When I was in elementary school we had a huge Great Dane. Really big, especially compared to me. His name was Mr. President. We just called him Mr. When I was in 5th grade Mr. ran over
me and I broke my arm down near my wrist.
I was put in a cast that covered my entire arm. I thought it was pretty cool.
Weeks later when I finally got my cast off I was surprised
to find that I couldn’t move my elbow.
It was a week or so before I could move it freely. I guess what surprised me about it the most
is that I hadn’t injured my elbow at all.
I figured my wrist would be stiff (it was), but why my elbow?
What I know now, but didn’t understand back in 1977, is that
joints need to move. In fact, when a
joint is not moving freely it will begin to degenerate pretty quickly. This is called immobilization degeneration. Which is pretty much what it sounds
like: once a joint is not moving the
degeneration begins. Research shows
cellular changes begin within days and the changes continue until there are
irreversible changes to the bone and soft tissue.
What does this have to do with you? …or with
chiropractic? Everything. Just like loss of motion in my 5th
grade elbow caused the degeneration process to start, lack of proper motion in
your spinal joints will cause degeneration of your spine.
Does it hurt?
Sometimes. But, most of the time
in the beginning it doesn’t hurt. My
elbow never hurt. Now, if my elbow had
been immobilized long enough it definitely would have started hurting and may
have developed some irreversible degeneration.
But, it was only in a cast for a few weeks and after that I slowly got
it moving again. So, there was no permanent
problems.
Same thing with your spine, the best way to keep it healthy
is to get it adjusted at least once a month to keep the joints moving BEFORE it
starts hurting and BEFORE it has time to have permanent degeneration.
Even if you feel fine, chiropractic check-ups once or twice
a month is the way to go!
Ken Hicks, D.C
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