When a person presents to a chiropractic office complaining
of neck and/or back pain they have it in their mind that it is either a “pulled
muscle” (which really does not occur except in athletic injuries) or a “bone
out of place.” Those are good guesses because both may be obliquely true though
neither is absolutely accurate.
A subluxation, the “bone out of place” a Doctor of
Chiropractic finds and corrects, can and often is the beginning of an entire
cascade of physiological events that can result in neck, back, arm, and/or leg
pain. One of the factors in this physiological cascade that may cause
excruciating pain is involvement of the interspinous ligaments.
Interspinous ligaments are found between the bony
projections of your spine that you may describe as “those bony bumps running
down my back.” A subluxation of a spinal bone may lead to tenderness and
involvement of the interspinous ligaments that connect to those subluxated
spinal bones resulting in neck, back, arm, and/or leg pain. Pain such as this
is not always due to a “pinched nerve” or sciatica.
Pain that radiates from the interspinous ligaments may be
felt in the arms, buttock, thigh, hamstring area, and/or calf muscles area of
the lower leg. If your Doctor of Chiropractic presses on the interspinous
ligaments and the result is increased pain in these areas then you know that
the bones connected by those ligaments and the ligaments themselves are in need
of attention in order to resolve your symptoms.
These sources of radiating pain are recognized by the
medical community as evidenced by a soon-to-be-released book by Carla Stecco,
MD entitled An Atlas of the Human Fascial
System.
It is important to realize that pain from interspinous
ligaments may be from sudden, acute injury or from the cumulative effects of
microtrauma occurring over a long period of time. Microtrauma results from
multiple, small injuries to tissue that you may not even notice. Microtraumatic injury occurs
in repetitive motion injuries caused by performing the same
movements over and over again at work or when using your computer.
Therefore, pain generated from these tissues may be acute or
chronic in nature. The main detrimental effect from this type of scenario is
that abnormal stress and strain in the interspinous ligaments leads to lack of
coordination while increasing the stress on the delicate facet joints of the
spine.
These neurological aspects of interspinous ligaments may
lead to spinal muscles being tasked with maintaining joint stability in the
spine which then leads to trigger point formation further aggravating an
already aggravated area of your body which leads to more pain. Trigger points
in your muscles can actually become generators of pain regardless of the
reasons why they formed. The development of these acute inflammatory responses
can lead to the establishment of long-term, chronic pain syndromes. This
condition is so common in today’s society that it has been given a name: Cumulative Trauma Disorder.
It is important that these cascading sources of
musculoskeletal pain syndromes not be allowed to form or progress. That is why
regular visits to see your Doctor of Chiropractic are vital to maintaining your
health. Prevention and the maintenance of a normal, health state within your
spine can reduce the incidence of these crippling and debilitating conditions. Stop them
from beginning or permitting them to continue uninhibited until your lifestyle
is adversely affected.
