joint and take pressure off of the nerves. When the organs and tissues that nerve goes to are receiving the proper nerve impulses, they can heal and begin to function properly. Because the body has memory, and connective tissues change shape over time, it takes repeated adjustments to get a joint to stay in proper alignment. This is also why it is important to receive regular (monthly) chiropractic check ups. This will prevent the body from holding any subluxations long enough to cause degeneration, and a change in the connective tissues that would maintain that subluxation.

So getting back to Tom, he said that he had originally injured his back in 2002 lifting some heavy equipment. He had seen his family medical doctor, who gave him some Lortab and told him to take it easy for a while. After that didn’t help, he went to a chiropractor that didn’t take any X-rays, or the time to properly diagnose the condition. He treated him for about a month and then told him he was on his own. (Dangerous Doctors) On July 4th 2006 he bent over to pick up a drill, and couldn’t get up. That is when I got the call from his wife. Because he had subluxations that were not properly diagnosed and treated in 2002, and because he didn’t maintain any correction that might have occurred through regular chiropractic visits and specific exercises, the subluxations caused degeneration. This is what Tom said about his experience here. “On July 4, 2006 I had an episode which put me flat on my back for two days. Finally I was able to get into the office to see Dr. Snow. Dr. Snow took the time to properly diagnose my problem and explain it to me. He also let me know that there was hope. This eased my mind considerably, as I was very scared. Now it is August 17, 2006 and I am pain free. I have tremendous mobility, and I have my life back. I am doing exercises that Dr. Snow taught me to strengthen my low back to prevent this from happening again.”

If you would like more information about chiropractic, or would like to know if chiropractic could help you, check out my website at westvalleyfamilyclinic.com. Or you can write to me at drsnow@westvalleyfamilyclinic.com. You can listen to this as a podcast at www.westvalleyfamilyclinic.com/audio/faithhealingpodcast.mp3