Question
Hi
I am a chiropractic student, and for an assignment i have to do, i need to know what causes muscle spasms in quadriplegics in their legs, if a subluxation is part of the cause, and if regular chiropractic care can help to reduce their muscle spasms
thanks

Answer
Dear Tim,

Thank you for your question.  In order to answer it properly and since I do not know anything specific of your chiropractic knowledge or background other than the nature of your assignment, I抣l first need to give you some fundamental information for us to agree upon from anatomy and physiology and how they relate to the chiropractic profession.  If this is somewhat of a review for you, my apologies, but I would rather be redundant than make an assumption that keeps us from reaching clear understandings.

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 at all the same as the matter of muscle spasms or quadriplegia 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, whatever that may be.  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 exercise routines, sleeping posture and mattress condition, the birth process, sneezing, falling down, etc., perhaps even a lifting incident), mental / emotional (in its many forms, probably the most familiar use of the word stress), or chemical (such as pollution, drugs, perhaps even alcohol, etc.), which are, unfortunately, typically uncontrollable and 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.  The reason is that most of what goes on inside you happens without your awareness.  For example, try specifically to "feel" your liver.  Try to be aware of exactly what it抯 doing right now.  You can't, 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.  For this reason alone, it is impossible for anyone to give you reliable answers as to a connection between the spine and specific symptoms of any kind, including muscle spasms.  Certainly, every part of the body must have connections to the nerve system so that vital information may be transmitted between the brain and the cells.  There are some who would attempt to review the possible nerve connections between a nerve root and specific organs or tissues ?seemingly what your assignment is asking - but this ignores the multitude of variables that determine the expression of function.  The question of how an individual body carries out the myriad of activities just to maintain life is enormous and would require your Creator抯 (or creator抯, for the agnostic) knowledge, or at least far more than our educated knowledge of the complexities of life.

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 a quadriplegic may have muscle spasms or whether they are related to vertebral subluxation.  Are there reasons for what that person is experiencing?  Even though they may be beyond our ability to identify, yes, there are; but pinning them down is not relevant to the matter of whether they will benefit from being free of vertebral subluxations.  Vertebral subluxation is, in and of itself, detrimental to life.  It is not valid or reliable to try to connect it to spasms or any other organ or tissue conditions.  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.  The term for this procedure is 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 pain, it's about your life.  Each person has a unique potential in life.  With vertebral subluxation, it's impossible to realize that potential!

A key question to ask, then, would be, Is someone with quadriplegia and muscle spasms 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 a quadriplegic (or any spine-owner, for that matter) should see a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor FOR their spasms ?they should visit one in an effort to be free of vertebral subluxations, even WITH them.  Non-therapeutic straight chiropractic is not about diagnosing and/or treating muscle spasms or any therapeutic-model or medical condition.  It is entirely separate in its goal.  Muscle spasms may even occur near the spine, but they are not the reason for attending to the vertebral subluxations.  I cannot offer you a direct non-therapeutic answer to the matter of treating muscle spasms or the consequences of not treating them.  

That said, it would, indeed, be wise to have one抯 spine checked by a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor - even if that person still elects to have therapeutic attention or advice for treating spasms.  It抯 the only way to know if vertebral subluxations are present and interfering with a person抯 potential.  

As I mentioned earlier, not all chiropractors adhere to this viewpoint and neither do the chiropractic colleges or courses.  It is clear that the subject matter you are currently studying is of the mixed therapeutic viewpoint.  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 I can tell you must not be interpreted from the mixed viewpoint.  

If you are interested in finding out how to locate a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor in your area to discuss this with further or if you would like to follow-up with me on this, please contact me at this site again or at [email protected].

Tim, I wish you the best in understanding what non-therapeutic straight chiropractic is.  It has been my pleasure to provide you with some information.

Sincerely,
James W. Healey, D.C.