Like many of you, I spent a chunk of my weekend trying to clean up the damage from the crazy wind storm on Friday night. As I laboured with my chain saw in the middle of the storm, and nearly had the top half of a tree fall on me as I attempted to cut it at the bottom, several thoughts struck me.
Firstly, I thought: “Go inside dummy!”
Then as I looked closely at the tops of the trees I realized that our spines are very similar in nature.
Have you ever looked closely at a tall tree on a very windy day?
As the top of the tree starts to bend, it’s the base of the tree that must withstand the largest amount of force.
In the most extreme cases, the tree could crack or even break! (As I found out first hand!)
It seems logical that syndromes like sciatica are caused by primary problems in the area of pain…many time that couldn’t be further from reality.
A 2010 study demonstrated that the more anterior (forward) the spine becomes, the worse the lower spine tolerates those stresses.
If you’ve ever wondered why our method of spinal correction places emphasis on the alignment and stacking of the spinal curvatures as a primary method for analyzing the spine….this is it.
It may seem confusing to some of you with low back pain that we continue to focus a lot of attention on the upper neck alignment and mechanics. The example of the tree on a windy day is a great illustration. If you have forward head posture, there will continue to be increased stress on your lower spine and you will likely suffer recurrent bouts of low back pain until the upper neck structure is corrected.
Whether you have sciatica, digestive issues, sleep, energy, and immune system challenges or even no known condition, if Neuro-Structural testing demonstrates a problem…it’s a problem, and it’s likely affecting you in ways contributing to your condition and a bunch of ways you won’t even know about.
Now you know :)
Have a great day!
- Dr. Craig Dingman
PS. Our upcoming Eat By Design workshop is less than a week away – it takes place next Tuesday, May 15th at 6:30pm! If you are interested in learning about how to make healthy eating simple and understandable for you AND your family, then register by clicking here or by chatting with Karen the next time you are in.