Have you ever noticed how some people turn their neck or back in a peculiar manner and produce a mild “popping” sound at the same time? If you had not guessed already, that person was likely “manipulating” the joints of their spine. To the average person, it may appear and sound like a bad thing to be doing. Although I would never recommend that a person does this to themselves, if a trained professional does it in the appropriate circumstances it can have amazing benefits.
To help you understand more on what manipulation is and does, I will need to first give you a quick lesson in the anatomy of your joints. Each and every joint in your body, including your spine, has a flexible sac around it making it a sealed or enclosed unit. This is called a “joint capsule.” Within this sac and between the two bones of a joint is a clear jelly-like fluid called “synovial fluid.” This fluid has the task of lubricating and nourishing the joint. As the joint moves, the bones glide over one another. This acts like a mechanical pump and the jelly-like fluid is circulated around and around within it. The further and more often a joint can move, the better this synovial fluid is circulated within the joint, and the healthier it will be. When the movement of any joint is reduced, the fluid inside does not circulate as well and the joint cannot remain as healthy. The fluid will become thick or sticky and scar tissue can form, making the joint even more stiff.
Why do some of the joints in your spine become stiff and sore? Well, your spine is exposed to continual physical stress whenever you play sports, lift, stand, sit, bend, twist and almost any other physical activity. If the stress occurs too frequently or forcefully, the result is that some of the joints in your spine become stiff or restricted in their movement. Whenever this scenario occurs, the involved joint becomes vulnerable to injury. This vulnerability can cause you to become acutely sore after even the simplest of activities. Whether a joint is relatively pain free but restricted in its movement or acutely painful due to a traumatic injury, restoring its proper movement is the only way for it to truly heal naturally and properly.
When a “chiropractic adjustment” or “manipulation” is performed on a joint, a popping sound may be heard. This is not your bones “cracking back into the proper place,” as many people like to describe it. In simplest terms, the joint is just being stretched or opened slightly more than you can do on your own but not enough to injure it. When this is done, the gases dissolved in the jelly-like fluid (similar to the oxygen dissolved in lake water that allows fish to breath) form a bubble within the sac that surrounds the joint. This is where the popping sound really comes from.
Once again, it is not your bones cracking. The result is that the mobility of the joint, and its ability to heal, is improved. In fact, patients often notice an increase in how much they can move the affected area immediately after a treatment. However, it is recommended that you undergo a series of adjustments so that the increased mobility of the joint is fully restored and maintained long enough for it to heal completely and naturally. If you want a more detailed description on how chiropractic manipulation can help you, please contact me at my office.
Dr. Colin Gage was born and raised in Merritt. He’s been helping patients from his clinic at Nicola Valley Chiropractic since 1996.
