Letter to the Doctor

Dear Dr. Palmer,

I bent over yesterday to pick up my cat. When I tried to straighten, I felt terrible pain in my low back. I can’t find a comfortable position, I can hardly sleep, and nothing helps the pain! I have had back pain in the past, but it always cleared up on its own. Why is it so severe now? What is wrong with me? 

Do not blame the cat. This is a concept that shows up in my office on a regular basis. Two things are very important in this story. Number one: the past back pain was a cry for help from your spine. The symptoms may have gone away at the time, but they are back. Number two: pain is always the last thing to show up. Let me explain.

Most of the nerve fibers that communicate from spinal nerve roots to the brain are sending messages like “something just touched me…this is hot/cold…my position is here.” Only a few of the nerve signals say “Ouch!” Of those nerves that transmit pain, only a few actually make it all the way to the brain so that you register the message. Thousands of cells die every day in your body, as part of a natural process. If you had to pay attention to every pain signal, you would never get anything done. 

When a stimulus (like subluxation) has been present in the spine for years, a process called “sensitization” occurs. The vertebra has been in a state of dysfunction for quite a while, but you have consciously and subconsciously ignored the signals. If the nerve signal from your subluxated vertebrae could be translated to English, it would be saying, “Hey! Not moving right down here!” Now the whisper has become a shout, and your body is letting you know with pain that all is not well. So, put simply, your problem is a long-standing subluxation. It hurts now because your system is sensitized. Spinal adjustments will help the problem, and therefore help to alleviate your pain. A better plan, once you have healed from this situation, is to keep your spine adjusted. Stay ahead of the problem and you will not be playing “catch-up.”