SOUTHRIDGE CHIROPRACTIC                     CENTER
909-428-0700
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Your First Visit
  • The Office
  • My Articles
  • Contact Us
  • COVID19

#152 NECK POPPERS

1/18/2016

0 Comments

 
I was asked recently if it is OK to someone to “pop” his own neck or lower back.  I get asked the same question about knuckles.  There are four questions that come out of this:
1)What makes the popping sound?
2)Is it OK to do that to myself?
3)Why does it feel better when I do it?
  1. How is this different from what my chiropractor does to me?
 
#4 - How is this different? 
The short answer is that it is orders of magnitude different.  Imagine you have in your hand a length of chain in which some of the links have rusted together and some of the links haven’t and remain loose.  Now imagine shaking the chain in front of you.  Which links flex and bend?  The non-rusted ones of course, or perhaps the ones that are only lightly fused with rust.  To get the rusted ones to loosen you will need specific pressures applied directly to those links. 
When you “pop” your own spine you are twisting or torqueing yourself in such a way as to cause something to pop.  You have no control over what pops.  You are popping the already loose links, or perhaps the lightly rusted ones.  In contrast your chiropractor is using his long acquired skills to find the bones or joints that are truly “rusted” or stuck while he leaves the loose links alone.  He applies a specific force in a specific direction (adjustment) to break the rust (scar tissue) down and slowly restore motion to the joints that need it.  Lightly rusted ones are easy to fix and heavily rusted ones may never get fully loosened. 
 
#3 – Why does it feel better?
            Simple.  Endorphins.  These are your own natural opiates, stronger than morphine.  They are released in the joint each time it is popped, whether it needs to be popped or not.  When you pop your own spine you are getting addicted to the endorphins, as a high cost (see #2). 
 
#2 – Is it OK to do that to myself?
            No!  Popping healthy joints is not OK.  It will make them even looser which creates its own problem.  Loose joints become inflamed causing more pain.  Loose joints tear apart the disc cartilage leading to herniated discs.  This is not OK.  You end up creating more of the very problem you are trying to resolve.
            Having said that, is it OK to pop your knuckles.  It really doesn’t matter since there are no discs in your knuckles like in your spine.  But it is really annoying to those around you. 
 
#1 – What makes the popping sound?
             The most common explanation is nitrogen gas coming out of solution when you create a vacuum during the popping action.  But there are other sounds that we don’t fully understand the source of.  So we are not 100% sure. 
 
            If you feel the need to pop your neck or back there is a problem called rust or scar tissue, and more self-popping will only make it worse.  STOP THE POP!  
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Dr. Rick

    After writing an article per week for a year, I just kept going.  These are most of my collection.  They are written with my existing patients in mind, so some stuff may seem odd or unusual, but would make perfect sense to those who know chiropractic and who know me.  Enjoy and share!  For my personal blog visit: 

    Personal Blog

    Archives

    March 2020
    November 2018
    May 2018
    February 2018
    June 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    May 2016
    January 2016
    September 2015
    July 2015
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All

Company

Home
About Us
Your First Visit
The Office
Blog
Contact Us
COVID19
909-428-0700

What Our Patients Have To Say

Yolanda wrote:
     
     I used to suffer severe headaches and migraines on a daily basis, usually all day.  I managed to work in an office because I had to.  When I went home at the end of the day I would often close the shades and go to bed.  I could not plan weekend events because I simply never knew how I was going to feel tomorrow.  If there were a special event such as a birthday or wedding, I would begin to medicate myself two weeks in advance to give myself the best chance of making the event.
     Friends and fellow church-goers had been trying to get me to see Dr. Rick for some time before I finally gave in.  Looking back, I don’t know why I waited.  Within a month, I was headache free.  I couldn’t remember what it was like to not feel pain.  I could do whatever I wanted and not live in fear of the headache.  This was a miracle for me, but the story does not end here.
     An opportunity came up for us to adopt a newborn baby girl not long after I began chiropractic care.  This baby was particularly important to me and my husband because her mother is a relative.  Tragically, her mother was also a drug user and did drugs during her pregnancy.  If we could not adopt the baby she would have been put into the foster system since the biological mother was incapable of raising her.
     To keep a long story short, we did adopt her and she is doing fantastically.  There is no sign of any effect of the drugs on her as of yet, and with God’s help, there never will be.  We think that is because of the vast amounts of love and attention she gets from us, her real mommy and daddy.
     What does this have to do with chiropractic?  The reality is that without chiropractic, I would still be nearly an invalid with headaches.  I COULD NOT HAVE TAKEN CARE OF AN INFANT OR RAISED A YOUNG CHILD.  THEREFORE, SHE WOULD NOT HAVE ANY OF THE OPPORTUNITIES IN LIFE THAT MY HUSBAND AND I WILL BE ABLE TO PROVIDE FOR HER.  MY DAUGHTER’S LIFE IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE SOMEBODY MADE ME GO TO A CHIROPRACTOR. 
     You need to tell everyone you know what you know about chiropractic.  Who knows who’s life you will change too.
Andrew's mother, Barbara, wrote:

     Hello, My name is Andrew and I am a happy, healthy one year old.  But I wasn’t so happy or healthy when I first met Dr. Rick a few months ago.  I had been having problems with my ears for four months, I couldn’t sleep at night and I was miserable.  We’d been to the doctor lots of times but nothing was helping.  In fact, all the medicines the doctor had tried seemed to make me worse instead of better!  Both the regular doctor and the Ear-Nose and Throat doctor said that if the antibiotics didn’t work, then they’d just have to put tubes in.  Now my Mom and dad weren’t about to let them do surgery on me, especially since they had been reading and learned that tubes can cause more problems than they solve.  My mom and dad did a lot of praying.  Then my mom heard that sometimes babies who have a traumatic birth like mine have ear trouble.  You see when I was born they used a vacuum extractor and forceps to pull me out.  I guess all that yanking on my head, hurt my neck.  She also heard that chiropractic care can be the answer.  Now she was skeptical because she couldn’t imagine a chiropractor helping ear infections!?!  But at that point she was willing to try anything!!  Happily, a few weeks of adjustments and my ears were all cleared up.  In addition, I no longer had a stiff neck or shoulders and my whole personality was happier.  I have to tell all babies who have ear troubles, don’t let them give you tubes until you at least try chiropractic care first.  After all, it can’t hurt and if you’re like me, you could be perfectly well with no drugs and no surgery.  In my family, we thank God for Dr. Rick, because I feel better, my mom and dad are happier and sometimes, I even sleep through the night.