The human body is a highly effective and efficient "machine" that is designed to self-adjust to many environmental or internal changes. One of the most remarkable systems of our body is our Musculo-Skeletal system, which enables us to move our body to interact with the environment and to carry out all our daily activities. The Musculo-Skeletal system is constituted of muscles, bones, tendons, ligaments and fascia.
Our Musculo-Skeletal system is particularly designed to adapt to any mechanical changes or needs, under the control of the nervous system. The specific field of study that deciphers how this system works is called Bio-mechanics.
Our natural body mechanics is far superior to any man-made mechanics, and virtually every body part is connected through one entire kinematic chain.
In this kinematic chain, mechanical change or disturbance of any body part, either as a result of injury, pain avoidance, postural adaptation to specific environment, or postural distortion due to shear fatigue, will result in change of the ENTIRE chain to absorb, accommodate, compensate and adapt to that specific disturbance.
For example, normal walking requires coordinated movement of our entire body. The hips, pelvis, legs initiate the movement with the aid of gravity, followed by movement of trunk of the body and arm-swings.
When the movement between the hips and the trunk is not coordinated due to pain, fatigue, or muscle tightness, the transfer of force from the legs and thighs to the back will not be completed, hence the body will not move in unison. This would require additional effort of the back muscles, hip, knee, or even shoulders to generate the needed momentum for each step to take place.
Once the small fault is accumulated to critical mass over time, back pain, hip pain, knee pain or shoulder problems could occur, seemingly from nowhere.
Now you see that any disturbance in the kinematic chain due to pain, injury or simple habit will result in adaptation of the entire chain to accommodate and absorb the change.
Once the disturbance lasts long enough, the entire accommodation and compensation pattern of the chain becomes wired in, and even when the pain is gone and injury is completely healed, the pattern is formed like a stubborn memory, and this new pattern of your kinematic chain will go on with this new "look", as if reminding you not to forget what happened in the past.
Interestingly enough, this type of mechanical muscle memories has a striking similarity to another type of muscle memories - emotional muscle memories , and these muscle memories are what allow each of us to have our unique patterns of the kinematic chain, depending on what happened in the past.
These unique, fingerprint-like patterns serve as a track record of our journeys, but their stubborn presence also keep us stuck at where we are, mechanically or emotionally, depending on the angle of viewing.
With this in mind, now you can understand why the way that we walk can affect our neck and head as well as our elbows and hands, and why a good bio-mechanical diagnosis requires careful examination of the entire body. Such a well designed body would not lower its self-esteem by screaming "pain" each time something goes wrong with any body part.
The body usually uses the powerful and highly flexible and adaptive kinematic chain to self-correct the problem, and when the self-correction gives way over time, it will come up with next make-up strategy, and then next,… until it finally exhaust its ability to compensate for the integrity of the entire chain. Then finally our body screams for help in the form of pain.
But by now, the body has already gone through a cascade of compensatory changes throughout the kinematic chain. Therefore, the point of pain is already so far from the original point, that unless you are really familiar with the bio-mechanics of the body, it will be quite a puzzle to figure out where the problem started. This in turn doubles the difficulty to find and permanently fix the problem.
This is exactly the weakness with many conventional treatments and therapies, which usually fail to correct the root of the problem, because they only focus on the location of the "pain" - the end of the cascade, instead of searching and finding the source.
In short, pain and dysfunction can occur in any joint, in any muscle, tendon, ligament or fascia, and the directly affected structure with pain definitely should and could be treated to reduce the pain. However, what is more important is to correct the root of the problem - to discover where the dysfunction started - so the chain reaction can be stopped, and so is the wearing and tearing. This will finally allow the affected structure a chance to recover.
At ActionChiropractic & Wellness Center, we specialize in bio-mechanical diagnosis of the entire body as a whole kinematic chain. In addition, our highly trained and experienced doctors specialize in Active Release Technique (A.R.T.), one of the most comprehensive and sophisticated soft tissue treatment systems.
With the razor sharp bio-mechanical skills to detect the source of your problem, and to address the exact problem with the powerful A.R.T. system, we are here to make the difference in putting an end to your suffering.
Contact us today for San Diego chiropractic treatment information. (858) 481-1438
Dr. Dawn Liu, Ph.D., D.C., L.Ac
David Snyder, L.Ac., C.Ht ActionChiropractic & Wellness
312 S. Cedros Ave, Ste 326 Solana Beach, CA 92075
(Just north of SanDiego)
San Diego Chiropractic services for the areas of Cardiff, Rancho Santa Fe, Encinitas, Del Mar, Solana Beach and greater San Diego
Acupuncture, Chinese medicine, herbs, Oriental medicine, chiropractic treatment for physical problems
and more
Call: (858) 481-1438
Our natural body mechanics is far superior to any man-made mechanics, and virtually every body part is connected through one entire kinematic chain.
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