Duncan Chiropractic Group Newsletter

From Your Howell Michigan Area Chiropractor

Structural Faults

Dr. David Koivuranta

The structure of your body determines its function. The way it was built determines what it can do day in and day out. If the structure changes, the function will change as well. However, we often compensate for these changes so we can keep on going. This compensation can only last so long before we know the problem needs to be dealt with. It is a simple matter of cause and effect with a period of delay in between.

Take for example a car running low on radiator fluid in the summer. We may add some water to the radiator as we drive along to help keep the engine cool. Water, as most of us know, does not have the same properties as radiator fluid so we must continually add more water as we keep driving. Although it does a good job of keeping the engine cool for a while, we know that unless we can get some radiator fluid back in the cooling system our engine is going to over-heat and perhaps suffer permanent, costly damages.

The engine over-heats because of the decrease in the proper cooling agent. Here is our cause and effect. The water is simply dealing with the symptom of fluid loss, but cannot help with dissipation or decrease in heat. Radiator fluid would be the wise cure to the problem and making sure that it doesn’t run low again without proper replacement.

Back to our bodies, we realize that often we are getting by with improper fluids or parts only to suffer eventual permanent damage. The problem with our bodies is that we may have one symptom such as pain that can develop by seemingly endless causes. That’s why seemingly simple things like low-back pain that we put up with need to be properly diagnosed to determine the actual cause of the problem so that our cure is truly a resolution and not simply a patch-up job.

There is a condition called SPONDYLOLISTHESIS that emphasizes the importance of having health problems properly assessed. Low-back pain that is achy, fairly constant, worsened by lifting and aggravated by lying in a certain position may not be what you think it is. Often we write this off as age or a strain of the muscles. Unfortunately, structural changes may be taking place.

The most common of such changes include subluxations (improperly positioned or moving bones and joints that irritate the nervous system) or degenerative changes (like arthritis).

A less common but equally as challenging cause may be spondylolisthesis. This is a fancy word meaning “bone slid out of place”. It is most common in the low back where the last vertebrae or bone in the low back sits on top of your pelvis close to your tailbone. This vertebra, either due to trauma or to an anomaly (birth defect) has slipped forward further than it normally should be. Like having to hold a grocery bag full of cans with a straight arm in front of you instead of at your side, this slipped position of the vertebrae makes the muscles and joints in the area work harder than they should. This leads to pain, improper movement, and negative side effects through possible irritation to the nervous system.

The lesson here is twofold. The first is to understand the important balance between structure and function. Just ask any child trying to build a tower with building blocks how important structure is. One block just a little out of place can cause things to topple or force other blocks to compensate only to delay the toppling for a while. The second lesson is that of proper assessment and diagnosis. The little aches and pains may be from a big problem for which your body is compensating. It pays to know what’s going on to prevent not knowing what to do later when it gets worse. For radiators, use radiator fluid…for your body, use chiropractic for treatment, prevention and maintenance. Don’t let your body overheat, have it examined today.