Some people would call it a ‘slipped disc.’  Joe knew better.  Discs don’t ‘slip.’

But he knew that even with the pain shooting down his leg, he wasn’t going back to surgery again.  The MRI showed that the disc in his low back that was operated on once before was bulging – again.  He was determined to find a way to get stronger, even though he was staring at the image above on the left – with a bulging fourth lumbar disc herniation creating pressure on his sciatic nerve.

Joe, you see, performs MRI examinations as his profession.  But this time, he was the patient.  After watching countless streams of people seeking information, and more importantly, seeking help, he was determined to find a better way and to get his body back.  As a professional performing MRI examinations every day, he will tell you that he sees a very specific pattern with the disc cases at his work. And the pattern that he sees is the same faces showing up at his facility over and over again, still in pain.  Before surgery.  After surgery.  And then again before the next surgery.

He did not want to be one of these people.

But he was afraid that is where he was headed, a lifetime of chronic pain and dysfunction.  He had been through this leg pain and weakness before his first surgery.  And now it was back.  So bad that he was struggling to help take care of his two year old daughter.

So on the recommendation of a friend, he sought chiropractic care.  Reluctantly.  He had heard that chiropractic care was not the right choice for him with his disc herniation.  But he was determined to get better and wanted to learn how chiropractic could help him.  He made the decision to truly give it everything that he had and follow every recommendation he was given by his chiropractor to give himself the best shot.

And to his surprise, he got his life back following a consistent series of chiropractic adjustments.  So he was not surprised when he decided to check himself again after he was fully functional. Then, he was looking at the picture on the right, with no disc herniation.  And to a trained eye, the difference is striking.  However, anyone can look at Joe and see he is now a stronger, healthier man and father.

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The demand he created for chiropractic care was created in large part by the findings he had made regarding the spine and the role of trauma and how it affected not only the function of the spine but also overall health and healing.  Even Grey’s Anatomy changed their texts to reflect the nature of the motion of the pelvis found by Dr. Gonstead.

But there was this obscure piece of research – orthopedic research, actually – that verified many claims made by Dr. Gonstead about the spine were not only correct, but in fact well ahead of his time.

This is what that piece of research had to say – after trauma, there was regularly found “a very interesting combination of a hypermobile vertebra in the anterior direction proximal to a fixed segment.”1

What Does That Mean?

It means that injury causes more than simply stretched and strained tissue.  Not only were soft tissues of the joint damaged causing excessive joint motion, but after trauma there was commonly a joint that was not moving properly that had decreased motion in the same area of the spine!  So ligament damage and laxity was worsened and proper healing was lost when there was a joint that had lost it’s healthy range of motion – when a joint was “stuck.”

Dr. Gonstead recognized this and saw that the key to healing after a trauma was to correct the “stuck,” or hypomobile, joint.  Once this “stuck” joint began moving freely again, it took the stress off of the stretched, stressed and damaged tissue, allowing it to finally start the healing process.  It turns out that the great results Dr. Gonstead had with patients, and chiropractors have had for decades, had a reason after all!

To see more in-depth descriptions of how this process works, see “The Textbook of Clinical Chiropractic” edited by Dr. Gregory Plaugher. Check out figure 7.17, C and D, for an excellent example.  That is in chapter 7, on page 203 of the first edition.

And it turns out, that this important but obscure research also had another groundbreaking piece of information – that proper healing took six months to achieve.  Turns out much later research confirmed this finding, that damaged tissue is still remodeling up to two years after injury!  So proper motion through this period is critical for you to regain as much strength to the damaged area as possible, before it is permanently weakened after injury.

So after a trauma, it is an important step on your road to recovery to have your spine checked by a chiropractor to ensure proper motion and recovery.  If you want to locate a Gonstead chiropractor, see the referral directory maintained by the Gonstead Clinical Studies Society – a non-profit dedicated to researching the work of Dr. Gonstead.

1. Study of the Cervical Syndrome.  Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research. January-February 1965, No. 38, pp. 135-142