Is Popping and Cracking w/o an Adjustment OK

I’m often told that “since starting here my neck/back is popping a lot more on its own.” I’ll usually follow that statement up with, well is it painful. Almost always the answer is no. So what is that. At some point one of us has probably talked to you about what the noise actually is. We call it a cavitation, which if you were to look up you’d find that’s a formation of an empty space within a solid object or body. So in our case the cavitation is a formation and break of a air bubble within your joint space, specifically the synovial fluid found in the joint capsule. It’s good to know that as satisfying as it may be, we don’t need to hear this audible release to have a good adjustment. And if you happened to crack your neck (hopefully just by turning your head, without using your hand to help) right before getting adjusted, we wont be able to get that cavitation from that specific joint until another air bubble is created, which can take a few minutes.

So is it OK to turn my head, without my hands, to crack my neck. Yeah, its OK. You aren’t moving anything, its just stretching that joint enough for the audible release to happen. No real issue there. However I have specified without using your hands. Please don’t do that. You can move things, and it’ll mostly be the wrong way to go, it can cause injury, and some people believe it can cause Bells Palsy, which is partial paralysis of the face. So please don’t try to self adjust with your hands.

What about the pop in my ankle, knee, elbow, etc. that I can do over and over again? Well again if it isn’t painful its not much of a concern, but you probably don’t want to just keel doing it as a party trick. If its something you can recreate over and over it’s not being caused by the same mechanism described above. It’s most likely from chronic ligament instability or a tendon snapping over bone. This is generally not something to be concerned about.

-Dr. Mark

How to fix a scoliosis..

My wife prompted me to write a Daily Sprout on scoliosis.  Over the years we have literally corrected or reduced hundreds of these.  And for some time, we were the recipient of adolescent referral from pediatricians in the area.  I believe those referrals dried up as these docs began to understand how openly anti-vaccine I am.

My daughter Brooke had a slight scoliosis as evidenced in the X-Rays below from 2013.  I re-x-rayed her in 2016 once we moved into our new office, new location, new digital x-ray machine.  Thos x-rays further down show how we corrected a scoliosis.  I did this with no exercises, no brace, and no therapy.  Which is not how I recommend we work on a scoliosis, however I knew that I had better luck with my own daughter being dependent on me vs. self dependent… others I can encourage enough to do what I ask, but I already give my own kids a ton of stuff.

So this is the breakdown of what you are seeing.  The second X-ray has the pelvis at nearly flat, with a curve in the spine towards the right (we are looking from behind).  She was 8 years old when this was taken.   The curve returns to the left giving the very common “S” appearance of the curvature.  This is a common scoliosis, and at this age, with our corrective care (completely specialized compared to typical chiropractic care), we can correct these completely.

Typical treatment for scoliosis in the medical model is to brace, or when it worsens significantly from here to perform surgery.  In addition, I have seen physical therapy used, and ultimately, I have yet to see anything other than mirror imaging chiropractic (specialized), supported by exercises and positional modeling actually work to change a spine.   The remaining purpose of this article is to help you understand why.

Failure of scoliosis treatment is very high when the focus is on “forcing the spine” (surgery and braces), or “stretching the muscles” (physical therapy and  yoga, soft tissue effort) without a focus on the nervous system.  What is funny, and even odd to me, is that the doctors or therapists who employ their methods, don’t stop to consider why their results are flawed, from a cause level of concern.  Cause.  The Cause is everything.  It should be the entire focus of all healthcare first and foremost, before ever thinking of treatment.

The nervous system.  The ENTIRE reason why a spine is curved.  Influence of physics will start the process, where you begin a change due to a stress, or a muscular injury during a growth spurt.  The lack of muscular stretch during the growth spurt, causes the spine to turn in the direction of the shortened muscle.  Or in the case of a fully grown individual, the repetitive posturing that takes the spine out of position, will cause the stretch of muscle on one side, and the shortening or “creep” of the musculature and ligaments on the other.   Which of course sounds like the solution would be stretching at first look.  But there is one HUGE player that is ignored.  The nervous system.

This one area that we have named proprioception, is of the utmost importance.  Proprioception is the part of the nervous system that keeps track of where joints are in space.  This relates to all joints, and ultimately it is what maintains muscle tension so that joints are kept in place, or allowed to move.  Listen to this and be keenly aware of the implication.  Titanium rods are the only standard in surgically treating serious scoliosis now, because lesser steel can break under the pressure of the muscles fighting to “return” a scoliosis.

Be aware of what I am saying.  Trying to straighten a spine will cause it to fight back, as the cause has not been addressed.  Proprioceptive change, means that we are slowly influencing the nervous system, so that it chooses to make a positive change in the spine.   Mirror imaging is the process.  This next x-ray is a case of a young girl over a period of about six months from this past year.  Notice the curvature was actually “over corrected” a bit.  It will work its way out, it always does.    But this was entirely done through chiropractic care.

Mirror imaging.  Picture this x-ray on the left, lying down on the persons left side.  Lying across a foam roll that places the spine in a “mirror imaged” position, so the curve is forced to the right.  Then adjusting the spine, influencing proprioceptive centers in the brain.  This is the key to success, the amount of influence over the brain, causing the brain to “choose” to change muscle tension, is everything in this case.  Many chiropractic offices that work to be corrective, have been adding vibration, and other stimuli in an attempt to make the spine more likely to be influenced.  I believe it is more about the perfect moment of stimuli, than it is about the amount of stimuli.

With results like this, we have surprised many pediatricians over the years, but the process is specific.  So, as I tell you about this process, I want you to also understand that sooooo many people choose to do nothing, and I guarantee all of them will at some point wish they had chosen differently.  We will be hosting a HealthSprout’s Not So Scary Halloween Party next Monday, 10/30.  This is a perfect time to promote on facebook, and through your local channels, the importance of people coming, spending $29, and being screened.    We have the best process, not that we are the best, we just follow the best process.

And here are those follow up x-rays of my daughter Brooke… which was an average of 50 adjustments a year over that time, not 120 like we pour into so many others to get it done in just one year.  There is still some work to go because of the lean, but we are better than before!

Thanks for reading!

Be well and Be bleseed… God loves you!  – Dr. E

Chiropractic for the rest of THEIR Lives

It was a day like any other day… running around wildly, meetings, meetings, meetings… phone calls, and working out.  But then the day stopped me in my tracks with interest.  My eldest is tall for her age, 5’5″ or more at 12 years old.  As you can imagine, this causes some forward slouching which is common in tall girls.  Fear of standing out, feeling like you are too obvious in a crowd.

So the thing that stopped me in my tracks, was a picture of my daughter on a horse, and in that picture she was in an incredibly good posture, which is common when she is on the horse.  It is common when any good rider is on a horse.  The pelvis is positioned well under the torso, and the shoulders pulled back to create a very upright position.

In seeing this picture, I was struck by the physics of a good spinal position.  I was struck by the physics of good posture.  It all starts with posture, and this was a very obvious moment for me.  And in this complete knowing, the knowing that a spinal cord is protected by a spine, which is protected by a position that allows for no degeneration… no damage, no weakness in the discs.  This is the key, that if you can maintain good posture, you can maintain health!

So here are 3 really important steps for you to get the best possible posture (there are more, these are the top three in my mind):

1. Prepare your most common positions throughout the day, to better serve posture.  The number one cause of degenerative posture, is how you work, play, or commute.  Position is everything… get a stand up desk, elevate the laptop, hold your phone higher when you use it, and find ways to be upright in everything.  This is big.

2. Strengthen your spine.  The increased strength afforded somebody who is actively working their posterior chain (the muscles of the back from the base of the skull to the heels), is a strength that protects you.  As we have written in other Daily Sprout articles, dead-lifts are great for the spine (as long as they are done correctly).   So jump into a plank, grab a dead-lift bar, and take it all very serious when you begin pushing around some serious weight, then you are extremely well protected.

3. Last, get adjusted.  Compromised nerve flow does two things as it relates to posture.  It causes compensation that allows you to function around dysfunction, and in that function further breakdown occurs.  In addition, the weakening that occurs to the surrounding musculature, makes it more and more impossible to maintain normal posture.  This weakening is due to the subluxation effect.  Lack of neurological tone, leads to weakness.

Follow the guidelines, take it serious, and before you know it… you’ll have better posture, and better health!

Be well and be blessed! – Dr. E