Diarrhea, anyone... ?

Case Study

22 year old male, lifting heavy weight and felt a “pop” in his back then noticed immediate digestion changes for days after.  No low back pain, no back pain at all, in fact.   

Examination revealed nothing out of the ordinary as a 22 year old typically has full range of motion.  It literally didn’t hurt.   On images of the lumbar spine, a slight lateral curve to the right was identified that curved back to the left on its way up the spine. The apex of the left was L3-4 and the apex of the right was T11-12.  Now these are almost imperceptible curves, but if you look at images all day, you can appreciate them. (also, you'll note the image is actually an old acetate film x-ray drawn on with a marker. That's how it was done prior to software.)

This is a very common situation. Your body must balance all the weight over the center of your feet.  If your spine curves off to the side, it will curve back the other way to keep the load centered.  Scoliosis is like this.  We call it scoliosis at 10 degrees or greater curve.  This was just below that.  But, it was enough to irritate the nerves at the apex of the curve.  Despite no typical low back pain, it was clear the T12 pair of nerves were irritated with resulting bowel problems (diarrhea).

This could happen anywhere in the spine and at the levels between T5 (shoulder blade level) and L1 (upper low back), those nerves are mostly concerned with digestive functions.  Unlike your neck when a nerve goes crazy, it affects your shoulder and hand, the middle back affects digestion adversely.   It could be diarrhea or constipation or gas or just sluggish bowels or a “sensitive” stomach.

In infants it’s called colic, but it’s the same thing.  C-section births have this as a common feature.  That’s because they are frequently being pulled out sideways by grasping the torso, causing immediate nerve problems for the baby that make her colicky because the intestines are not rhythmic but one section gets stopped up and causes gas pain. Any childhood fall could cause this.

The 22 year old young man had the kind of outcome we hope for for everyone.  The one adjustment to “put it back in place” problem.  Everyone would love for that outcome.  It doesn’t happen all the time because many are unaware of how digestion is actually controlled by the nerves and the nerves by the spine. As a result, many months and years pass trying all kinds of remedies for digestive problems instead of addressing the cause of the problem.  Fortunately, this 22 year old sought help within a couple days of the injury.  That’s early enough that there’s not enough time for secondary adaptation or big homework to do to correct the structure after the body does that.  It was only adjusting that was necessary to correct it. 

Imagine if he didn’t go to the chiropractor.  He’d have been taking all kinds of medications trying to solve the digestion problem.  I’ve seen people who have this continue with it for years and some progress to irritable bowel and Crohn’s Disease.

That 22 year old learned a very important lesson about health at the chiropractic office during that visit and eventually became a chiropractor himself.  He would spend the rest of his life helping others get healthy by simply correcting nerve interference. 

It’s amazing, just the one adjustment by a chiropractor, adjusting that young man, one time… changed his thinking and sent him on a path to help thousands of others.

I am quite grateful that happened to me.  I’ve been blessed to see so many miracles in caring for people.  All brought about by a chance, late night lifting injury trying to move a big old speaker after the rock show, that changed the course of my life’s trajectory.  And as a result, thousands of people’s lives have been changed by doing this for them.  What a gift!!!  

As Paul Harvey says... Now you know the rest of the story.

Blessings,

Dr. Barrett