| As a Doctor of Chiropractic here in Dallas, Texas, I | | | | can sometimes go wrong long beyond the time |
| work with a lot of patients who have joints that are | | | | needed to revive the damaged tissue. The contracting |
| misaligned. I provide various chiropractic treatments to | | | | muscle can be so over effective that it constricts its |
| cure this problem and I want to explain why the | | | | own blood supply, releasing acids that build up and |
| misalignment and lock up occurs. The function of each | | | | trigger nerve endings into sensing pain, creating a |
| joint is to move two bones in relation to each other | | | | further protective spasm. A vicious cycle has been |
| under muscular action. The muscles act, when they | | | | completed. In such an area one ligament might be held |
| receive impulses, through nerves that originate in the | | | | in stretch while the opposite side remains lax. As time |
| spinal cord. The vertebral joints are like most other | | | | passes, the ligaments will respond by lengthening and |
| joints in that they move within defined limits | | | | shortening respectively to balance the force or |
| corresponding to muscle activity that is controlled by | | | | pressure placed on them, perpetuating the "misaligned" |
| nerves streaming from the spinal cord. | | | | appearance. |
| Very often injury, improper posture or other factors | | | | If you have a set of joints in a certain area of your |
| can irritate sensitive joint capsules that hold the | | | | back, lock up then other joints in the surrounding area |
| lubricant that bathes the joint. A protective response is | | | | must over compensate by increasing their own |
| triggered that sends messages to muscles that control | | | | movement. As these other joints increase their range |
| the joint, causing them to contract. | | | | they become less stable and themselves run the risk |
| The result is to confine movement that might create | | | | of strain or premature wear and tear that results in |
| more pain. This mechanism can also be triggered by | | | | "osteoarthritis". |
| injury or stress to other parts of the vertebra, such as | | | | You can envision that as the affected area slowly |
| its ligaments, disc, nerve, bone and even its own | | | | gets tighter and stiffer, bending, lying on your back, or |
| muscles. So any strain or injury to the joint or its | | | | on one side can become a continual problem. The |
| associated structures may cause a muscle contraction | | | | process can proceed unnoticed over months or even |
| that locks the joint partially or in its entirety. That locking | | | | years until the over flexible area is injured and become |
| can occur with the joint in its neutral "aligned" position | | | | painfully irritated. The solution is to seek chiropractic |
| or, if muscles contract, from its neutral position, the | | | | help and reduce or eliminate this from growing into a |
| bones appear "out of alignment". | | | | much larger problem that can lead to surgery. You |
| The mechanism serves a purpose while the injured | | | | should see your chiropractor at least once a year just |
| tissue is healing by acting as nature's own joint splint. If | | | | for a routine check up because with the advances in |
| you get a cut on your hand, you see how fast your | | | | equipment and techniques we use, you will find that |
| cut heals, the skin becomes elastic and returns to | | | | simple adjustments and therapy will prevent these |
| normal. Unfortunately the spinal splinting mechanism | | | | issues I've listed above from ever becoming a problem. |