Looking after your spine

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Although I did a lot of walking in my teens and early twenties, and for the most part enjoyed it except on those few occasions when it was very hot or very wet (the latter was easier to deal with). Or thinking back to my High School days when I had a lot of books to cart between school and home resulting in an extremely weighty bag. We did not have fancy backpack type schoolbags back then. Mine had two large handles which were large enough for one handle to be comfortably swung over my shoulder, but not large enough for both handles to go over both shoulders to spread the weight more evenly across my back. Anyone who was teenager in the late 60’s and early 70’s will be able to relate to this.

As a consequence of years of carrying my heavy school bag on one shoulder (my right one), falling off horses and bicycles, and being hit by a car as a pedestrian in my early twenties, I had put my spine out of alignment which adversely affected my hips causing my left hip to sit higher than the right one. In simple terms, my skeletal structure was a mess which was not surprising. It explained my lower back problem and residual neck stiffness. Because my discomfort was not severe, like most people, I assumed my body could cope with some remarkable damage which it would fix itself and I did not address the issue. Naturally as you get older, small problems become bigger ones and it was not until my 4oth year that I decided I had better have a check up of the most important structure of my body – my spine.

The strange thing is, we regularly maintain the basic structure and mechanics of our cars, yet our own bodies can be damaged so easily and we often do nothing about it until it is too late or the pain becomes severe. The spine in particular is not like your skin which is full of nerve endings and you immediately feel any cut or injury. Your skeletal structure does not possess nerves and any injury to it (other than a broken bone), will not fully reveal the extent of the damage so readily because in the early stages it does not hurt so much. That means it tends to be ignored. With my crooked spine, I did suffer some lower back pain but put that down to other causes. I had no idea my spine had been pushed out of alignment to such a degree and this in turn was affecting each individual disc in my spine and everything else in my body.

To give you an idea of exactly what can happen to your spine, have a close look at the graphic example on the left. The top disc is how ALL the discs in your spine should look. As you move down the diagram, each disc shows the next stage of deterioration with the worst level of damage evident on the bottom spinal disc.

Originally when I first decided to have my spine checked out, I went to a Chiropractor because their treatment is based on the premise that your body can heal itself. They focus on the fact that your brain controls and coordinates the transfer of information via your spinal cord and along your nerves to the cells of your body to give those structures life. When we have misalignments in our spine or pelvic structure (referred to as “subluxations” by Chiropractors), nerve messages  between our brain and our body is impeded and this in turn adversely affects various cells, tissues, organs and limbs.

In light of this information and after initial x-rays were taken, I was shocked by the what I saw in my x-ray. Regular manipulations in the first three months, corrected the misalignment of my spine and I definitely felt the improvement. My whole posture changed for the better, I walked much straighter and the pressure on each individual disc was evened out again.

Even my neck had lost its natural curve and looked very similar to the x-ray example below: both before chiropractic treatment started (left image) and after regular manipulations for 12 months (right image).

I regularly had chiropractic treatment from 2001 until about 2 years ago when I switched to seeing an Osteopath. To me, the two professions work on different levels and from my research online, the best description I came across is this, and I quote from an American website, Center For Holistic Psychiatry:

The following descriptions begin to differentiate between the two fields: Osteopathy is a system of medical practice based on a theory that diseases are due chiefly to loss of structural integrity which can be restored by manipulation of the parts supplemented by therapeutic measures. Chiropractic is a system of therapy which holds that disease results from a lack of normal nerve function and which employs manipulation and specific adjustment of body structures, focusing on the spine.

Further differences can be seen between the osteopath’s larger diversity of manipulation techniques and treatment modalities as compared to the chiropractor. The osteopath is trained in soft tissue technique also known as myofascial treatment. This technique applies stretching or deep pressure to muscles while assessing the responses and change in motion through palpitation or touching. Osteopaths also use lymphatic technique, which promotes circulation of the lymph. Muscle energy and high velocity/low amplitude force techniques are used to restore range of motion and reduce tenderness. These are just some of the techniques an osteopath is trained to employ to restore balance and the body’s innate ability to heal itself. The chiropractor only has two principle manipulation techniques. The most common is commonly known as “cracking”. This is technically called HVLA or high velocity, low amplitude adjustments. The other technique is referred to as network chiropractic. This technique is a spin off from cranial osteopathy. Overall, the osteopath has more education and training, a larger repertoire of modalities, can prescribe drugs, perform surgeries and is held to the same high standards as the traditional M.D.

When you see an osteopath, you are entrusting your care to a highly trained physician. You are seen as a whole person, taking into consideration your emotions and spirituality while treating you from the perspective that your body has been designed to self-heal. Osteopathy addresses why illness has happened by working on the structure and fluid movement within the body to support a state where the healing process can naturally occur.

Now that I have experienced both types of practitioners, I must admit that my preference is with osteopathy. The treatment is broader and muscles are manipulated as well as the skeletal structure. I am impressed by the manner in which my osteopath takes such an interest in my whole body structure and not just the spine itself.

On a final note: if you feel your spine can look after itself without additional help (as I once did), or you have no significant presenting problems which warrant a check up, read this page from Chiropractor Monthly June 2008 to see what you can look forward to as your body ages.

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