Question
Dear Doc,

I'm a 19 years old male athlete. when I was in high school wrestling team i injured my back.I'm not exactly sure if it happened in wrestling or somewhere else. all i know is that it happend during my first 2 years in wrestling. after the injury I was feeling just a little pain only on one side of my spine for about 4 month I believe. the right side of my lumbar area only. the only time it hurts is when i bent my back backwards slightly to the right while pushing my abdominal to the front like an "S" shape. the pain does not get worse if I bent my back more or less. The pain was gone for about one year. Now just about a week ago, when i started working out agian the problem re-appeared. as I mentioned the pain is not bad, its enough to bother you. This is how i describe the pain. It feels like two bones make a contact and slightly scrach each other. thats the kind of feeling i get. The pain also feels like when you touch a 6 days old bruise on your bone or knee. As long as i remember i always enjoyed sports. I'm very intrested in martial arts and i've done some arts for a period of time quite long ago.

I believe my performance is limited now and i really want to get rid of this problem for ever. i want to know if its something dangerous or serious. please, any advise will be appreciated.

thank you very much
MA  

Answer
Dear Mortaz,

Thank you for your question.  Yours is a question similar to those I have heard from others who are investigating chiropractic.  Unfortunately, though, it is based on some misconceptions.  In order to answer it properly, I'll 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.  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 sports, as you described, 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, 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.  Perhaps of more use to you, the branching of the nerve pathways is quite 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 your back pain or if it may be related to a vertebral subluxation.  At best, such a conclusion would be no more than a guess.  You ask if I know whether your situation indicates something dangerous.  No, I do not know.  As explained above, it is impossible to tell you if the pain you have is due to vertebral subluxations.  A vertebral subluxation is certainly a serious matter, but it is not revealed by pain.

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.

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 would be, Is someone who has pain in their back and wishes to have peak performance in their physical activities 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.  Non-therapeutic straight chiropractic can be of benefit to you, but perhaps in ways that you may not have considered.  It's not intended as a treatment for a wrestling injury or back symptoms, whatever may be their cause, but is a benefit even if a person simply wishes to get the best out of their wrestling or martial arts or healing potentials or any other aspect of their many gifts of life performance.  It's not that you should see a non-therapeutic straight chiropractor FOR your symptoms ?you should visit one in an effort to be free of vertebral subluxations, even WITH such complaints.  Non-therapeutic straight chiropractic is not about diagnosing and/or treating the symptoms you described 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.  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 back pain.  Remember, the two objectives are not the same.  

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.

Mortaz, I wish you the best in understanding what chiropractic has to offer.  It has been my pleasure to provide you with some information.

Sincerely,
James W. Healey, D.C.