Question
QUESTION: I've lived in different states around the country and seen several different chiropractors in my lifetime. (mostly good - one great and one poor) The chiro I currently see showed me scans of my progression that were impressive but now my functional hip problem has gotten miserable for over a month now. My right hip is tilted forward and left hip tilted backward but they have always been functional w/o issue. And previous chiros didn't bother with my hips since functional. I'm barely getting sleep since when I fall asleep I wake up with hip screaming painful. It's been over a month now - I think we shouldn't have messed with it - but now that we did how can we resolve? My massage lady said my Sacram is almost sideways now and overlapping my hip - she told me of a story when she first started out and worked on something she shouldn't have and the lady was miserable for a long time and how bad she felt. I'm wondering the same but - how to get it back to functional norm or push on? (BTW, the chiro that was amazing was chiro/neurologist that specialized in autistic kids) I had been seeing the "poor" guy for 3 yrs twice week still for headaches the neurologist cured on 3rd visit with ultrasound to the muscles around my T2. Makes me want to move back to IN!! Thanks much!!)

ANSWER: Dear Shannon,

Thank you for your question. I抦 not absolutely certain there is a question posed in your message but it sounds as if you are frustrated with your current chiropractic experiences.  Your concerns are similar to those I have heard from others who are investigating chiropractic. Unfortunately, though, your expectations may be based on some misconceptions. In order to respond properly, I抣l first need to give you some background on the chiropractic profession.

There are two branches or schools of thought in chiropractic. Briefly, they are differentiated by whether they deal with the limited therapeutic approach for aches and pains (commonly termed "mixed" chiropractic because it represents a mixture of a chiropractor with a non-chiropractic matter) or a non-therapeutic approach to optimum body performance (termed "straight" chiropractic because there is no mixing of chiropractic with anything else). My expertise is in non-therapeutic straight chiropractic.

Therapeutic "mixed" chiropractic is the older approach based on a split from the founding principles of chiropractic about a century ago.

Non-therapeutic "straight" chiropractic is the more modern of the two. It deals with a particular, common situation called a vertebral subluxation. This is not the same as the findings mentioned in your question, but they may exist together. The spine is made of many bone segments which house and protect the spinal cord and the smaller spinal nerve branches that come off the spinal cord and exit between the bones. These nerve pathways carry information or messages between the brain and the cells of the body. These messages are essential for the life of the cells. Without brain messages, the cells immediately begin the process of dying; i.e., they can no longer function the way they should to maintain life.

Because the bones are moveable, they can misalign in such a way as to interfere with the messages and, ultimately, the ability of the person to function at their best or express their optimum potential. People with vertebral subluxations are not able to get all they can out of life.

Vertebral subluxations can be caused by a wide variety of factors, what we'll generally call stresses. These stresses can be physical (such as accidental trauma, sleeping posture and mattress condition, the birth process, sneezing, falling down, etc.), mental / emotional (in its many forms, probably the most familiar use of the word stress), or chemical (such as pollution, drugs, etc.), which are, unfortunately, regular parts of daily living for all age groups. In short, a vertebral subluxation can occur for a multitude of reasons.

Tragically, vertebral subluxations are rarely obvious to the individual they affect. They usually have no symptoms. You say in your message that you experience back pain. Unfortunately, when it comes to determining if there is a vertebral subluxation present, pain is not a valid or reliable measuring stick. You say in your message that you have been told or shown that you have hip tilt, for instance, and the chiropractor and others you抳e visited assumes that this explains why you have pain or other difficulties. Even if that were true, that is a question outside the realm of non-therapeutic straight chiropractic and, unfortunately, when it comes to determining if there is a vertebral subluxation present, pain is not even a valid or reliable measuring stick. The reason is that most of what goes on inside you happens without your awareness. As an example, try to "feel" your liver. What's it doing right now? You can't know, so you can't know if it's functioning at its best or something less. To complicate things, nerve pathways that carry messages of control (termed "motor" nerves) have no way of transmitting ache or pain messages, so your body function may be far from perfect and you'd not have any alerting signal whatsoever. The branching of the nerve pathways is complex and extensive, making it exceedingly difficult to predict or determine exactly how the person will be affected. In order to know if someone has a vertebral subluxation, it is necessary to have that person抯 spine checked by a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor using a method of "analysis." When a vertebral subluxation is detected this way, it is obviously important to correct it as soon as possible using a procedure known as 揳djustment.?br>
Since vertebral subluxations are caused by so many different things, people choose to go to a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor on a regular basis to enjoy the most time free of the life-robbing effects of vertebral subluxation. There's a saying that straight chiropractic is not about your back, it's not about your pain, it's about your life. Each person has a unique potential in life. With vertebral subluxation, it's impossible to realize that potential.

Now, that you have more information about the body and vertebral subluxation, how do you make use of it? Well, first understand that this is not an explanation of why you have the problems you list or whether any of them relate to vertebral subluxation. Are there reasons for what you抮e experiencing? Even though they may be beyond our ability to identify, yes, there are; but it is not relevant to the matter of whether you will benefit from being free of vertebral subluxations. Vertebral subluxation is, in and of itself, detrimental to your life. It is not valid or reliable to try to connect it to symptoms, such as the back pain you report, or any other organ or tissue conditions. A key question to ask for your purposes, then, would be, Is someone with pain or hip tilt better off with vertebral subluxation / nerve interference or free of subluxation / with the nerve channels open? It is easy to see that having all the available nerve messages getting through is better than only some of them getting through, regardless of the person's situation otherwise. It抯 not that you should see a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor FOR your back pain other symptoms ?you should visit one in an effort to be free of vertebral subluxations, even WITH those complaints. Non-therapeutic straight chiropractic is not about diagnosing and/or treating this or any other medical condition. It is entirely separate in its goal.

As I mentioned earlier, not all chiropractors adhere to this and it is important that you be able to distinguish which ones do if you're going to seek this type of service. It seems likely that the chiropractor you visited was offering therapeutic mixed chiropractic. You need to understand very clearly that the practice objectives of therapeutic mixed chiropractic and non-therapeutic straight chiropractic are quite different, as described above. What information I give you must not be interpreted from the mixed viewpoint.

It is likely, from your description, that the chiropractors you visited have been of the mixed viewpoint. I say this because, most significantly, apparently during the visits they were addressing your pain, primarily, and hip tilting, and other such findings.

You need to understand very clearly that the practice objectives of therapeutic mixed chiropractic and non-therapeutic straight chiropractic are quite different, as described above. What information I give you must not be interpreted from the mixed viewpoint. Non-therapeutic straight chiropractic is not about the treatment of pain at all ?whether by manipulation (as distinguished from adjustment which is solely for the purpose of allowing correction of vertebral subluxation). Attempts to connect vertebral subluxation to such complaints are not valid. The theories that are proposed to demonstrate the validity of spinal manipulation for ailment treatment certainly are topics of great debate and are clearly different from what would be proper non-therapeutic straight chiropractic procedures or principles. I will not comment, then, on the therapeutic goal of relieving your pain, changing hip tilt, or even whether it will be possible to do so.

Also, in discussing vertebral subluxation earlier in this message, I used the word misalignment. I am not talking here about tilted situations, however, and these are not interchangeable with the term vertebral subluxation. The misalignment that I address is that of a specific segment of the spine. Technically speaking, we have to get even a bit more advanced in what is meant by misalignment to make this clear. The question is, Misaligned with respect to what? It is possible to describe the body geometrically, reasoning that we are bilaterally symmetrical and concluding that there is a measurable 搈idline?or that our hips and shoulders should be 揵alanced?on a perpendicular line to this proposed 搈idline?or that the body can be presumed to take on a certain geometry in other planes as well. The problem with this thinking is that it assumes we are simply machines and ignores that we are alive, capable of movement, adaptation, growth, etc. At any given moment, there is an optimum state for us to carry out life to our best abilities. That optimum state will vary depending upon the circumstances, both within us and of our environment. There are many examples to illustrate this. If you carry something heavy with one hand, you must lean away from it, putting something of a curve into the spine, to keep yourself balanced. Does that mean the body is failing because there is imbalance or a curve, or is it instead being quite successful in adapting you to the situation? In another example, consider that those who argue for geometric balance or symmetry would be hard-pressed to explain why the carpenter who swings a 28-ounce hammer all day with his right arm only would have certain physical adaptations that favor his right side. Should the carpenter have some of the tissue removed from his arm, hand and back so that it is equal to that on the left? Or is he merely adapted to his circumstances? The point I抦 getting at is that there is an individually determined, innately normal position for the body that cannot be described by geometry.

From the non-therapeutic standpoint, then, an adjustment is not a process with the goal of curving or straightening a spine or untilting it. An adjustment may be effected by any of a number of techniques, but it is solely and uniquely for the correction of vertebral subluxations because they, in and of themselves, are detrimental to the expression of life.

If the service you seek is to be checked for vertebral subluxations and have them corrected, ultimately, you will have to weigh your confidence in the chiropractor抯 ability to effectively and safely effect the correction of those vertebral subluxations that are identified. I do not know enough about you to tell you that a particular approach is suitable to you and your particular vertebral subluxation(s) on any given day.  Historically, though, it appears you have visited therapeutic mixed chiropractic offices and seem to be seeking this in your new location.  

Certainly, as I said earlier, it would be wise to have your spine checked for vertebral subluxations by a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor, even if you still elect to have therapeutic attention for your other concerns or wish to continue with a therapeutic mixing chiropractor to do so. Remember, the two objectives are not the same. I can not tell you whether this or any individual chiropractor is right for you but, hopefully, you now have enough information at hand to make that decision with greater confidence.

If you are interested in finding out how to locate a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor in your area, please contact me at this site again or at [email protected].

Shannon, I wish you the best in sorting out your choices in chiropractic. It has been my pleasure to provide you with some information.

Sincerely,
James W. Healey, D.C.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Dr. Jim for a thoughtful extensive response. I'm sorry my question wasn't clear.

My chiro is Palmer grad but website doesn't say anything about the "type" of chiropractic care they practice. I   have been perfectly happy up until this last month and half that I have been in pain every night while I try to sleep. So I wonder if we went too far in trying to get me perfectly aligned.... The question was just that maybe we shouldn't have messed with my hips that have been rotated my whole life w/o any pain or issues. Now that we have - should we continue trying to "fix" them or help them back to where they were? (right hip is tilted forward and left hip is tilted back)  

Thanks again,

Shanon

Answer
Dear Shanon,

First, I apologize for misspelling your name in my initial response!   

The school from which a chiropractor graduated does not necessarily determine the type of chiropractic viewpoint they will embrace.  As I noted, the objective - the reason they do what they do in the office - is what distinguishes therapeutic mixed chiropractic from non-therapeutic straight chiropractic.  

In your current situation, the fact that the attention has been to your symptoms and forcing geometric relationships into the spine tells us that the objective is one of treatment; i.e., the therapeutic mixing objective.  I didn't say this was a bad thing, I just said it was very different from the non-therapeutic objective of effecting the correction of vertebral subluxations because they are, in and of themselves, detrimental to the life expression of the individual, whether symptomatic or not and whether the spine conforms to pre-determined geometric averages or norms.  

Your question about how much hip tilt or rotation or how much pain is acceptable or if it should be addressed is a therapeutic mixed chiropractic question.  It may actually be that this is the type of chiropractic you are seeking.  Since it is based on symptomatology, primarily, and you say you are feeling worse, it would be logical to conclude that this is not the approach that is right for you.  Still, this is not a question within my field of non-therapeutic straight chiropractic and, so, I will not offer to make a recommendation about your symptom care or spinal geometry.  

As I said in the initial response, it would be wise to be checked for vertebral subluxation by a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor even if you still wish to have therapeutic attention for your pain and hip geometric alignment. The two viewpoints do not substitute for one another and are not interchangable.  Right now, it seems you are visiting a chiropractic office for one goal only.  

Shanon, again, thank you for investigating chiropractic.  I wish you the best.

Happy holidays and may you have a wonderful 2013.


Sincerely,
James W.Healey, DC