Skip to content

Degeneration? Not So Fast

blur-check-diagnosis-721166-1024x683

Orthopedic Surgeon Diagnosing L4, L5, S1 problem

One of the most common concerns or comments that I get from clients who have either been to Chiropractor’s before or have gone to Medical Doctors, particularly Orthopedic Surgeon’s is “the Doctor told me I have an L4, L5, S1 problem or I have a C5, C6, C7 problem caused by degeneration.” Most if not all of the people will get problems in those common areas. As an intern, I remember having template reports ready to the point where the X-Rays only served as confirmation of what I should expect to see. They would go on to say; the doctor told them that it was from aging and if it was from the Chiropractors that it was from Subluxations. Both of those things true but not the complete story. To every story, there is a deeper story and to THAT story is a deeper one.

Before I talk about degeneration, I will bring up an example that I have used a lot. Let’s say your wife ask you to buy milk and you forget. When you come home, she gets upset and yells at you for forgetting the milk. The usual reaction that a man may have is, “It’s just milk, I will just go back to the store to get it, what’s the point that she is upset.” The real reason why she is upset is that she feels that she isn’t heard enough and that she feels you could listen to her more often. When people look at problems, they only tend to look at the layer of the problem superficially and at best two or three layers below. We could go into 8-10 layers of why she is so upset, I could even start going quantum physics and go subatomic in my explanation, but I will reserve that discussion for another time. Stories run deep as the observer is willing to observe.

 

Time Or Aging Is A Reason For Degeneration - Light Chiro Practic

Now let’s go back to degeneration. When the Medical Doctor said, time or aging was an issue they were right. Things that are born from this earth eventually degenerate as time goes by. The typical Chiropractor would say it’s Subluxation or spinal misalignment plus time as the driving force; they would be correct too but only added a layer. The physios would tell, its muscle imbalance and weak cores. A Psychotherapist would say it’s from stress and an Acupuncturist world contribute your problem to organ dysfunction or an imbalance in your Chi. All these people would be correct. When it comes to our health the widest gamut of elements known and unknown must be accounted for. This is reason solving any problem is more complicated than most people are interested in investigating. The human mind likes certainty combined with a long answer’s that are black and white. So much that a response such as DNA, Diet, Time seems to support their worldview. If the doctor can somehow pull off a subgroup to a disease such as Diabetes, then they are sold. Often enough to even count, I am left hearing people say to me, “I was playing a sport” or “I was lifting at the gym, and that is when I had back pain ever since.” Even though I do not doubt them, I try my best to explain to them that there are other factors involved outside combined with that single event triggered their pain. An acceptation would be lifting way beyond their means which is not often the case, or they were involved in a terrible car accident which would be traumatic enough for an injury. As a man of science and the mystics, the concept of String Theory states that particles and matter do not interact with each other randomly instead there is a high order which we do not fully understand yet, in the East, it’s called Karma. To rephrase that, past, present, and future events are entangled in preceding thoughts and actions in both universe and the observer who is YOU. I’m here to tell you as someone that is just trying to figure things out most of my life, I have long abandoned the stuff I was taught in school, along with old medical science that Doctors are taught because the science that we have been taught is outdated. If everything that life has created and interacted with themselves beautifully, then how can one abstain the idea that Time(Aging), DNA, Subluxations, Imbalance of Chi, Weak Cores, and even your Boss could be crimes against humanity? I beg the differ, whatever life has been given to you is the gift. Time exists so we can love deeper and cherish the breathes and moments that we take. The second in you are not in touch with that, you’ve already committed a crime against yourself. The longer you are away from that truth, the more childish you become.

Study Of Degenerated Discs - Light Chiro Practic

Now that I have set the stage, the reason why people tend to have lower cervical problems is that the part in the brain called the cerebellum is allocating stress away from the upper cervical which is far more critical. The same mechanics apply to the lower back, L4, L5, S1. Bio-mechanically the cervical’s and the lumbar’s mimic each other’s movements is you want to see for yourself, rotate your neck, then rotate your lower back then compare.

Diagram Of The Spinal Cord - Light Chiro PracticMost importantly if you look at the diagram of the spinal cord, the part of your nervous system that is responsible for keeping you alive is the parasympathetic nervous system. The essential nerves are colored blue and are the main reason the intelligence of the body allocates stress to other parts of the spine such as C5-C7 and L4-S1. While your Doctor is blaming your symptoms on degeneration at C5, they probably aren’t aware that C5 is just as much a symptom as the pain in your neck. In extreme examples where there are disc problems the same rule applies. This doesn’t negate the fact that you are suffering from problems where you feel your symptoms or what is shown in X-Ray but to get you to understand that there is a higher order or a higher intelligence in the body than you may think. If you can genuinely appreciate the source of any problem, then approaching a solution will bring you more significant meaning and impact than you can imagine.

From C3-C7 and all of the lumbar vertebra allow the arms and legs to move so we can perform physical actions, but they do not keep us alive. As a Chiropractor, I do work on these areas, but I make it a significant effort to address the primary subluxation held at the top a majority of the time.

Head Weight & Posture Study - Light Chiro Practic

Out of all the structures in your neck as I said in previous articles and videos, no other area in your spine moves more than C1, and no other structure is more vital for your well-being than C1. The load that happens from the neck being misaligned causes forward bending which flattens out the lumbar while adding pressure to it consistently. As shown in the figure above, as the head is pushed forward 2 inches, there are 20 lbs combined as a load, this causes the muscles to hold your head from falling wasting energy making your “core” muscles weak. As each bone in your spine misaligns ever so slightly combined with an added load, friction is created, and inflammation occurs. When inflammation occurs in any area of the body over an extended period, disease happens. In the case of the joints, they call that degeneration, degenerative joint disease, osteoarthritis, osteophytes and spondylosis.

Mental Impulses That Your Brain Fires

Going above the Atlas are the mental impulses that your brain fires on both left and right sides of the body. An imbalance between left and right brains causes the Atlas to misalign. It’s safe to say that we are living in a culture where people are overthinking. Based on our inability to use our minds effectively we are subjected to creating problems in our lives, if you can’t see that, look at what is happening in the world. When we were young if we stopped thinking our teachers would punish us by failing us, luckily for me, I never stopped daydreaming which didn’t make school so easy for me.

So if any of you are suffering from lower back, shoulder, and neck issues. Get your Atlas checked along with the rest of the spine. Chiropractic adjustments reduce friction and stress on the joints allowing the body to move freely. Most importantly work on yourself from the inside out, and you will witness a faster recovery time in anything you pursue. If you are not solving problems in the world, you are contributing to them.