Day 9

Today I met with Justin Bryant, an intern in NUHS' student clinic. We did a physical and discussed some of my lingering aches as well as goals for continued health. Something most people don't know is how much you can benefit from seeing a good doctor when you go in without pain, hoping to hold onto continued health. My aches over my right hip have been constant for years, but so subtle that it has never bothered me. Although my right toe aches a bit, it hasen't acted up lately, so I never saw fit to go get it checked out before today.

After my physical and some orthopedic tests, Justin determined that my hip pain was primarily do to something called "Maigne's Syndrome". "Maigne's Syndrome" is actually a result of an immobile or inflamed thoracolumbar joint (T11-L2) which results in refereed pain/discomfort to the dermatomes associated with these root levels (iliac crest, buttocks, skin of the groin). You can read more about Maigne's Syndrome at the following link: Maigne's Syndrome and see dermatomes here: Dermatome Map. Justin manipulated my TL junction and all of the numbness and discomfort in my hip went away immediately! For years I have been stretching, and massaging my right hip with no improvement, and one properly placed manipulation does the trick! Justin explained to me that this is just the start of treatment and that one adjustment can't undo years of immobility. So we made a full rehab plan that included adjustments, stretches, stabilization exercises, and re patterning the way I breathe and sit.

At the end of this first visit, Justin also worked to provide more mobility in the rigid parts of my foot and applied some soft tissue techniques to reduce the tenderness and inflammation in my great toe. So why do we want to give mobility to a rigid foot? When applying Newton's 3ed law, it is easy to see that every time the foot strikes the ground with say, 200 lbs of force, the ground in turn is hitting the foot with 200 lbs of force! Each foot strikes the ground between 10 and 15 thousand times a day, absorbing the equivalent of 639 metric tons of force. Applying physics further, this is 110% of your body weight passing through you at 200 mph every single time you take a step! If your foot is not mobile and is unable to transfer this force through the kinematic chain, then something else has to compensate and take the brunt of the force. So even if I am not experiencing pain now, this repeated force could eventually trash my foot and and strain my hip and low back. Issues with the foot are now even proving to affect the human body all the way up to the atlanto-occipital complex.