I just started a new case this week. Her name is Jill, (not her real name, of course, as I want to protect her real identity). She is 61 - we're told that is the new 30 but to look at Jill - I don't see 30. She is at least 70 lbs over weight, both knees are failing and one is probably going to be replaced. Her back is killing her and that's the reason she came to this office. Her neck aches all of the time and to top it off she has been type 2 diabetic for the past 5 years. Her Mom has had a heart attack and she has lost a sister to cancer. Other than a slip and fall on the ice several years ago, she reported having had no accident or significant injury - ever.
She said she had had chiropractic care in the past and it had helped her but because of insurance restrictions she had discontinued he care when she started to feel better.
A fair question would be: What could possibly be keeping someone like that going? She has taken in her daughter and her litle baby so her daughter can go to work. She is too overweight to exercise and her knees further prevent that. She has no energy, no vitality and she is at risk of having a heart attack. She doesn't sleep well, She constantly has indigestion, Her neck and back aches all of the time and she basically has no life because all of these issues that... on the surface of it all seem completely un-related. Are they?
On examination I found that her sacro-iliac joints were misaligned. She carried her right hip elevated, her left shoulder elevated and her neck was leaning to the right. Turning her head to either side was severely limited - she could only turn her head to the right about 45 degrees (half of normal). Orthopedic testing (which involves maneuvers to provoke the problem / pain), were, surprisingly, mostly normal. When laying prone, her left leg presented short indicating that the left ilium or hip bone had rotated posteriorly. Another test revealed that the sacrum had tipped down on the left and rotated posteriorly on the right.
I requested that she get some x-rays made of her neck and lower back and for her to bring in any other x-rays she had from her prior care.
When I reviewed her x-rays and compared them to the prior films it was readily apparent that her problem had been going on for several years. Her films from 1994 looked good - some minor mis-alignments but no arthritic degeneration was apparent....(Yet). Her most recent films showed another story however. There was a marked degreee of degenerative arthritis in the 10 years since her last x-rays taken in 1998. She looked, in the these most recent films, like someone who had been in a train wreck. How could so much deterioration have occurred in 10 years with no injury to account for it ?
I recommeded a 10 week course of chiropractic care to include 24 adjustments to mobilize the subluxated segments, 12 spinal distractions treatments to further mobilize the spine and decompress the lower spine, 6 cold laser treatments to reduce her discomfort and a series of spinal exercises to mobilize, recondition and stabilize the spine. She is also going to begin a weight loss program using Take shape For Life (Medifast) which should reduce her weight by 20-25 lbs per month. I will review her over-all progress weekly.