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Soft Tissue and Your Spinal Structure and Function

Soft Tissue Physiology & Function

There is, of course, much more to Batchelor Chiropractic and The Pettibon System. But before taking a closer look at a few key individual components and how they’re organized into a comprehensive system, let’s go over some physiological properties and function of soft tissues. Why?

For Pettibon practitioners, the spine is viewed as a closed kinetic system made up of hard and soft tissues. The soft tissues—muscles, discs, and ligaments—hold the spine upright in its optimum position for function relative to gravity, while moving it through its expected ranges of motions. So spinal correction has to involve the entire spine rather than just one segment or vertebrae. An example: If ligaments are torn in the lumbar spine, the part that’s torn allows aberrant motions which often cause pain and dysfunction in other areas of the spine such as the neck. The neck pain and dysfunction won’t be resolved until the torn ligament and aberrant motion are treated first.

Three different types of forces can injure the spinal system: sudden applied, repetitive, and cumulative. A whiplash is the most common example of a sudden applied force. Repetitive and cumulative forces come from time dependent functions of our positions over long periods. In other words, the spine’s positions in work, play, or daily living activities like sleeping, reading, watching TV, etc. Understanding how soft tissues react to these forces provides the reasons why conventional chiropractic doesn’t produce permanent spine and posture correction. And more importantly, it explains why The Pettibon System does!

Dynamic Stretch Reflex & Static Stretch Reflex

When a muscle—especially a muscle that hasn’t been warmed up—is suddenly stretched, an instant dynamic stretch reflex causes muscle contraction. Our body is protecting the position of its parts from changing. The dynamic stretch reflex happens whether the sudden stretch was intentional—from an adjusting thrust—or accidental.

The static stretch reflex always immediately follows the dynamic stretch reflex. This reflex continues muscle contractions that oppose the stretched muscle. These contractions last for hours but not days.

Now consider conventional chiropractic adjustments and some techniques. They’re high velocity, low amplitude thrusts delivered into the spine to induce joint movement. So after a conventional chiropractic adjustment, the dynamic stretch reflex causes the muscles to reposition the changed spine back to its original displaced position. Then the static stretch reflex continues muscles contractions that oppose the stretch. This is why it’s possible for the spine’s position to become more displaced than before it received a ‘so-called’ adjustment.

Let’s go over how stretched muscles react. Their physiological properties and function are: deformation, visco-elastic stretch, plasticity, creep, and hysteresis.

Deformation

The change in the form of a structure. We consider all changes in the spine’s form to be a deformation. And we categorize deformations as ‘bad’ or ‘good’. A ‘displacement deformation’ is bad because it deforms the spine away from its normal, optimal functional position. ‘Correction deformation’ is good because it moves the spine back or toward its optimal functioning position.

Visco-elastic Stretch

Spring-like deformation. The fibers in spinal ligaments and discs have this property. Ligaments’ visco-elastic stretch along with muscle reflexes are what cause vertebrae to deform back to their displaced position after the force of an adjusting thrust is removed.

Plasticity

The property of a material to permanently deform when it’s loaded beyond its elastic range. Consider an intact spring. If you load it—stretch it—beyond its elastic range, it becomes permanently elongated. Subject a ligament to greater than 40% of its ultimate load, and it also can be permanently elongated. That’s how ligaments are torn. Accidents involving whiplash typically result in ligament tearing.

Creep

How a visco-elastic material deforms (changes) into the shape it’s held in when it’s subjected to a constant, applied load over time. You just learned that the spine’s ligaments and discs are visco-elastic material. Because of their spring-like ability, a force applied for a short period of time won’t change their positions. They’ll ‘spring back’. But subjecting the spine’s ligaments and discs to a constant, applied load deforms (changes) them into the shape they’re held in over time.

An example of creep is how an individual’s height, after standing or sitting all day, can be less at night than in the morning. The individual is shorter at night because the compression forces the nutrition-filled fluids out of the inter-vertebral discs and ligaments. Similarly, people’s position over long periods of work, play, or their daily living activities such as the position they sleep in, watch television, read, etc. can cause discs and ligaments to creep.

Creep deformation of the discs and ligaments must be arrested and reversed daily. If it isn’t, the fallout is dysfunction, spinal joint pathologies, nerve compression, and chronic pain. These same conditions are also considered the natural consequences of the aging process. The prevailing belief is that nothing can be done to correct these problems. Not true! Soft tissue creep can be arrested and reversed daily if hysteresis is produced in the ligaments, discs, and tendons.

Hysteresis

A phenomenon associated with energy loss exhibited by viso-elastic materials when they’re subjected to progressive loading and unloading cycles over time.

Ligaments, discs, and tendons, have holding energy. Loading and unloading cycles through compression and traction cause the temporary loss of this energy or hysteresis. Hysteresis changes the nucleus pulposis of the discs from hydro-gel, a Jell-O like resistance to motion, into hydro-sol, water-like solutions with limited resistance to positional changes. When the soft tissue’s resistance is significantly reduced, then the joints can easily be repositioned before the holding energy is regained. Within 15 to 20 minutes of inactivity, the holding energy is regained.

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Wednesday 8:30am - 5:45pm
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Friday By Appointment
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Contact

Dr. Brad Batchelor DC

483 Highway 105 Extension
Boone, NC 28607

Phone 828-264-0140

Fax 828-398-0408

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