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By
Dr. Ben Lerner
During my first quarter of graduate school, I had to take a course
in medical terminology. As I found out early on, chiropractic school
was not much different than medical school. We had to learn to diagnose
and, interestingly enough, terminology was the key to diagnosis.
One of the first words we learned in that class was the term "-itis."
"Itis" is Latin for "inflammation of." Other
terminology included some words that probably sound familiar to
you:
- Arthro means joint.
- Stoma means stomach.
- Bursa is short for the fluid-filled sack in many joints.
- Fibro means muscle fiber.
- Mya means muscle
- Cepha means head.
- Tendons connect bones.
- Ligaments connects muscles to bones.
My classmates and I often laughed as we learned these words, because
we realized the vast majority of medical diagnoses weren't
actually "diagnoses" at all, but merely turning the name
into Latin or something fancy to impress our patients.
It's also done, not only to impress, but to make an impact
on the patient so they'll be satisfied they have a diagnosis.
So if you're told you have "arthr-itis," "tendon-itis,"
"burs-itis" or "stomat-itis," it means your
joint, tendon, bursa sack or stomach hurts. Doctors can then follow
medical protocol and write a prescription to give you drugs that
will hopefully ease the pain.
"Algia" is another interesting one that means pain. Therefore,
"Cephalgia" is a headache. The oft-used diagnosis, "Fibromyalgia,"
means muscle fiber pain.
There's one very serious problem with diagnosing: People feel
they have a "condition." Everyone knows, once you have
a "condition," you always have a "condition."
It's like old phones or luggage that used to last forever.
Well, the medical myth that "conditions" last forever
has gone the way of the rotary phone too.
Arthritis, tendonitis and fibromyalgia are not death sentences.
They're merely Latin terms, combined with fancy medical English
phraseologies, for pains doctors don't understand and conditions
for which they have no effective treatment. The key problem for
the conventional medicine when it comes to aches, pains and degenerative
issues like "arthr-itis": Most doctors are only diagnosing
and treating side effects, not the true cause of the problem.
While certain types of arthritis can be attributed to extreme genetic
weaknesses (there are more than 100 types of arthritis), the most
common form conventional medicine treats -- they refer to it
as "old age" arthritis -- is just a side effect. In reality,
this type of arthritis is called "osteo-arthritis" ("osteo"
means bone, so isn't that name hilarious!). When someone says
his or her right knee has arthritis because, "I'm old,"
here's how I typically respond: "Really, how old is the
other knee?" Properly functioning joints don't degenerate.
The Joint
Arthritis is an "inflamed joint." The joints are created
by ends of bones meeting. At this point, they are cushioned by cartilage.
The knee, hip, shoulder and other bigger joints have a fluid-filled
sac called a bursa ("burs-itis"). The inner lining of
the joint has a grease-like fluid called synovial fluid which reduces
friction and allows for freedom of movement. If the joint begins
to malfunction, this is often coupled by a loss of synovial fluid
that would aggravate the bones meeting in the joint.
When joints become arthritic, swelling causes stiffness, rigidity
and tissue damage. The body will warn you with pain if the joint
moves beyond its present limits. It's a vicious cycle because,
as mobility decreases, the muscles surrounding the joint also weaken
and deteriorate, allowing for further damage to the joint. Eventually,
you can have cartilage, ligament and tendon damage, as well as further
bone erosion.
If these joints are functioning normally and well cared for, however,
they just don't "itis."
I had an 82-year-old patient who had perfect vertebra, joints and
discs in every part of his spine except for the second vertebrae.
Miraculously, he had never had a single trauma his whole life, except
one.
Because it had only been one, he remembered exactly where, when
and how it happened. When he was 12-years-old, he had fallen off
a chair and into an open door. He pointed and showed me the exact
point of impact. You can guess where he pointed: To the second vertebra
in his neck.
Degenerative Arthritis: Their Prevention
and Cures
The good news about degenerative arthritis: Outside of an extreme
genetic circumstance, it can be avoided and even reversed. Common
medical wisdom is that if you have arthritis, essentially you're
doomed. This could not be farther from the truth. The body does
heal.
Arthritis is due to a physical or chemical irritant in a joint
or the system. If the cause of this irritation is avoided, removed
or corrected, your body has a chance to heal. There are endless
stories of athletes and people who assumed their physical lives
were over, only to reverse the effects of arthritis through a change
in lifestyle or help from a chiropractor and go on to become champions.
So where do the problems begin?
Diet: The majority of carbohydrates, particularly refined
carbohydrates can aggravate and even cause degeneration. Excess
acids in the system do exactly what they sound like they do: They
deteriorate and damage cells. Additionally, the body's survival
mechanism will attempt to neutralize these acids. (Calcium from
bone is an exemplary acid neutralizer.)
Therefore, as you consume sugar, flours, grains and other refined
carbohydrates, your blood stream ends up in acid overload and you
actually give yourself degenerative arthritis. Dairy and caffeine
are two additional major acid culprits. I believe
Total Health Program, particularly following his plan to personalize
it to your own body, is a great solution to avoiding and even reversing
some of the damaging effects of diet-induced arthritis.
Furthermore, as Dr. Mercola emphasizes, fats play a major role
in the inflammatory process. Excess omega-6 and omega-9 fats will
add fuel to the fire of arthritis while taking a
high quality fish oil helps to quench "the fire."
Because your level of hydration is also a major factor, water also
puts out the fire of arthritis. Walking around on dry joints is
just as deadly as it sounds.
Alignment and Balance: Think of the tires on your car. When
they're misaligned, they wear unevenly. The musculoskeletal
system operates the same way.
1. Muscular imbalance: The vast majority of people in today's
culture have muscular imbalance. This occurs when the anterior muscles
are tighter or stronger on one side of the body than they are on
the other. This can happen when muscles in the back are tighter
or stronger than those in the front or if the difference has to
do with the right and the left. Most people have a combination of
both.
This dysfunction can occur by sitting at a computer in such a way
the shoulders are rolled forward, causing a tightening in the front
of the neck, shoulders, chest, hamstrings and calves and a weakening
of the rear shoulder, back, abdominal and leg muscles. This incredibly
popular imbalance can create a host of degenerative conditions in
the neck, back, knees and shoulders.
This also commonly occurs due to "handedness" or old
injuries that have gone un-rehabilitated.
2. Postural Imbalance: If you stand in front of a mirror, close
your eyes and march up and down, you will eliminate your righting
reflex and see your true posture. When you open your eyes, you may
be surprised at what you see.
Look at your hips and shoulders. Is one side higher
than the other? Is one side rotated in front of the other? Are they
more forward than backward?
Look at your head. Do you have "forward head syndrome,"
in which your chin is jutted out over your chest? Is your head rotated
one direction more than the other or bent sideways to the left or
to the right?
If you found postural imbalance, certain areas of your spine, hips,
knees, ankles and feet are bearing more weight than others. These
stress areas are going to break down very quickly compared to other
areas of your body. For example, if your right hip is rotated forward
and that hip is lower than the other, you are putting tremendous
strain on the inside of the right knee, foot and ankle as well as
certain areas of the lower spine. Therefore, you are very likely
to have trouble or "arthritis" in those joints.
3. Joint misalignment: If the joints of the spine and extremities
(arms, hands, legs and feet) are traumatized or overused in some
way, they can get out of proper position. Again, using the tire
metaphor, the points of imbalance will get overused and there will
be wear and tear on the joints and discs.
Treatment of Muscle Imbalance, Posture and Joint Misalignment
The most common and disastrous treatment of these conditions I've
described is medication. Medication masks the problem allowing you
to go on causing massive further damage. Pain is not a warning to
be ignored. Doing so is how people end up "old," in wheelchairs
and on operating tables.
Structurally, the only person you can go to is a chiropractor.
The job of a chiropractor is to balance posture and correct misalignment
in the spine and other joints. See chiropractors who use posture
and X-rays as two of the primary ways of determining treatment.
These doctors should also be focused on correcting normal spinal
curves.
Chiropractic rehabilitative exercises are actually designed to
cause "regeneration," the reversal of arthritis and rehydration
of discs. The "wobble" chair and standing cervical traction
are the two greatest exercises I've seen to reverse the aging
of joints.
Muscular imbalances can be detected by chiropractors as well as
personal exercise trainers. I recommend seeing a professional who
has been trained to identify and correct these conditions. To put
it simply, stretching the weak side and strengthening the strong
side is necessary here. The exercise and stretching program must
be imbalanced to suit your imbalance.
Arthritis is not a terminal disease. If that's what you've
been told, fire your doctor.
Dr.
Ben Lerner, along with Dr. Greg Loman, owns Teach The World
About Chiropractic, a Chiropractic training company. They have
helped build the largest spinal correction clinics in the history
of Chiropractic.
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