Pain is an aggravating and draining experience, affecting
our jobs, personal lives, and general quality of life. It is also increasingly prevalent; 50% of the
population suffers from a headache-related condition; 30% suffers from neck
pain, with over half likely to experience recurring episodes; low back pain is
the second most common cause of disability in the United States (neck pain is
fourth) and accounts for $100 billion in lost wages per year due to decreased
productivity.
Perhaps the most frustrating things about being in pain
are the ineffectiveness of commonly prescribed treatments and not understanding
the cause, with conflicting and numerous opinions making it all seem so
complicated.
Well, what if it was really not that complicated? What if a big part of the explanation was as
simple as, “You are showing signs of physical breakdown because the foundation
of your body has shifted, forcing every bone and muscle in your structural
frame to compensate”? Could it possibly
be that simple?
That it is absolutely possible for it to be that simple
is one of the best kept secrets in healthcare.
You see, your body is not unlike your home in that its
foundation has to be level in order for it to maintain its structural
integrity. If your home’s foundation
shifts, then at some point – be it months or years later – noticeable adverse
reactions will develop; the same thing happens in the body, but a quick review
of Anatomy 101 reminds us that the body is structurally designed from the top
down, not the ground up like in a home.
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While developing in-utero, the first bones that form are
the skull and the upper cervical vertebrae in the neck to protect the two most
important parts of your body: the brain and the brainstem; such is the
foundation upon which the rest of your anatomy is built. After development is completed, the balance
of the head and neck becomes crucial to your body’s ability to maintain and
sustain itself physically; to recover from the stress of day-to-day life, to
heal following vigorous activity or exercise, etc.
Unfortunately, nine out of ten people have lost their
foundational stability, most frequently on account of head and neck injuries
from birth to the late teenage years, when trauma is far more common and the
body is still developing. That header
off the top bunk, tumble down the steps, fall off the bike or backyard tree,
teenage sports injury or auto accident – one or more of these things happen to
everyone – can actually become very clinically relevant.
When your head and upper neck are taken out of their
normal state of alignment due to injury, the first cervical vertebra no longer
positions squarely under the head, and a chain reaction occurs (through your
body’s righting reflex) that prompts your bones and muscles from head to toe
into an adapted physical state in order to return your head to as balanced a
position as possible; the body uses the level positioning of your eyes, along
with the fluid inside of your ears, to establish equilibrium, so when your head
and upper neck are off balance, failure to adapt would keep you consistently
dizziness or disoriented.
In the adapted state, one shoulder often shifts up higher
than the other and one hip draws higher than the other, dragging the attached
leg up and giving the appearance of that leg being shorter than the
other, frequently by a quarter to a half inch or more; the head also tends to
jut forward over the shoulders, biomechanically disrupting the normal
structural support system that helps carry the weight of your body on its
structural frame. This shifting causes
muscles that run along the left and right sides of your body, as well as the
muscles positioned in the front and the back, to pull against one another
instead of working in tandem as they are designed; persistent muscle strain on
the head, neck, shoulders, back, and hips can cause pain in various areas of
your body as early in life as youth.
Uncorrected body imbalance creates on-going structural
stress and has a very negative long term effect. Though incredibly resilient by nature and
capable of reorganizing well enough during the early phase of foundational
adaptation to avoid much more than minimal warning signs like pain or other
symptoms, your body will break down if the head and upper neck alignment is
never restored. Foundational shifts
result in the loss of natural support curves in the spine (i.e. straight
spines), causing the body’s weight to stack on the discs in between each
vertebra in the short-term and, consequently, premature degenerative disc
disease, disc bulging and/or herniation, and even a closing down of spinal
nerve canals (stenosis) in the long-term; it also causes unequal weight
distribution across each hip and leg by up to twenty pounds, resulting in
degenerative joint disease in the hips/knees/ankles/feet. Just as driving your car with the front end
out of alignment causes premature tire wear, long-term body imbalance causes
your body to age faster.
Logical as all of the above may be, that you may never
have been made aware of it before speaks to the primary flaw in our health
system; we have collectively become so enamored with symptom management that a
basic, extremely common cause of pain goes chronically overlooked. We all experience trauma and, thus, are all
susceptible to foundational misalignment, but when head/neck balance is
restored, immediately your body can begin to re-adapt, your innate self-healing
process can more effectively resume, your muscles can begin to relax, pain can
start reducing, the degenerative process can be curbed, and even disc bulges
and herniations can be reabsorbed. It
really can be that simple.
Sources: The National Institute of Health, The Mayo
Clinic, Dr. G. Gutmann (Manuelle Medizin), The World Health Organization
Dr. Chad McIntyre owns and operates the Triad Upper Cervical Clinic in
Kernersville. Specializing in Upper
Cervical Care, his office emphasizes a proactive, goal-oriented approach to
health rooted in strong patient education.
If you would like to learn more about Upper Cervical Care, visit www.triaduppercervical.com or call 336-992-2536 to schedule a consultation.
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