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

#47 What Is That Noise?

3/19/2014

0 Comments

 
            One of the more common questions I get asked is what makes the noise during an adjustment?  I think that some people fear it may be the snapping of bones themselves, but I wouldn’t be in business long if I were breaking peoples’ spines.  But let me take the time to explain what we do know, and what we don’t know about the crack.  And yes, I can use the word crack in this situation because I am talking about a sound, not an action.  When I adjust you I am not cracking you, but your spine is making a cracking noise. 

            Have you ever had a cold glass of something sitting on a coaster and when you pick up the glass the coaster comes up with it?  And in my case usually drips on my lap.  This is due to the surface tension created by water as it touches glass.  Now imagine holding down the coaster and yanking the glass off very quickly straight upwards.  If you do this just right you will hear a pop.  What is happening is that when you quickly lift the glass and separate it from the coaster for a split second there is nothing in the space between the glass and the coaster, a vacuum.  But just as fast air rushes in to fill the space and the pop is from the sound of the air molecules slamming into each other from all sides. 

            One theory about the source of the crack is similar to the glass story.  Sometimes when a chiropractor adjusts his patient he does what is called gapping the joint.  He causes the joint to separate just a little bit which creates a gap or an empty space just like with the glass and coaster.  Since there is not any air to fill this sudden vacuum like with the glass and coaster something else must happen.  As it turns out we have a great deal of nitrogen gas dissolved in our bodies just sitting around.  So this nitrogen gas comes out of solution and fills the vacuum made by the gapping and as the molecules slam into each other we hear the crack.  That’s one theory and the most prevailing explanation from science.

            However, it does not tell the whole story.  You see, most of my adjustments do not gap the joint.  If anything, it brings the joints closer together, not further apart.  And, in fact, if you listen carefully, most often you will hear 3 cracks with each adjustment.  This is because there are three joints between each pair of vertebrae.  Two are the little facet joints similar to finger joints and about the same size.  They are the gliding or guiding joints that control spinal motion.  The third joint is the intervertebral disc, a piece of cartilage separating each vertebra from its neighbor.  And if you listen even more carefully, the sounds coming from the adjustment are often described as 2 clicks and a clunk, the clicks coming from the facets and the clunk from the disc.  And if you ask how the facet joints click when they aren’t gapped and how the disc makes any noise at all no one knows.  So what’s that noise?  Your guess is as good as mine.  But even though we don’t know what makes some of the noises we do know that the adjustment is still very good for you. 



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.