A common question asked frequently in the office is “Why do I not just get treatment directly to where my pain is?” For example: a patient may walk in complaining of pain in the right side of their lower back or their upper hip, and they wonder why they get treatment on the left side or the front side of the body. The answer is very simple, compensation. When your body experiences any sensation similar to pain (tightness, discomfort, etc.), even if it is subconscious, the body responds through compensation. There are countless examples that we could list, most of which you are familiar with. Things like a limp when you sprain your ankle, or a subtle shift in your gait pattern or even a change in the form of an exercise you do at the gym. These minute changes may seem inconsequential, but they play a massive role in the understanding of your pain and how your body is handling the situation.
A professor of mine in chiropractic school dropped a phenomenal nugget that runs through my brain still to this day. He stated that “the human brain does not begin to perceive pain until the body is at least 60% of the way into the problem”. Now while this can obviously be proven incorrect from a literal sense, it rings true to how our body handles chronic changes and stressors in our day-to-day life. In the instance of a severe injury, a burn or something that incites pain immediately, this example may not make sense. However, in the event of a long-term and chronic injury that builds slowly over time, it is extremely accurate. Let’s begin to break that down.
If we were to track the amount of dysfunctional or “incorrect” behaviors or actions done each and every day, we simply wouldn’t have time to get anything else done. While a functional motion may be up to interpretation, the dynamic understanding that the body has is quite simple. There is a right and a wrong way to go about performing an action. As we all age, we begin to change these simple actions to accommodate our day-to-day life.
Let’s take the very first thing that we all do in this world as an example, breathing. If you have kids of your own or if you were to ask your parents where you take your first breath, they would all respond the same. In your stomach. If you are sitting at home reading this article now and you take a deep breath in, nine out of ten of you will take that breath into your upper chest instead. Why is that? The simple answer, compensation. As we age, we begin to understand that breathing into the chest is a simpler and more “efficient” way to accomplish the task of breathing. But when you break it down, it is extremely dysfunctional to build that habit. Chest breathing relies heavily on upper body accessory musculature to elevate and expand the rib cage to allow for the heavy influx of oxygen into the lungs. While this may not bother you with each individual breath, I promise you your body feels it with each and every repetition. When we are able to functionally breathe with the use of our diaphragms, our ability to use our body to its most effective degree is increased dramatically. Diaphragmatic breathing allows for decreased compensatory overuse of upper body accessory and posterior chain musculature, as well as allowing for a massive increase in our ability to successfully integrate core strength.
But what does this have to do with any treatment you receive? That is a great question. As western medicine has progressed over the years, it has become very specific and targeted. There is a generic treatment or medication for each exact symptom any of us may experience throughout our lives. Have a headache? Take an Advil. Sneezing a little bit? Take an allergy pill. A little too stiff after a hard days work? Pop a muscle relaxer. Do these symptoms arise because we have a lack of Advil, Zyrtec or Flexeril in our system? Of course not. But while these symptomatic responses may seem highly effective, they do not treat the underlying problem at fault. The functional use of our bodies is no different. When a patient presents to our office complaining of any given problem (back pain, neck pain, headaches, pulled muscle, etc), it is very rarely the singular fault of that exact region. Meaning, when you come in and the right side of your neck is bothering you, there are likely several related factors that are contributing to that singular pain.
What we strive to do here at Integrated Health Solutions, is not “symptom chase”. We prefer to offer SOLUTIONS. This means that instead of taking every single word from our patient’s perspective as an exact understanding, we take that information and choose to look at it through a detective lens. We search for dots that can be connected through your work, life, your level of physical activity, and even the way that you have responded to this problem since it initially began. This means that it is very likely that while you may be experiencing a very specific and pinpoint problem, the solution to curing that pain or issue is most likely coming from other areas as well. It is our job as medical professionals to not simply make you feel better, but to give you the solution to staying better. Let’s think about it this way instead. How many times have you woken up in the morning and thought “man my neck is really bothering me, I must have slept wrong last night”? I would venture to assume dozens if not hundreds of times. But when we truly think about it, did we actually sleep any differently last night then we have any other night before it? The likely answer is no. Now there are obvious circumstances like falling asleep on a couch accidentally, or sleeping on an airplane that can negate this thought process, but the general point stands.
The more likely solution is that there has been a snowballing of dysfunctional and compensational movements and activities building behind the scenes for days if not weeks or months, or even years to put you exactly where you are now. The saving grace, our bodies are master compensators. The horrible part of that situation, our bodies are master compensators. Our bodies are built to withstand so much trauma and dysfunction and allow us to still go about our day-to-day responsibilities. If each and every compensational or dysfunctional motion stopped us in our tracks, we would cease to progress or function as a society. Unfortunately, this also means that our body is going to continually bend and bend and bend, until it breaks. That’s usually when you end up in our office. And it is our job to figure out not the “break”, but the bends that you do each and every day that contributed to the break. Let’s discuss what that treatment would look like.
After a thorough examination on your first visit, where we will discuss all of the contributing factors that led to your current predicament, the beginning treatment would be driven directly by our medical acupuncture, otherwise known as dry needling. This incredible treatment involves the use of micro filaments that penetrate through the skin line to damage several hundreds of cells. This damage registers as trauma to the sympathetic nervous system to instigate the biological healing processes. This is what allows true healing to begin. It also works directly to erode pain pathways, increase blood flow and circulation, while simultaneously reducing muscle tension. Now, for the prompting question. If I am presenting with right sided lower back pain, why am I getting dry needling in other areas? As we have already previously discussed, there are several other factors in play that are causing and intertwining with the current pain you are experiencing.Is this right sided lower back pain caused as a result from a previous injury to the left side of your body? Has this pain been a lingering presence for several weeks or months and has ultimately resulted in compensation that is increasing irritation on the left side of your body you simply can’t feel yet? Rather than leave that question up to chance, we choose to be thorough enough to answer it for you. By working in a thorough fashion with not only the directly impacted tissue, but the indirectly impacted tissue such as in this example the left side of the lower back or even the front side of the right hip, we address the problem not only as it presents, but in the deeper context to prevent further ongoing injury.
The second treatment you would receive subsequent to the dry needling, would be soft tissue manual therapy. This is the use of a functional tool, such as a Guasha to apply a mild to moderate pressure into the musculature. This treatment helps to further release muscle tension and increase blood flow and circulation, while simultaneously creating an alignment and a symmetry within the disrupted muscle fibers after the dry needling. While this may be a common treatment, the fashion with which it is provided is imperative. The use of a Guasha or direct skin to skin pressure by the doctor’s hand, we can manipulate muscle fibers to realign and heal in a more proper and functional sense.
The third treatment would be the chiropractic adjustment. This is the most commonly seen and understood treatment that you could receive here at IHS. Mostly due to its excessive documenting in social media nowadays. The chiropractic adjustment is a manipulation of a joint space to physically remove air and replace that with synovial fluid. When synovial fluid replaces air in the joint space, the range of motion and fluidity of that joint movement improves dramatically. This is also where the “pop “comes from in the adjustment. It is commonly known in chiropractic, that when a spinal segment is not properly moving, the areas that most desperately need attention are the segments directly above, and below the restricted segment. Now why is that? If the problem is in a singular segment, then why is the most important part of the treatment to move segments other than that one? Another easy answer, compensation. When a joint does not move properly, the immediately subsequent joints above and below it, increase their use to compensate for the lack of mobility in the restricted segment. This is also what occurs at the muscular level.
The fourth and final treatment would be dynamic or functional rehabilitation. Outside of the dry needling, this is the most important modality. This is the educational aspect of your treatment, where you will learn not only simple stretches and exercises, but functional and fundamental ways to perform simple and mundane or even complex tasks that you do every single day. This is the part of the treatment where you work to prevent future injury. Just like the previous example, diaphragmatic breathing. If I were to ask you, if you believed that breathing into your chest caused pain or problems in your body, what would your answer be? Most of you would obviously answer no due to the fact that you are breathing that way at this very moment and likely in a little or no pain. However, as we also previously discussed, that dysfunctional breathing pattern creates a snowball effect which leads to compensation and eventual injury in the upper or even lower body muscles. The dynamic rehabilitation teaches us how to more effectively use our body to not only erase the current injury that we are experiencing, but prevent the plethora of possible injuries in the future.
All of this to say, there are several different ways to go about treating a problem. While the traditional western medicine approach is very direct and specific, it is also as popular as it is for a good reason. It’s effective. As chiropractors, we are unable to prescribe medications or perform surgeries.This means that we have to use the information present to dig a little deeper and find the root cause of the problem that we can then attempt to correct in a more physical sense. This sometimes means that while your pain may be experienced in a certain area, your treatment may be necessary to a more expansive degree. It is not a bogus excuse to rack up a larger bill or to do more with you than necessary, it is simply the more thorough way to provide a solution to a current problem while simultaneously preventing future problems as well.
If you or someone you know is currently struggling with a pain or a concern and you think this could be the possible solution for you, do not hesitate to reach out. You may schedule an appointment directly with us here through our website, or you can call the number below to speak with any of our front desk associates and schedule your consultation or new patient visit today!
Content Provided & Written By: Dr. Jordan Miller
