Question
I am 51 yrs old and am very active. I also have scoliois which was detected as a teen, wore a brace for a year (which did not help) and have NEVER had any problems with my back. A yr ago I started having arm pain. Was put on some pain meds and sent for physical therapy.  The therapy helped me tremendously until they started messing with my neck. I started having severe headaches and neck pain and quit the therapy. I then was referred to a chiropractic.  He started cracking my neck which relieved my headaches. But as he continued I started having more pain in many other places.  I told him that but he said things would improve. It kept getting worse. He told me to get an orthepedic pillow and get a regular bed (I had a waterbed for 15 yrs). After about 17 treatments I was much worse. The dr. finally admitted that he was working against the grain of things. But still wanted me to continue to come. I did not go back. I am having pain all over my body. I can not sleep. I now have backaches. I get sick to my stomach because of the pain.  What has happened? I feel like consulting a lawyer now. I am crying right now because I do not know who or what to do. Can you give me some insight on what has happened?  

Answer
Dear Debby Smith,

Thank you for your question about your unsatisfactory experiences thus far.  First, though, I wish to apologize for not getting a response to you sooner.  I was away from my office when this message was posted.  Quite unexpectedly, my travels were affected by hurricane Alberto and I did not get your question until today.  In order to answer it 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 finding you mention in 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 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 sports, exercise routines, 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.

You report that you were motivated to visit a chiropractor by headaches and neck pain.  
Tragically, however, 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 a connection between the spine and specific symptoms of any kind, including headaches or neck pain.  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.? You describe a process of 揷racking?your neck, which is clearly not the same as an adjustment.  The reason I say this is because the office you visited seems to have been addressing your symptoms, not vertebral subluxations.  Adjustment and vertebral subluxation, as we抳e addressed them here, are terms of art specifically within non-therapeutic straight chiropractic.  The more appropriate term for what was done might probably be 搈anipulation,?which is a movement of a joint, through its range of motion and beyond, with the goal, for example, of reducing tingling, increasing motion, reducing pain, modifying to average, etc., in short, any number of therapeutic goals.  As we saw above, vertebral subluxation is not reliably able to be linked to specific symptoms or complaints.  

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 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.  It is likely, from the limited information you provided, that the chiropractor you had visited is of the therapeutic mixed viewpoint.  It is quite understandable, then, why he would rely on therapeutically intended procedures, such as manipulation and evaluations of pain, etc.  

I cannot comment on the use of these things.  Remember, the two types of chiropractic objectives are not the same.  The non-therpaeutic straight chiropractor will use methods of analysis, as I mentioned, to determine whether you have any vertebral subluxations, and effect necessary adjustments.  Therapeutic modalities are not within the realm of appropriate non-therapeutic straight chiropractic.  

Incidentally, 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, whether that is with a therapeutic mixing chiropractor or some other provider to do so.  

As far as answering what may have happened, you can see that this is not a non-therapeutic straight chiropractic matter, however, you state that the chiropractor you visited acknowledged that he was 搘orking against the grain,?whatever that may mean.  Perhaps it would be useful to ask him what happened or what he meant by that description.   Whether you should seek the services of an attorney for this or anything related to this situation is completely outside my area of expertise.  

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.

Debby, 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.