Question
Hello Doctor Healey,
I am trying to gain information about chiropractics. Actually, I am trying to find help for my wife. She suffers from chronic back pain. She has been to see many doctors. Nothing is helping. We live in Italy and are under statal health care. However, I am american, she is italian. I recommended to her to try an american chiropractor who lives here also. She has been to see the chiropratic doctor 3 times, so far. My wife is progressively getting worse (in the course of 3 weeks)...we believe that we should quit this care.
From what I understand of her problems, given the limits of my italian language comprehension, is that she is missing one lower bone in her spine...which has actually fused to her hip bone sometime when she was growing before birth. Then, she may suffer from some sort of spiny bone growth that may be affecting her nerves around the upper spine causing pain and uncomfort. When I say "uncomfort" this is mild pain that can be controlled with aspirin. The other pain is unbearable and we can find no type of pain medication or relief for her. No doctors will prescribe a stronger type of medicine to get her through the crisis...
Needless to say, this problem has controlled our lives--We are looking to control the problem or be done with it.
Reading these sypmtoms...do you think that we should continue with the chiropractor or can you recommend another class of doctors, such as orthopedics, who can be more helpful in this situation and who might have a better course of treatment?

Thank you for your time.
Gilbert & Cristina
Monza, Italy

Answer
Dear Gilbert and Cristina,

Thank you for your question about Cristina's chronic back pain and current experiences with a chiropractor.  In order to answer it properly, I'll first need to give you some background on anatomy and physiology and how they relate to the chiropractic profession.  I'll then offer my thoughts on how this may relate to the situation you describe.  

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 you mention, 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 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.

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 a connection between the spine and specific symptoms of any kind, including backaches, despite the location of the spine in the back.  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's (or creator's, 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 Cristina has backaches or whether they are related to vertebral subluxation.  Are there reasons for what Cristina 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 she would 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 backaches or any other organ or tissue conditions.  In order to know if someone has a vertebral subluxation, it is necessary to have that person's 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 for your purposes, then, would be, Is someone with the symptoms you report 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's not that you should see a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor FOR backaches ?you should visit one in an effort to be free of vertebral subluxations, even WITH those symptoms.  Non-therapeutic straight chiropractic is not about diagnosing and/or treating these complaints or any therapeutic-model or 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.  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 and base his opinions on such information as you provided here.  

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, whether that is with an orthopedist or if you wish to continue with a therapeutic mixing chiropractor to do so.  Only you can know whether the type of doctor you choose for relief is actually providing it and in a way that you accept.  I cannot comment on the need for therapeutic measures or on which type of doctor would be best suited for this.  Remember, the two 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.  

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.

Gilbert and Cristina, 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.

Buona fortuna!  (I hope that's correct!)


Sincerely,
James W. Healey, D.C.