Blood supply is terribly important for every cell of the
body. When I say that, most people would
say “Duh.” But really think about
that. When blood vessels supplying the
heart muscle become clogged and the heart muscle is starved of blood, we call
that condition a “heart attack.” When
blood flow to the brain is restricted, that leads to a stroke. Blood loss to the limbs; you can guess is not
good. There are several problems when
blood is subtracted from the tissues of the body.
Let’s think about the condition of arthritis for a
moment. In Latin the word “arthritis”
means “joint inflammation.” What happens
in the joint to get “joint inflammation?”
The circulation through the joint has been restricted so fluid is building
up in the joint area. That introduces us
to pain. Where does the pain come
from? Pain is a nerve stretch sensor in
the tissue. You can test that for
yourself by pulling your finger backwards.
You will notice pain begins when you pull it back too far. Tissue is either stretched due to stress or
stretched due to inflammation. So the
increase of fluid in the joint space stretches the tissue and sends a pain
stretch signals to the brain.
The increase of fluid over the joint space is fluid that is
not circulating well. This translates to
the cell trying to survive in its own waste bi-products, and starving from the restriction
of new nutrients. After a little time
the cell stops functioning. An example
of a cell that stops functioning in a joint is the “Chondroblast.” This is a cell that builds connective tissue
like cartilage. Another cell is the
“Synovial cell.” This is a cell that
produces the jelly like cushioning substance in the joint space called Synovial
fluid. No doubt those of you that have
arthritis have heard the term “bone on bone.”
This is a result of the loss of Synovial fluid.
So just how did the blood supply become restricted in and
around the joint space? This happened
either through injury, repetitive use, or chronic lack of motion. With an injury the tissue experiences little
rips (sometimes big gashes) and in the repair process the subsequent split is
closed and overlapped in order to secure the tissue. The tear introduced disruption to small
capillaries and the overlapping or shortening of the tissue impeded the larger
capillaries. Blood supply to the joint re-routed
and often times did not supply the same tissue with new blood. This lack of fresh blood supply or restricted
blood flow led to lack of fresh nutrition to the area, inability to flush out
metabolic waste, and the buildup of mineral deposits like calcium around the
damaged area. An example of what causes
an injury is a car accident or a fall. With
repetitive use, small micro tears begin when the muscle over works. The repair process for a micro tear and a
larger rip is about the same leading to disturbance of the blood supply. An example of this is like a baseball
pitcher’s shoulder or a factory worker’s low back having stress on them over
and over again. With chronic lack of
motion or static posture, blood circulation is reduced. For example, constantly having your head
forward with bad posture, or working long hours on the computer, or any
activity that requires bending forward for an extended time leads to lack of
blood flow. The heart beats and pushes blood through the
body and depends partly on the movement of muscle to help squeeze blood back to
the heart. When we take an x-ray or MRI
it would reveal loss of joint space, disc degeneration, and bone spurring.
So that is what is going on with the joint during
degenerative joint disease. You can get
this in the shoulder, hands, neck, low back, hip, knees, ankles, and basically
any joint area of the body. So what is
the fix? Some elect surgery to shave off
bone spurs, cut out damaged disc material, or fuse the bones. Let’s think about that for a moment. Since the joint has gone through a lack of
circulation due to some sort of scar tissue in the joint space, does it make
sense to cut the same space? Remember
that cutting in surgery is still cutting and cutting creates more scars. Does it make sense to have the joint
manipulated harshly? Micro or Macro
tears still are tears and introduce scar tissue. I’ve found a number of ways to increase
circulation to the joint and improve the normal motion of the joint without
introducing scar forming trauma into the joint.
One way of increasing circulation into the joint is to
increase overall circulation. With an
exercise that does not put direct pressure on the joint that is damaged, you
work towards getting your heart rate to a range of 120 to 140 beats per minute
for a solid five minutes per day. That
is perfect work for your heart and the rest of the body. Next is the need to increase capillary
development in the injured joint space.
This can be accomplished by stretching the joint space for 30 seconds 2
to 3 different ways about four times a day.
The stretch should not be painful but you should feel the stretch. This will release chemicals from the tissue
that will stimulate your body to build capillaries in that space.
In my clinic I use low level laser to stimulate circulation
in the joint area. I also use controlled
microburst adjusting with an impulse instrument. This allows me to retrain the muscles for
correct motion without introducing any new rips in the muscle. This also stimulates good blood flow and
reduces the swelling of the joint. So
the name of the game is to restore great blood flow through the joints. This, I have seen, leads to the restoration
of the joint and the reduction of the degeneration.
