Thursday, January 28, 2010

Old Trauma - Old Pain


23 year old patient came in complaining of bad headaches at the temples and base of their skull, left shoulder pain and tingling down the arm. Additionally the patient had chronic bad heartburn and was on prescription medication for it. Can you imagine having chronic heartburn at only 23 years old!? Upon examination and taking their history we discovered a history of a trauma that occurred when they were two years old, a severe laceration just above the eye after a fall. This required stitches at the hospital and the patient was told by their mother that they "freaked out" due to the necessity of having to hold them down while they sewed up the cut. 

The patient never put this incident together with their symptoms. Of course, those of you who are patients already know that we have found that traumatic or frightening events of youth can lead to tension in the stomach which then can lead to a "knot in the stomach" that can stay there for years. Since the stomach is right under the diaphragm it restricts its normal descent and instead of breathing from the stomach, the healthy way, they began breathing into the chest leading to chronic tension in the chest, shoulders and neck. Our treatment was first to relax the stomach, then teach the patient to practice stomach breathing a little every day.  Then we treated the patient's neck and back. Within two visits the patient's symptoms were nearly gone! 


The main point is, if your friends are having chronic pain and not getting better, they should get evaluated using the 3-dimensional chiropractic technique.  Remember, a back can never be resolved if the front of the body is tense.