Question
I was reading one of the articles regarding leg pains with regards to bad back.  It sounds like you know what your talking about.  I too am seeing a chiropractor and message therapist as I am experiencing back problems and leg pains.  I had an EMG recently and the found signals missing in the lower part of the legs.  The big question is can having nerve root damage in the lower part of the spine impede signals in the legs?

Answer
Dear Paul,

Thank you for your question.  Your question is similar to those I have heard from others who are investigating chiropractic.  It may be that you are referring to one of the responses I had written to another visitor to this site.  You would then have the benefit of some pertinent information in that it seems I may have dealt with your concerns therein.  In case that抯 not true, though, to give you the greatest benefit in answering, I抣l first need to give you some background on the chiropractic profession.  I will also address aspects of human anatomy and physiology and bring it all together.  

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 revealed by the complaints or findings of leg pain, bad backs or EMG disturbances mentioned in your question, though 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 being born, strenuous physical activity, sleeping posture and mattress condition, 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.  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.  For this reason alone, it is impossible for anyone to give you reliable answers as to what may cause such laints as  describe in your question or if these may be related to a vertebral subluxation.  Even if it were possible to guess at what may be causing them, however, it is not pertinent to the matter of whether you will benefit from being free of vertebral subluxations.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, EMG does not validly or reliably reveal vertebral subluxation.  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," relying on more appropriate and valid measures.  When a vertebral subluxation is detected this way, it is obviously important to correct it as soon as possible.

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.

A key question to ask for your purposes, then, would be, Is someone who has leg pains or 搈issing?EMG findings 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.  So, having one抯 spine checked for vertebral subluxation is tremendously important, but it抯 not for the purpose of dealing with the issues you mention.  In other words, non-therapeutic straight chiropractic can be of benefit to any spine-owner, but perhaps in ways that you may not have considered.  It抯 not that you should see a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor FOR these concerns ?you should visit one in an effort to be free of vertebral subluxations, even WITH such matters in your history.  

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.  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.  

You ask if nerve root damage in the lower spine can affect EMG signals.  First, understand that EMG is not a part of the non-therapeutic straight chiropractic procedures, so, though I have knowledge of its mechanisms, I do not claim to be an advisor on its use.  This question, taken at face value, may be better suited to an EMG specialist.  However, there is still something for you to take from this.  We simply have to recall that every aspect of human performance is determined by the successful transmission of brain messages.  Interfering with them at any level, including by way of misaligned spinal bones, whether it is at the nerve root or the spinal cord area, can potentially affect any and all functions!  In short, certainly, it is possible for there to be nerve interference along a pathway that ultimately winds up in the leg and all the functions of the cells which were intended to receive brain messages along them.  In fact, because many of the nerve pathways are quite long, extending like a wiring system between the brain and the various cells of the body, it is not necessary that the site of the interference be in the lower spine at all.  It抯 quite possible that there may be interference at the level of the very top bone of your neck, right below the skull, yet the 搕arget?cell is far down the line; it抯 just that the pathway doesn抰 exit the spine抯 bony tube-like covering yet in the neck.  There was a time, decades ago, when it was popular to try to 搕race?nerve pathways from organs or tissues back to the level of the spine where the root originated.  It was called the meric system, from the Greek word 搈ere,?meaning level or segment.  As people studied and understood more of the body, though, this system was easily shown to be flawed.  Unfortunately, we still see it used by some across a number of professional fields.  In summary, then, it is not necessary that nerve message be disturbed at a particular anatomical level of the spine ?it is the pathway that matters, no matter at what point along it is involved.  

All that said, it would certainly be wise to have your spine checked for subluxations by a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor, even if you still elect to have therapeutic attention for your reported concerns and/or symptoms.  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 directly at [email protected].  

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

Sincerely,
James W. Healey, D.C.