Question
Hi,

Do you read MRI results?

I've been having a lot of pain but the Doctors don't seem to think the MRI showed it being bad enough.
The way it feels, it seems like it should be real bad!

Thank you
Terry

Answer
Dear Terry,

Thank you for your question, though it seems you would like more than a simple yes or no about whether I read MRI results.  

In order to answer 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 MRI findings or particulr symptoms or pain, as I get from your question, though they may exist together with vertebral subluxations.  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, or subluxate, 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 or stretching routines, perhaps, or sports, in general, but also such things as 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, food additives, etc.), which are, unfortunately, 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 whatsoever.  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 a connection between the spine and specific symptoms of any kind, including the ones you describe.  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, but this ignores the multitude of variables that determine the expression of function.  The question of how your 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.

The only way to know if someone has a vertebral subluxation is 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.? 

Notably, 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.

As you can see, in my field, pain / evaluation of pain is not the focus.  In fact, it is well-known that symptoms are poor indicators of whether someone is operating at peak potential.  Consider that something like heart failure often develops silently.  If we were to judge the seriousness of something by the severity of symptom it caused, paper cuts would surely always be fatal!  Added to that is that there are people who exhibit unusual findings on MRI that have no symptoms whatsoever!  

Terry, this is not to say that your concerns are unimportant.  Attempting to make a diagnosis is a difficult task.  Attempting it from one finding alone, whether MRI or anything else, generally lessens the chances of it being correct.  

A key question to ask, however, would be, Is someone with your particular symptoms 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 your spine checked for vertebral subluxation will be of tremendous value, but it抯 not for the purpose of dealing with symptoms.  It抯 about something much larger.  In other words, non-therapeutic straight chiropractic can be of benefit to you (or any spine-owner, for that matter), but perhaps in ways that you may not have considered.  It抯 not that you should visit a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor FOR particular symptoms ?you should visit one in an effort to be free of vertebral subluxations, even WITH such things.  Non-therapeutic straight chiropractic is not about diagnosing and/or treating symptoms or any therapeutic-model or medical condition.  It is entirely separate in its goal.  

That said, it would 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 therapeutic concerns with another provider.  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].  You may also visit www.gschiro.com, a site that represents non-therapeutic straight chiropractic organizations on a state level.

Terry, 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, DC