As you may or may not know, shark skeletons are made out of cartilage whereas yours is made out of bone. You still have plenty of cartilage in your body in places like your nose and your ear lobes. But more importantly all of your joints are lined with ultra smooth cartilage and the discs in your spine are also made of out cartilage. So what would be different if you were a shark? The difference is that as an adult human your cartilage making days are essentially over. Sharks make it and you don’t. This is important because if you damage your cartilage it will never ever ever ever heal to 100%, never!
What’s the big deal you ask? This big deal is that once your joints begin to wear out that is forever. Let me explain further. Cartilage is a funny tissue in that it has no blood supply. It has to rely upon passive diffusion to get the nutrients it needs to stay alive and healthy. So let’s take the disc for example. They are living tissues that need nutrients, water and oxygen to stay alive. Since they have no blood source they have to rely upon the vertebrae that they are attached to for their life source. This occurs through a process called imbibition, which is essentially a pumping action that occurs when the bones move through their range of motion.
Now enter the subluxation. Since you know that the subluxation is essentially bones in the spine that can’t move their normal range of motion due to physical, chemical, and psychological trauma, that means that the imbibition process is halted for that disc, so it can’t get its nutrition, water, and oxygen, so it begins to die. As it dies it dehydrates, then cracks, and then the nuclear center of the disc, essentially a fluid marble, migrates out of the disc leading to herniated discs. And it works the same for the little gliding joints in the back of the spine. Without motion, the cartilage dies and cracks and become arthritic. There are $20 names for this stuff like intervertebral osteochondrosis and spondylosis deformans, but they are all dying cartilage that you cannot reverse ever.
Now if you were a shark this would not be a problem, but since you aren’t there are three lessons to be had here:
1) Since you cannot reverse cartilage degeneration, if you have any visible degeneration (phase 2) you had better work hard to keep what you have from getting worse. The tools for this are the adjustments supported by regular flexibility training (aka stretching).
2) If you are young enough to still be in phase 1 of subluxation degeneration, then adjustments and stretching can help to prevent this disease.
3) Taking shark cartilage probably won’t help unless it turns you into one.
What’s the big deal you ask? This big deal is that once your joints begin to wear out that is forever. Let me explain further. Cartilage is a funny tissue in that it has no blood supply. It has to rely upon passive diffusion to get the nutrients it needs to stay alive and healthy. So let’s take the disc for example. They are living tissues that need nutrients, water and oxygen to stay alive. Since they have no blood source they have to rely upon the vertebrae that they are attached to for their life source. This occurs through a process called imbibition, which is essentially a pumping action that occurs when the bones move through their range of motion.
Now enter the subluxation. Since you know that the subluxation is essentially bones in the spine that can’t move their normal range of motion due to physical, chemical, and psychological trauma, that means that the imbibition process is halted for that disc, so it can’t get its nutrition, water, and oxygen, so it begins to die. As it dies it dehydrates, then cracks, and then the nuclear center of the disc, essentially a fluid marble, migrates out of the disc leading to herniated discs. And it works the same for the little gliding joints in the back of the spine. Without motion, the cartilage dies and cracks and become arthritic. There are $20 names for this stuff like intervertebral osteochondrosis and spondylosis deformans, but they are all dying cartilage that you cannot reverse ever.
Now if you were a shark this would not be a problem, but since you aren’t there are three lessons to be had here:
1) Since you cannot reverse cartilage degeneration, if you have any visible degeneration (phase 2) you had better work hard to keep what you have from getting worse. The tools for this are the adjustments supported by regular flexibility training (aka stretching).
2) If you are young enough to still be in phase 1 of subluxation degeneration, then adjustments and stretching can help to prevent this disease.
3) Taking shark cartilage probably won’t help unless it turns you into one.