Have your painful joints and muscles prevented you from completing daily tasks? Have they limited your ability to live a full life? A functional medicine approach to pain can correct root problems in ways you may not even realize. Like all things, knowledge is power. In this article, I aim to not only provide a deeper understanding of the cause of your problems but also tell you what you can do to get back the confidence that comes with a well-functioning body. This will require a different understanding of the injury you’re nursing – and unraveling injuries.
You may think of an injury as a physical accident. Maybe you fell off your bicycle, bumped your head, or sprained your ankle. While these are all excellent examples of an injury, have you ever considered that sitting in your chair, staying up too late, or eating sugary foods can create the same types of injuries? You should view unhealthy acts with the same caution as an ankle-twisting hole in the ground.
Muscle Function
The average person that visits my office initially has between 14-20 inhibited muscles, sometimes even more. Think of these muscles as being “switched off.” Muscles that are switched off cannot simply be exercised back on. These muscles have lost the capability to properly function, and exercising only compensates for their improper functioning.
So, what causes these muscles to be switched off? The main cause of muscle inhibition is stress on the nervous system. An example of this is seen in spraining your ankle. The muscles and fascia (myofascia) in that area become compressed (restricted). We call this a myofascial restriction. It not only affects the area that was injured but also your whole body. Your body adapts to this myofascial restriction, resulting in the nervous system turning other muscles off to protect the ankle. You may find that your stride is shorter as your nervous system recalibrates itself to the injury. This results in other muscles in your body being affected, such as your hips, back, or even your shoulders.
If all goes well, your body will eventually restore back to normal. However, if we add stress, inflammation, and oxidation issues, you are lucky to get back to 80%. If this is the case, then the compensations that were created can cause myofascial restrictions of their own. Eventually (sometimes years later), this can result in a chronic problem in the ankle, hip, or shoulder.
The Poor Health Injury
When any part of the body is out of homeostasis, nervous system stress occurs. In other words, when an organ or system is out of balance, it consequently affects the nervous system, often resulting in inhibited muscles.
Now, picture someone under a lot of stress: do they have relaxed shoulders and their head high, or do they have pinched shoulders up to their ears? There are obvious muscle imbalances that occur with high stress. Certain muscles turn off and drive your body into flexion. What I propose is that other stresses, such as blood sugar stress, oxidation stress, hormonal stress, and digestive stress, also create inhibited muscles and myofascial restrictions that accompany them. Eating sugar, working long hours, and staying up too late can create musculoskeletal imbalances. This is why you don’t eat a giant bowl of chili and then go for a run. It’s also why you may have a knee problem that doesn’t get better despite the best chiropractic, massage, and physical therapy in the world.
Just as there have been advances in traditional medicine, there have also been advances in the understanding of the interconnection of the body. Immune system stress can affect the muscles of the neck and shoulder. So, if you don’t address the underlying immune system issue, guess when that neck or shoulder is going to get better. The answer: it won’t, at least not to 100%.
These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Our body is so incredibly interconnected; every part affects the whole. This is why it’s worth it to take care of yourself. We may learn best from pain. Falling in a hole teaches you to watch for and avoid holes. Adapting your view of injury to include things besides trauma can open your eyes to the need to avoid all the pitfalls that can snare you. Let your joint pain motivate you to stay healthy.
Okay… But What Now?
Now, you must unravel all of your injuries and all the things that caused them. Some of these things you can do on your own, such as the health basics: limit your sugar intake, eat real food including fat, exercise in a way that provides lots of movement for every part of your body, get to bed early, etc. If you’ve had a problem for a few years or even a few months, you need to have it addressed at a very deep level. It’s never just an injury.
Inhibited muscles can create an abundance of issues in the body, including unstable joints, compensations, loss of range of motion, poor movement, and pain. These issues need to be addressed one by one in an organized manner. Manual therapy restores function to some muscles, but treatment is incomplete without investigating the condition of other systems in the body. The subtle connections between your overall health and your current or lingering health problems are key to discovering true health.
If you want to start unraveling your injuries, schedule an appointment or give us a call today!